If New Orleans can legitimately sell enough tickets, NBA officials say that the Board of Governors will recommend to the league's owners to vote for the Charlotte Hornets' move to the Crescent City.

The NBA will provide the goals that it wants to see Hornets co-owners George Shinn and Ray Wooldridge meet before the owners are asked to vote, which is scheduled for April 9. The league reportedly wants the team to sell at least 1,000 more club seats with more goals expected to be given to the team on Friday.

"The presentation satisfied a lot of what we were looking for," said NBA deputy commissioner Russ Granik, who toured New Orleans with the league's relocation committee on Wednesday. "We felt very positive about the state of the arena, the growth in the area, and the civic leadership. But there's clearly work to do in the ticket sales and sponsorship area."

When the NBA audited the team's report of 55 luxury suites and 8,121 season tickets, it not only was dissatisfied with the lack of support in the more expensive lower-level seating areas but it was also concerned about the large blocks of tickets bought by corporations, Granik said.

"It was said before that New Orleans doesn't have enough corporate support. Now too many corporations are buying tickets?" said Bill Hines, chairman of MetroVision, the economic development chamber for the New Orleans metropolitan area.

The owners are scheduled to meet April 8 and 9 to vote on the Hornets' relocation, but Granik said late Thursday that it's possible the move can be discussed on those dates and an electronic vote could take place on a later date. If the vote does take place electronically, Shinn and Wooldridge would have to garner a two-thirds approval as opposed to a simple majority.

"Two weeks is a short amount of time to sell that many club seats," Hines said.

As momentum is on the rise for New Orleans, sentiment about Charlotte is on the decline. Although the city has approved a $231 million arena and has $100 million of financing lined up, the league is concerned that Charlotte has not put forth any further specifics concerning revenue projections.

It is also believed that the impact $100 million loan, committed by Bank of America, Wachovia Bank and Duke Energy, is significantly dulled due to the fact that those businesses expect to recoup half of their money immediately by absorbing club suite deposits, naming rights and pouring rights in the new arena. An ownership group might be hesitant to take a loan with such important revenue streams being swallowed up right away.

"Clearly Charlotte wouldn't be in the shape that it is in now if they had passed the referendum (for a publicly financed arena last June) or the City Council had stepped up and authorized the new arena expenditures without a referendum," Granik said.

Charlotte city councilwoman Lynn Wheeler says she felt like she was "punched in the stomach," after hearing the glowing reviews that came out of New Orleans on Wednesday night.

"I don't see that there's a necessity for the relocation committee to come to Charlotte because we don't have a new arena built," said Wheeler, who has been working on getting Charlotte a new arena the past seven years. "But I think it is critical that we make a presentation to them, rather than just sending a notebook."

Charlotte businessman Nelson Schwab sent the NBA a report on Charlotte's key attributes earlier in the week.

A meeting with Charlotte officials would be welcomed by the league, but nobody from Charlotte has asked the league for a face-to-face meeting, Granik said.

Darren Rovell, who covers sports business for ESPN.com, can be reached at darren.rovell@espn.com.