When Saints (and new Hornets owner) Tom Benson announced at his introductory media conference that he wanted to change the name of his new team to something more local…fans rejoiced.
Since the team relocated to New Orleans in 2002 many have longed for a more local name.
That said, I now think changing the name is a bad idea.
Look, I love the names that have been tossed out there: Krewe, Pelicans, Soul, Brass, Big Chiefs, Creoles, Spirit.
But keeping the name Hornets may work better for a number of reasons.
1. The team has been in New Orleans 10 years…so the Hornets do have a history in our city.
2. NBA Commissioner David Stern is on record as saying that it will take at least one full season (possibly two) to apply for and be granted a name change. Also, Stern does not seem in favor of the name change.
3. A 2/3 majority of NBA owners must approve a name change.
So, instead of changing the name….why not just rebrand with the colors of our city and the symbol of our city. Commissioner Stern could probably make this happen ASAP.
Everyone in New Orleans knows the colors of our city are black and gold and the symbol is the fleur de lis.
The Hornets have worked hard to incorporate the fleur de bee as their logo and even the NBA and Adidas have tried to capitalize on the popularity of Saints black and gold (see jersey below).
So my suggestion is keep the name Hornets…and change the colors to black and gold…also, make the official logo the fleur de bee.
(I found the below images while googling around)
This could actually work!