NEW ORLEANS -- New Orleans Hornets owner George Shinn says he is far from ready to abandon the hurricane-ravaged city despite the obvious difficulty in playing home games near the Gulf Coast.

"Our objective is not to abandon ship here or to get out of Dodge," Shinn told The Times-Picayune from his summer home in Telford, Tenn. "Our plan is to hope and pray New Orleans rebuilds. And I think it will with everyone's support and the federal money that's coming in there. I think it will be stronger."

Louisville, Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Nashville and San Diego have extended offers to the Hornets to play their home games in those cities this year.

Shinn said hopes are dimming that Baton Rouge could be used as a possible home venue this season. The Hornets cannot play in the New Orleans Arena because of facility damage and hurricane-related infrastructure problems in the city.

Hornets' representatives informed Shinn that the downtown Rivercenter and the LSU Assembly Center in Baton Rouge might be unavailable because of their current use as evacuation shelters and medical facilities.

"The thing everybody's got to remember is our goal is simple. We want to play in New Orleans. That's our home. But we can't. We can't come back even if the facility was clean because there's nobody else there. The city will come back. We don't know how long it will take, therefore we've got to find a temporary home," Shinn said.

Shinn said he hopes to have a decision on where the Hornets will play home games during the upcoming week.