Those games wold draw maybe 6k people. If that. No one wants to support a team that isnt "theirs".
The issue is season ticket holders. Right now we're at 6500. Before Katrina, they were around 10k. If we get 3500 extra season ticket holders, all of a sudden our 12k per game average goes up to 15.5k, which isnt that bad at all.
People always point to the last year before the storm to say "Look, New Orleans didnt go to the games BEFORE the hurricane", but they often forget that was the year we were trying not to have the worst record in NBA history. The years before that the arena was packed.
I think we'll be fine next year. Because the average attendance's main numbers come from season ticket holders. And people were wary of buying season tickets this year. But if the Hornets make a serious push into the playoffs, we will see a lot more season tickets sold for next season.