Somehow I missed this story: the New Orleans Hornets, recently purchased by Tom Benson, have changed their name to the Pelicans. Apparently this is a homage to the state bird which has become a symbol of the recovery and restoration of the post BP Gulf Coast. Interesting and probably will be good for PR locally.
Now it’s reported that the process has begun to rename the Charlotte Bobcats the Hornets, reclaiming the name that got it start in the city.
This is such a bizarre occurrence to me, I can’t imagine that anything like this has even happened before in another sport. A team moving away and then somehow getting their name back without a fierce legal battle ala the Browns? Supposedly the “new” Hornets are at least 18 months away so we won’t have the bizarre occurrence of the Hornets playing in New Orleans as a road team in the first year after the renaming.
These are two dismal franchises so it probably isn’t of much interest to people, but this strikes me as a under reported weird story.
As far as I know there wasn’t much of a battle when the Washington Senators moved to Minnesota and were replaced by an expansion team with the same name (which later became the Texas Rangers). The records and history, but not the name, moved with the team to Minnesota in 1960, and then the expansion team started fresh on everything but the name.
That whole team identity sucks - the name, the logos, the colors. For christsakes, it’s New Orleans, one of the most badass cities in the history of badassery, how could they pick something so lame? Someone had tossed around “New Orleans Brass” which would have been wicked - instant team identity (loud and in-your-face aggressive) that is also the history of the city in one word, from marching bands to jazz to whatever.
Charlotte Hornets is also lame, but Charlotte is lame so it gets a pass. Someone suggested “Charlotte Flight” which I thought was both different and rad, and if the logos and colors we’re handled properly it could have been stellar.
Although I am generally kind of annoyed by teams that have mascots that aren’t plurals (Miami Heat, Stanford Cardinal, the majority of the WNBA), I gotta say that I think I could really dig the New Orleans Brass. It does have a bit of a ring to it.
First off, pelicans are terrifying. Secondly, they’re a hell of a lot more sinister than ducks, meat packing dock workers, identical siblings, monarchs, foliage, and elected governmental officials of various nationalities.
I was born in and currently live in New Orleans. I HATE the name “Pelicans.” Sure, you can compare it to other non-threatening names like Cubs and Red Sox, but we were choosing a new name and had the entirety of human vocabulary to come up with something. You could be fresh or different or radical, but they chose the incredibly boring “Pelicans.” Let’s just say it did not get me fired up to buy tickets.
Actually, I was thinking more of Blue Jackets and Wild. Thrasher I understand is the state birds of Georgia. But Blue Jacket is some sort of Civil War reference that I doubt anyone gets (I mean when you think “Civil War”, is Columbus, Ohio in the top twenty cities that come to your mind?), and…Wild? Seriously? I hate non-plural team names, but at the very least, keep it a freaking NOUN!
I personally like the name “Pelicans,” it’s kind of goofy in an old-school, ABA sort of way. So many mascots/nicknames these days are trying to be THREATENING and MEAN and end up just looking generic (“Thrashers,” “Predators,” etc.).
When they announced the choices I was rooting for Brass, like ZebraShaSha. Pelicans isn’t exactly badass but it’s different and it has a local connection. What’s crazy to me is that the Hornets lasted almost as long in New Orleans as they did in Charlotte. I think the Bobcats are making a really good move. The Hornets were a fun team with good colors and Bobcats is pretty boring. They do have Bobcats in the Carolinas, but from what I remember, Bob Johnson named the team partly after himself. Yuck. It’s too bad this change can’t go into effect until next season, both to get rid of a dull name and because that’s the first good news that awful team has had in a while.
I’m a fan of the Wild and was not at all happy when the team name was originally unveiled. (The logo is great though.) In spite of that, I do feel obligated to point out that “wild” can be a noun, synonymous with “wilderness.” The original management was trying to get that dual meaning with the choice. They did run into a problem when the name that kept winning polls was the North Stars, which wasn’t available.
North Stars is a great name, but I’ve always found it tough to be super pissed about it because Stars is actually a pretty spot on name for a Dallas team.
The Hornets name has been in Charlotte a long time, with its former minor league baseball club and even its WFL team. It’s fair to say the name would be going “back” to Charlotte if this all works out.
The Bobcats name was a sop to original owner Robert Johnson of BET. With him out of the picture, there’s no legacy or symbolism worth protecting with that name.
Pelicans are badder-assed birds than orioles or cardinals, btw.