The Orlando Sentinel had a name the team contest. Challengers was the most popular out of names like Juice, Astronauts, and Orbits. A panel of judges and team officials reviewed the choices and went with Magic.
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The Orlando Sentinel had a name the team contest. Challengers was the most popular out of names like Juice, Astronauts, and Orbits. A panel of judges and team officials reviewed the choices and went with Magic.
Here's the history behind Hornets and Charlotte.
During the Revolutionary War... British Gen. Cornwallis was welcomed to the city so... ummm... nicely... that he said it was like being in a "hornets nest"
it stuck
just like LSU being called the "Fighting Tigers"... it's not about the animal (Lord knows tigers are nowhere near indiginous to Louisiana)... it's a name given during wartime that's now handed on to a sports team or something affiliated with the city/state
I haven't done any research but how many owners have come in to buy teams that are already in their hometowns?
On Nola.com there were a few Letters to the Editor with people suggesting names. I saw Riverboats, Krewe, Domino, Brass, Flambeaux, Yats, Creoles.
http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.s...ns_a_lett.html
"Times Picayune columnist Jeff Duncan polled his Twitter followers about the proposed name change and wrote that the Pelicans nickname was viewed as a dud. Duncan proposed the name Dukes and according to the Yahoo! report, Brass and Krewe were also considered."
I am not Jeff Duncan and I proposed the Dukes name.
People have become survey-happy these days not really to understand the market but to advertise more. You go to the store, they give you this receipt and there is a small section asking you to fill out a survey. They may offer an incentive like a discount or chance to enter some sweepstakes. In order for you to receive the discount, they want your email, phone number, home address, etc., so they can advertise even more to you. That is the actual marketing they are doing.
If you read Lean Startup they talk about how Intuit developers using Google Ad words to direct traffic to lead gen pages where they gathered emails for products that don't exist in order to gauge demand for whether they should actually build the product.
Creating a rumor to gauge interest costs $0 to the organization. Rebranding is upwards of $3m.
Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if they were using a social media tool to measure positive or negative sentiment on the Pelicans name.
After all these jokes in the past few days, I would deny it too.
Gale Benson better bring her butt back to the drawing board.
Yah sorry but I burst out laughing at the notion that only weak minded leaders go out and ask the consumers what they want and how they feel about certain things.
If a company puts out a product and everyone says it sucks... it sucks.. sorry. Lets face it..if some team...say Orlando or whoever else rebranded to the Pelicans all of you right now would be mocking the name and laughing your asses off just like most people are doing right now to you.
And a parent always gives into wishes of a screamimg child who wants candy for dinner, another iphone, or a.mercedes for their first car.
And about the 'free research': this is not the way to do that. With no structure to the data, it's much less informative compared to a cheap, structured experiment.
Let me guess, those you guys are anti-Pelican, right? But thesr are objective thoughts? If this were your favorite name, you'd be saying it might not stick, well other people don't like it so it must change, etc., right?
There will never be a unanimous decision about anything period...do i think that that the Hornets name is the best..YES...would I have been content with other names such as Krewe, Knights, etc..Heck Yes! It Tom Benson's team so he has the right to do whatever he wants whenever he wants but there is no denying that this a cheesy, childish name that has been universally panned and mocked. The people who like it only like it because it is different than Hornets. Thats it. If that is enough to satisfy them than fine.
But there is no denying one thing...If this was floated out there to get public/consumer opinion than that is great and I hope the team got the message. If this is the name period and they don't care what the consumers think than that is unequivocally bad business. The NBA is an entertainment industry, they still have a product that they must sell to fans. If you think that it is ok to just overstep any and all practical businesses ideals of ensuring consumer satisfaction than that is their right..it doesn't make it right but we have to live with it. But don't tell me that Tom Benson is right for just picking a name and sticking to it and telling the majority of fans to suck it.
If Iphone puts out a product that looks like s*** and everyone complains are they going to tell everyone to suck it up and deal with it? No every single product in every single market field known to man goes through some sort of testing, consumer feedback response, survey, etc etc etc. Seriously, some of the arguments presented here are just mind-bogeeling to me...
who care's are we Hornets fans? Yes... Have I spent more money on this team than probably 90% of other fans... yes. I have a right to voice my opinion. If the majority of hornets fans (NO residents or not) were on board with this i swear I would be totally fine. but clearly they are not and this rebrand therefore accomplished nothing it set out to do. Instead people are just happy this name is different than Hornets... that is not ok with me. I will suck it up and deal with it..but until its official i will voice my displeasure.
