The strategy behind Charlotte's last-ditch effort to save the Hornets snapped into focus this week: Anybody but George and Ray.

As Mayor Pat McCrory and venture capitalist Nelson Schwab made blunt statements about the need for new owners, they edged closer to acknowledging a plan that McCrory now says has been in the works for months:

Let co-owners George Shinn and Ray Wooldridge make their bid to relocate, as they did last month, applying to move to New Orleans.

Then, convince the NBA to reject the move, stranding Shinn and Wooldridge in Charlotte, where fans blame the owners for the team's problems.

With Wooldridge saying the Hornets will lose at least $25 million this season, the hope is he and Shinn will be forced to sell to owners with local ties and deep pockets, giving the once-beloved franchise a fresh start.

The plan is risky because it will fall through if a majority of NBA teams approve the Hornets' move to Louisiana.

But leaders say this strategy is the best hope for saving the team that made Charlotte a big-league sports city.

Will they sell, or will they go?

McCrory said it was clear to him last fall that if the Hornets stayed in Charlotte, it would be without Shinn and Wooldridge."It was obvious to me early in the process, when the private sector made their proposal (of a $100 million advance for arena construction) to me, that we would not be able to work with the current ownership group," he said Thursday. "But at the time it was not appropriate to say that, due to no official relocation application having been made. And we knew our target audience was really the other NBA owners."

In dozens of interviews with insiders and others involved in the negotiations during the past few months, Charlotte's scenario for saving the Hornets emerged:

On Monday, the City Council approves an arena deal which includes the $100 million offer from the heads of Bank of America, Wachovia and Duke Energy. Schwab has been one of the main organizers of that offer.

Meanwhile, local business leaders submit to the Hornets and the NBA an offer to buy the team for more than $200 million.

Charlotte business and political leaders make a strong pitch to the relocation committee of seven NBA owners, arguing that Charlotte's size and wealth make it a better market than New Orleans.

The league's Board of Governors, which includes representatives of each of the 29 teams, then votes against letting Shinn and Wooldridge relocate.

With no immediate solution to the team's financial losses, the owners accept the $200 million-plus offer.

"If the only option is to stay in a situation they don't find viable, the option is to sell," said Jeffrey Phillips of the sports practice at investment bank Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin.

And the buyers are ...

Last spring, Schwab represented a local group that offered to buy the Hornets from Shinn and Wooldridge. He has said repeatedly the offer remains in effect, though it's unclear whether the composition of the ownership group has changed.

Schwab and others involved in the effort to keep the Hornets have repeatedly declined to discuss who might be involved in trying to buy the team and keep it in Charlotte. Other sources have said the names of the would-be buyers are an extremely closely held secret, known to only a very small circle of insiders.

Here is a list of people The Observer talked to this week who denied being part of an effort to purchase the team:

Retired Bank of America chief Hugh McColl Jr. Felix Sabates, a part-owner of two NASCAR teams and former part-owner of the Hornets. Speedway Motorsports head Bruton Smith. Levine Properties President Daniel Levine. Developer Johnny Harris. William Harrison Jr., head of J.P. Morgan Chase, friend of Schwab and a former UNC Chapel Hill basketball player.

Sabates said Jim Mattei, who moved to Charlotte from Dallas in the 1990s and founded Checkers Drive-In restaurants, also is not involved. Mattei could not be reached for comment.

Another possibility is an ownership group that includes out-of-town investors with local ties.

The business leaders involved in the effort to save the Hornets have experience with big deals and tough negotiations. Those deals, however, typically involve consensual buyers and sellers.

Hostile takeovers can be made of publicly owned companies or private companies that have shareholders willing to sell a majority stake. Those scenarios don't apply to the Hornets, who are privately held, with Shinn owning 65 percent of the team and Wooldridge 35 percent.

Wooldridge also has the right of first refusal to buy any of Shinn's share.

Never done before

There are few precedents that echo the maneuver Charlotte's leaders are trying to pull off and none that are perfect parallels.

In 1985, Leonard Tose, owner of the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles, nearly moved that team to Phoenix as a solution to pressing debts. Instead, under pressure from the NFL, Tose reached an agreement to sell to Norman Braman and keep the team in Philadelphia.

However, unlike the Hornets, Tose never applied to move.

More recently, the NBA blocked two sales that would have resulted in franchise moves. In 1994, the league halted the sale of the Minnesota Timberwolves to owners who would have taken the franchise to New Orleans. In 2000, owners nixed a sale of the Vancouver Grizzlies that would have moved them to St. Louis.

A new owner was found for the Timberwolves, who stayed put. The Grizzlies were sold and eventually moved to Memphis, Tenn.

In both cases, the league didn't deny an application to move. It stopped a sale which could have led to a move.

If the NBA makes the Hornets stay in Charlotte, there's a good chance everyone involved would end up in court.

Gary Roberts, a Tulane University law professor and one of the nation's leading sports lawyers, said a Shinn/Wooldridge lawsuit would likely argue that by refusing the move, the NBA restricted competition for franchises among different cities.

Or they could say they followed the NBA's rules and the league has a "good faith" obligation to let them move if they are unable to survive financially in their present circumstances.

Roberts believes that if the NBA votes against a move, it should immediately file in a Charlotte court for an injunction blocking the Hornets from leaving. There, he predicted, the vagueness of antitrust law and the home-court advantage would likely work in the league's favor.