New Orleans Hornets Smart to Pursue Nickname Change Under New Owner

The New Orleans Hornets are going to have a new owner and they need to keep making positive changes down in The Big Easy by changing their team name.

According to a report by Jimmy Smith of The Times-Picayune, Tom Benson, who paid a reported $338 million for the franchise last week, is highly interested in altering the name to something more uniquely local and relevant.

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"We want to change the name from Hornets to something that means New Orleans and Louisiana.” Said Benson. “The 'Hornets' doesn't mean anything."

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While the Hornets have tried their best to rebrand over the past few seasons, including NOLA Mardi Gras uniforms and color schemes, they simply don’t have a moniker that fits the city.

Unfortunately, Jeff Duncan of The Times- Picayune found that it could take up to two years from the inception of a new name to actually implementing it, due to merchandising and marketing obstacles.

Regardless, it’s time for the New Orleans basketball team to ditch the name that followed them like a black cloud from Charlotte to the Crescent City back in 2002.

The team has only managed to win a single playoff series since the move and has just one divisional title.  

In a cruel twist of fate, it’s been confirmed that they won’t be able to reclaim the Jazz title from the Utah-based team, even though it fits the Big Easy perfectly and the local team used it from 1974 to 1979 before relocating. Via Smith:

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"It belongs to Utah," commissioner David Stern said. "I wouldn't make it such an important point. There are many things that are indigenous to the area. I'm sure there will be some wonderful nicknames (suggestions)."

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There will undoubtedly be a number of great ideas concocted from now until Benson officially releases a poll or some other method of deciding what the organization should rebrand itself to.

Hopefully the ball gets rolling sooner or later so that New Orleans has something to look forward to besides rebuilding over these next few years.