I think what bothers me is the people who hate the nickname throwing out the phrase "Everybody hates it." Not everyone hates it. There may be a lot of public backlash, but there is also public defense of the name. I just don't like this sentiment where people feel just because THEY hate it means the hate for it is the only reaction that matters.
I keep preaching perspective. "Pelicans sucks as a name" is not a fact. It is an opinion. One you're allowed to have, but it doesn't mean Gayle needs to "go back to the drawing board."
:hihi: Actually i'd be very much down. Oregon Ducks (wow, another aquatic bird imagine that!) are one of my favorite college team uniforms. Lime green and bright yellow are awesome in my book.
Flying Snotbubbles reminds me of Flying Spaghetti Monster so i am down as well.
I am a man who wears bright orange shoes all the time, everywhere. (S&WB colored...)
It's almost like you don't read my post when i say I DONT CARE WHAT THEY CALL IT AS LONG AS IT'S WANT BENSON WANTS.
I've only said it about 20 twenty times in the past few days and you keep doubting it....
Luckyman if you are sooooo concerned about the name why didnt you buy the team? Seriously, you could have done whatever your heart desired. :idoh:
You are a Hornets fan, i'm a New Orleans ___ fan. If it has NOLA on the uni, i'll support it. You support Hornets, regardless of city. There is a huge difference.
I think benson's group has made it clear he cares about New Orleans and the area surrounding. He doesn't care about the random fans outside of the market the team is physically in. So in a sense if you are more than a few hundred miles away or fit one of the other random groups he'll gladly sell you a jersey or whatever but if you don't like it he won't care either way.. In a sense, your opinion doesn't matter. Personally I'm fine with the Pelicans. Most people here I talked to at first hated the name, but after a few days it's starting to grow on people. If you are not from the region, as I see it, you have two options, accept the name and move on, or move on from the organization. Not trying to be disrespectful or anything, you have a right to voice your opinion, just don't act like it's the only opinion.
I have been trying to get this across to people for days now. I don't know why this concept is so hard to comprehend. It's beyond ridiculous.
Reminds me of a philosophy class I took where the class couldn't understand the concept of "Thinking about thinking"....whaaattttt?
Pelicans is a unique name and representative of Louisiana, once we see the logo and uniforms everyone will accept it. Then once they start winning people across the country will love to sport a "Pelicans" jersey because it is so unique and unlike any other name in the NBA.
Don't be afraid of being different and unique, embrace it.
I'm born and raised in the New Orleans area and I don't like the name Pelicans. Not one of my co-workers, friends, family, or patients like the name. So believe me where a person live have no bearing on whether they like the name. I have resigned to the fact that the name has no bearing on whether I support the team.
This doesn't address the issue at all. Why would I settle for a name I basically hate just because it's a NOLA team? We have the ability to get a name at least the majority likes. If it was one or the other fine, but it's not and we have the power to express our feeling for a team we have to support. If I'm expected to spend money on tickets and merchandise why wouldn't I speak up about a name I think is a mockery?
You can't make everyone happy, but you can make the masses OK with the name. And while I haven't polled everyone in Louisiana I can say from the majority of feedback I'm seeing people hate/strongly dislike the name.
Why in the world with this region rich history and the whole dictionary at our disposal would we settle for a name that has to grow on us. My standards are much higher than that.
See that's what "they" want you to believe that you're powerless. That's the illusion. If we all told Benson we aren't going to allow you to force feed us a name we don't like I guarentee you it would change. He is the owner to make money. He makes money when we support the team no support no money.
So while legally he has the right to name the team whatever without us his investment is worthless.
Doesn't have to be offensive just distasteful to the majority.
Fans are expected to ride or die with their teams. Sports in general pray on peoples passions. Why move forward with a name when a large amount of fans are this passioniately against it? Common sense say just pick another name until you get to one where the majority at least says it's ok.
