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Can I also say that Hornets international fans and fans in US outside of New orleans might outweigh the amount of fans in New Orleans and I am not kidding.. I don't think I could say this about any other team.
Some people want the name to be hurricanes come on thats like Oklahoma City naming there team the bombers. And cajuns is not a good name because most of the people in New Orleans are not cajuns. It all comes down to how the logo and uniforms look, if they are nice no one will care about the name.
There's gotta be a price that Voodoo will sell on. I say up the bid and the difference will show up in increased merchandise sales
ESPN is just making a mockery of this whole franchise
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmoaF_TYbS0
This. To reiterate. The fact of the matter is most of the people complaining that I see aren't from NOLA. They don't live here. Quite frankly, and I know I'm about to ruffle some feathers (not that I care), those people's opinions don't matter that much to me. If you are jumping off the bandwagon because of a nickname and some colors you were never really on it to begin with.
Good. Don't care.
I would be willing to bet all of my personal possessions that ~90% of the people who hate the name see it like this:
http://cdn.niketalk.com/6/60/60a1403...-his-wing.jpeg
When I highly doubt that will be the case.
That's not all that matters. I'm a native New Orleanian and as a fan of the Hornets/Pelicans, we need as many fans as we can possibly attract. It's our ONLY chance at long run survival. Having an organization that ****s on int'l fans is asinine.
That said, the int'l fans have to understand that the name "Hornets" doesn't belong to New Orleans. It's like taking an idea from someone else, and instead of passing it on as your own idea, you kinda tell people that you bought the idea from someone. That's the New Orleans Hornets. It was never ours.
This rebrand is important because it's our chance to come up with something as unique as the Charlotte Hornets and everything that comes along with that (colors, logo, etc). Even if it's not, at least it's something we can call our own. And that's important to us. And we'd like our int'l fans to come along for the ride with us as well. After all, since when has New Orleans not wanted to throw a party with more people as opposed to less people?
Hornets was as good as dead the day Benson bought the team... lest we forget he said as much at his introductory press conference w/ Stern
The name Hornets is rooted in Charlotte's history (Gen. Cornwallis dubbed the city a "Hornet's Nest" during the Revolutionary War) and should be there, not New Orleans.
the Pelican is our state bird and as others have pointed out... is on our state flag. You don't have to go all that far to find a pelican around the city.
If Pelicans does become the team name (and by all accounts it seems it will)... it'll be all about the branding and if the team uses anything like the concepts we've seen in this thread... I think people will warm up to the name and look rather quickly
edit: I can almost guarantee we won't go the Oregon Duck route and use a design Disney will want... we'll use something highly fitting for a basketball team... though I wouldn't mind Seymour D Fair stopping by every now and then (that was the 1984 NOLA World's Fair pelican mascot)... maybe that'll be Bradley Handwerger's new tormenter... taking the place of king cake baby
ESPN making fun of our nickname isn't the kind of **** that keeps me up at night.
You aren't a fan of the team if you actually care that much what the name is to not be a fan anymore. You're a child, or bandwagon.
If you're a fan of the team, you wouldn't care if they called them the New Orleans Drag Queens as long as they played ball.
Have fun traveling to Charlotte though. I hear they have good...stuff.
I get your point...but IMO...just cuz you will possibly make the Pelican look more "angry" or the color scheme would look good doesn't change the fact that the NAME itself seems to be what people have problems with. If you don't like the name dressing it up in different ways isn't going to change that. Plus regardless of how many different mocked logos you throw up there....no one can confirm what this is actually going to look like.
I just feel that the purpose of a rebrand is to invigorate the current fanbase and attracting new fans. And its obvious from most current fans and potential new fans that this Pelicans name does nothing but fail at that. I also get that Benson doesn't have to have a fan vote per say on what the name should be because that would be chaotic.... but at the very least he should test the waters of public opinion....he owns a tv station get some of these reporters out on the street and ask out of these particular names what do you think...it not a actual vote but it guages public opinion.... because regardless of what some fans on here say about how they "don't care" about that other people outside of NOLA think about the team name.....the ownership and NBA that wants to make profit from merchandising and sales should. Marketability is a big part of the NBA like it or not. Its different from the NFL in that sense because NBA relies heavily on international sales as NFL/NCAAF rules all in the US. And also...don't think just because Benson "saved" basketball in NOLA that he won't sell this team a the drop of a hat if he starts losing too money. LOL. He is a business man you know....
Once again people can't be mad at ESPN or anybody who think the name is silly. If these many people are telling you it's a bad name there is a reason. You can agree or disagree, but stop trying to discredit the source. It's based on opinions. So if you're cool with it fine, but stop telling others they should be fine with it. I don't want to have a name that needs to grow on me not when there's dozens of others that I may not love but are perfectly ok with.
I'm not mad at anyone who thinks the name is silly. A lot of these same people think it's silly for New Orleans to have an NBA team. Everyone is allowed to feel the way they want. Doesn't mean anything will change because of it.
Its because of the time we live in. That's the reason.
What if the Packers came out today? The Knicks? The Red/White Sox? The Browns? The Orioles? The Blue Jays? Wizards? Magic? Nuggets? Raptors?
People won't care in a year. But today is all about social media and who can be the biggest cynical jerk immediately. LOOK AT ME! I'M COOL LOOK HOW EDGY I AM!
We are going to have to agree to disagree on this one, we all have opinions on the matter and the only one that matters is Bensons. The int'l and out of state fans may not be getting ******** on but being told to leave or our opinion doesn't matter is certainly disrespectful.
I don't recall many people thinking the Thunder was an awesome name, I think most people hated it too. The fact of the matter is, people complain, and are much more likely to voice their displeasure then anything else. Is Pelicans my first choice, no, but it's a ton better than Hornets.
I see people say in here they will not support the team anymore. Your not a fan of the team your a fan of the name. Lance Thomas said it perfect yesterday who cares what the name is, it's the same players and staff with the same standards. Thats why I support this team not because of some name.
This is short sighted and does not address having to use the actual name at some point. Ofcourse having a bad name doesn't mean the Jerseys and logo will look awful, but having both those doesn't fit having a silly name.
Why choose one or the other when we can have both is my biggest issue with people who want to focus on the logo and color schemes.
I just don't quite get how people think Pelicans is so silly when our current logo is a cartoon with Mickey Mouse gloves.
But thats the thing. These names were given during a certain era (and half of the names you threw out are fit the sport ie baseball) where those were good names for teams at that time. Its a different time now and Pelicans IMO fits more with something from a Knickerbockers era. I realize some people here don't care for how things are seen are done as far as social media in this day and age but thats what it is....the baby boomer demographic doesn't run things anymore....if the last 2 elections didn't show you exactly where this society is at this moment when it comes to the country being taken over by the young population then I don't know how else it could be explained.
The world is different....opinions seem to actually matter more than back in the day because the consumer has an outlet where their opinions can be heard in real time....social media can make or break businesses now a days. Not saying this is going to break the team or anything but from the backlash on social media users in NOLA alone about this name tells you everything you need to know about your targeted fanbase. Its the age of technology and social media....yes you have those people that just want to be the first to make negative comments but it also have people who genuinly voice their actual opinion. Everyone thats complaining on the social media outlets that everyone hates is the targeted fanbase like it or not.
Here's just one Boston Celtics forum and their thoughts on the Thunder name when they first heard it. That's just one forum. Today, they probably couldn't care less.
I think keeping in mind what Sonics fans thought of the Thunder name would also be germane when considering what could have been.