John Reid of the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports: If the Hornets can sell another 1,200 expensive club seats and finalize a handful of other commitments by Friday, the team's proposed move from Charlotte, N.C., to New Orleans would be approved by league owners next month.

The league's requirements were not surprising, but the deadline, a week earlier than had been stated, was.

The team and local leaders immediately launched a plan to meet the requirements, which were spelled out in a letter to the Hornets from National Basketball Association Commissioner David Stern, said Alex Martins, the Hornets' director of business operations.

The new deadline took some by surprise. "We need a call to action," Mayor-elect Ray Nagin said Friday. "Somehow we've got to get everyone's attention and get a rallying cry, because we have one week."

The club seats require a three-year commitment and range in price from $3,870 to $10,750. They are also the seats closest to the court. The Hornets must sell 1,168 of them to reach the league's target of 2,400.

The NBA also instructed the team Friday to complete paperwork on all of its 55 luxury suite commitments, increase the number of multi-year sponsorships, and finalize agreements on radio and television rights by Friday. But it was clear that club-seat sales are the NBA's main concern.

Martins said the tight one-week deadline was set because the league's relocation committee, members of which visited New Orleans earlier this week, must submit its report to the NBA Board of Governors, which needs time to review the situation before making a possible vote by April 9 in New York. NBA executives and owners are expected to get the relocation committee's recommendation April 8 and vote the next day. Fifteen of the 29 NBA team owners must vote to approve the move.

"We're still very confident, and we believe we are going to be able to reach them," Martins said of the league requirements. "They're all significant challenges."

"The deadline is here, and it's New Orleans' opportunity to win the NBA back."