You are right it is up to him.. but it is completely and utterly wrong and shows ignorance and bad business sense if he puts out a brand that is the focus of mockery and ridicule. The supports are far and few between. Even the majority of hornets fans in nola bashed this. Eventually all of the haters including me are going to have to shut up and put up with it but until it is official I am hoping the people at the top of this organization will come to their senses.
I've been around these boards for a while and i'm also a saints fan and have been around saintsreport for a while. I know some of the "supporters" of this name were out there bashing and ridiculing Oklahoma for Thunder and I'm sure they were ridiculing washington for Wizards. This is worse than those two names! As a Saints fan I was also around during the bad times when Bensons was pretty much loathed for putting out bad teams and even attempting a move to SA after Katrina. So the hypocrisy and irony of this situation is interesting to say the least.
And for those of you who say nobody cares what the fans of this team outside of NO think.... I would love to have someone from the organization tell me that..fact of the matter is they won't...because like it or not this team has a relatively huge following of non-local fans vs local fans and those fans also travel to NO buy tickets, buy jerseys, buy hornets stuff, watch the broadcast etc etc etc All you are doing by telling us that we "dont matter" or that we "are not fans" is pushing people away and creating divides within the fan base. I am shocked that anyone would want to do this. This reminds of when Harvey Hornet was around pretty much calling everyone stupid because they didn't agree with him and telling us outsider fans that we dont matter and that we shouldnt even be fans because we didnt live in NOLA.
"If we all told Benson". Who is we all? We haven't seen or heard EVERYONE in the world's opinion. Sure, we've seen lots of opinions here and on other message boards and social medias, but we haven't seen everyone's opinion. Not everyone does social media. I don't. Not everyone frequents message boards. I've always thought it funny when people think because they and other's don't like something then that must mean NO ONE AT ALL likes it.
And this too shall pass.
I can say every person from NOLA I've talked to said they hate it. The only pro Pelican people I see are here. I make no mistake to fool myself to think that I can poll every person in the region. However just having been born in raised in NOLA all the feedback I heard have been strongly negative ever since that article released.
It doesn't take 100% of the people. It would be foolish to alienate a large portion of fans. This isn't just people saying they like another name better it's people saying this name is awful.
How bad is this name? Seriously? I like it because I think it's the right name. That matters more than if some people like it or not. Benson is not being stubborn maybe he umms sees things differently than you guys do. Like every human.
But the point I'm trying to make is you didn't talk to EVERY PERSON in Nola. You haven't talked to EVERY PERSON in the state of Louisiana. I'll be glad when they make a formal announcement of any name so we can move forward. Whatever name they choose, people will either still support the team or move on because of their name.
My mom loves the name.
My dad, wife, and good friend who I have ticket packages with (aka people who actually spend money on the team and at the arena) don't mind the name. So apparently its NOT EVERYONE! GASP!?!
You say settle but why not content with the fact that a team will no longer have an identity of another state but now its own with a bird that represents its state better than a bug? You see everything in black and white, no gray. What if we love it in ten years? Same thing your just being stubborn.
Eman, WhoDatHornet, obviously ya'll are lying. :hihi:
There will be people that like it, don't mind it, or hate it. But there will NEVER be a 100% agree or disagree on situations like this.
ETA: I asked two people yesterday. One didn't mind it and the other said he didn't like it but he's pretty sure it'll grow on him.
My boss, who is extremely prominent and has court side seats as well as club seats LOVES the name, and he told Tom Benson so.
I'm willing to bet he takes that into consideration more than "Da Throne" or "@OMG504FERLYFE".
Quote from my dad "They could call em the New Orleans Poo Poo I don't give a ****" :hihi: Like father, like son apparently.
My Dad is crazy though and lives by "My daddy told me once i turned 50 i could say whatever the hell i wanted". He definitely keeps it real.
Haha i dont know what dathrone is saying but i never said that everyone hates the name. A majority dont like it.. It is what it is. The problem is the ones who do like the name only really like it simply because it is not "hornets" or they like it because the majoirity dont like it. I would be for a name change that is adds to this brand and makes it better.. Ie Knights, Krewe.. Pelicans does not accomplish that.
Fitting for this thread and many others right now.
http://therealmcast.com/wp-content/u...pinion-man.jpg