CHARLOTTE

The game is back on.

Charlotte's hopes of keeping its NBA franchise got a significant boost on Monday night when city council approved a plan to build a new arena under certain conditions.

Now, at least three more things must happen in order for the Hornets to remain in Charlotte:

? A local ownership group must present a substantial offer to buy the team.

? The NBA must decline the Hornets' petition to move the franchise to New Orleans next season.

? And, co-owners George Shinn and Ray Wooldridge must eventually relent and sell.

That's still a tall order, and the dominoes must start falling quickly now with the NBA's Relocation Committee required to make a recommendation to the Board of Governors by the end of March.

But there is growing sentiment around the NBA that if a local ownership group does surface soon with a valid offer, the league would eventually push to keep the franchise in Charlotte - and ultimately, Shinn and Wooldridge would be backed into a corner, forced to sell or proceed with a long legal battle.

In other words, don't count Charlotte out yet.

The city council's decision to proceed with plans to build a new arena was tantamount to keeping the Hornets. It is generally agreed that without a new arena, complete with luxury suites and premium seating that is lacking in the current Charlotte Coliseum, no ownership group could remain financially competitive in Charlotte. And beyond that, the NBA could not justify fighting to keep a franchise here.

The next step is for a local group to step up with a valid offer to buy the team, and estimates are that figure would have to be at least $200 million, even though Forbes magazine recently valued the franchise at $135 million.

Nelson Schwab, a Charlotte businessman who headed a group from Duke Energy, Bank of America and Wachovia that pledged $100 million toward the new arena, has previously expressed interest in buying team.

Schwab is expected to announce a proposal to buy the team sometime in the next week, although details of any proposal still have not surfaced. Monday's decision by city council had to come first, however, because without the commitment from the city a sale wouldn't have been viable.

If Schwab and his group present a reasonable offer, NBA owners would then have the ammunition they would need for trying to block Shinn's and Wooldridge's proposed move to New Orleans, should they so choose. There's strong sentiment around the league that New Orleans can't support an NBA franchise and that a move there wouldn't be in the league's long-term interests. There's strong sentiment that Charlotte would prosper as an NBA franchise again under different ownership.

Ultimately, the NBA's Board of Governors will vote on the issue - whether to allow the move to New Orleans or whether to block the move and keep the team in Charlotte - sometime in April.

If the NBA votes to block the sale, Shinn and Wooldridge would be down to three options. They could take the NBA to court and start a legal fight to move. They could sell. Or they could stay in Charlotte and play somewhere such as UNCC's Halton Arena. But they couldn't play in the current or the future Charlotte Coliseum, because one stipulation is that the only way the new arena can be built is with new ownership.

In the long run, the only two practical options would be to sell or to commit to a long, expensive legal battle. So far they have been emphatic that they will not sell under any circumstances.

But that's all still way down the line.

The next step must be for Schwab to present the offer to buy the team.

And then, if it's substantial enough, the NBA would have to side with Charlotte over Shinn and Wooldridge after that.

But one thing's clear after Monday night.

The game is back on.