We have heard of padding statistics to help a cause, but this is getting ridiculous.  The Charlotte Observer is reporting that the Hornets have been violating NBA policy by under-reporting home attendance in order to make it look as though paid attendance in Charlotte is the worst in the league.  According to records kept at the Charlotte Coliseum this has been happening for more than one month.

The move comes as the Hornets try to remove the organization from Charlotte and into New Orleans next season, ownership arguing they are not being supported in Charlotte.  

"That would be a reversal of their policy," Charlotte Coliseum managing director Mike Crum said Monday. "I was not aware that they had changed."

While all the teams in the NBA count actual ticket sales to come up with their attendance figures, the Hornets have been using the turnstile count, which counts the actual number of people which have been attending games.  The move deviates from the team?s policy over the first 13 years in the league and makes the Hornets figures inconsistent with the rest of the league.

The Charlotte Observer used the team's first 28 home games as a standard and calculated that the Hornets under-reported their attendance during the last six weeks by at least 3,460 ticket buyers per game.  The results showed that the Hornets moved from being the worst in the NBA attendance-wise to the second worst, with the Houston Rockets taking over the dubious honor.

The issue is significant because attendance figures are used in evaluating the financial health of a franchise. The NBA's annual audit of each team in the league includes a look at attendance numbers, writes the Charlotte Observer.

Hornets spokesman Harold Kaufman confirmed on Monday that Friday night?s game against the Washington Wizards was in fact sold out, meaning that there were 23,799 tickets distributed, but when Michael Jordan didn?t play through injury the Hornets official attendance provided to the NBA was 15,621, which was the number of people who actually showed up.  According to Tim Frank, the NBA?s spokesman, it is the league?s policy to report attendance as tickets distributed, both sold and given away.

Kaufman declined to comment on who authorized the change in how the attendance figures were calculated or when the changes were made.