Bobcats had to take the show on the road.

• Position: Charlotte

As April Fools Day dawned, the Charlotte Bobcats' playoff aspirations were, for the first time in the franchise's short history, no joke. The team was just a game behind the Chicago Bulls for the final playoff spot in the National Basketball Association's Eastern Conference. But the improvement wasn't just in the standings. The Bobcats, after struggling five years to attract fans, had sold out the two previous games. Problem was, only two of the team's final eight games--and none of the last four--would be in Charlotte.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

It mattered because the team's record is much better at home. The Bobcats split those last two games at the arena--one a sellout and the other, with playoff hopes fading and fans recovering from UNC Chapel Hill's basketball championship the night before, only 3,000 short--to finish with a 23-18 record at home. The playoff dream died at an away game at Oklahoma City on Good Friday.

Chalk up the untimely road trip in part to the other area in which the team has struggled--the bottom line. Majority owner Bob Johnson, whose Bobcats Basketball Holdings LLC operates the city-owned Time Warner Cable Arena, claims $50 million in losses since he spent $300 million for the franchise in 2003. That increases pressure on the parent company to fill the arena as often as possible. It scheduled two special events there in the last two weeks of the season: Playhouse Disney Live! On Tour and the...