According to a Tweet from New Orleans Hornets Spanish-language broadcaster Emilio Peralta, the team will hold a press conference tomorrow afternoon at 4pm ET (3pm local time) to announce the team will be re-named the New Orleans Pelicans and also unveil the new logos and uniforms.
The now deleted tweet, translated from Spanish to English, read as follows:
“I just got out of meeting with Hornets-Saints: it’s official. On Thursday announcing the name change and show logos, uniform. Hornets were called Pelicans. Announcement will be on Thursday at 3pm CT. Gov. Jindal will be present.”
Peralta’s Twitter account vanished shortly after his post started to make the rounds, a cached version of the page confirmed that the Twitter account did indeed belong to Peralta but was unfortunately from just before this Tweet was, um, Tweeted. So we’re relying on third-hand news for this one… but it seems plausible what with the suddenly vanishing account and all.
The New Orleans Hornets have been rumoured to be changing their name for years but talks had really picked up since Tom Benson purchased the club from the NBA.
Last month, the group that owns the Hornets registered several new team names with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and yes, Pelicans was one of them… to be honest Pelicans is the only decent name of the lot:
Looking at domain registrations we learn that the domains pelicansbasketball.com and nolapelicans.com were both registered before all these other names, back on June 1, 2012 (neworleanspelicans.com was snatched up by a graphic designer who owns several other New Orleans related domains).
The additional names were all later registered six months later, on the same day as the USPTO trademarks were filed on December 5, 2012. Every name has their ownership information blocked by the same domain privacy service, every domain registered for two years. Visting any of the addresses will produce a standard GoDaddy.com parked domain page.
Also, not that this really means anything, but the NBA still owns CharlotteHornets.com. Just throwing that bit of info out there.
We’ll keep an eye out and see if anything else trickles in between now and tomorrow afternoon.
UPDATE! (1/23/13 11:45am ET): Thanks to James in the comments we see that hornets.com has a countdown up advertising a Big Announcement for tomorrow at 3pm CT. Looks like this is happening folks.
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Thanks to Gary Walker for the heads up and Hornets247 for catching that deleted tweet!
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Chris Creamer is the founder of SportsLogos.Net and has been maintaining it since June 1997. You can follow him on Twitter at @sportslogosnet or contact him via email at ccreamer@sportslogos.net
Lee Eric Rock Williams
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 10:39KooL
Marco
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 10:52Mosquitos!
Lazaro DadeCounty Rios
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 10:53i believe this was announced on december 4th
Cory Lendon
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 10:56The Charlotte Bobcats PR department has sent initial emails to season ticket holders gauging interest in re-establishing the Hornets name for the Charlotte franchise, as well.
Chris Oglesby
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 11:04I still have my Charlotte Hornets shirt from when I was a fan back in middle school.
Swiss
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 11:07Finally the Bobcats can drop that godawful nickname!
James
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 11:29Looking at the post, I typed in charlottehornets.com and it redirects you to the New Orleans Hornets homepage. Currently, it has a countdown on it, which leads to 4 pm ET. If you move your mouse toward any of the social media outlets, the messages state that the Hornets are making a special announcement at 3 p.m. and that we should check out hornets.com.
Lauren
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 12:09Fingers crossed it's one of these top logo designs from the 99designs contest, which had more than 1,000 submissions! http://bit.ly/NOLAPelicans-Winner
Kyra Harrington
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 12:10Fingers crossed it's one of these top logo designs from the 99designs contest, which had more than 1,000 submissions! http://bit.ly/NOLAPelicans-Winner
agege
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 12:26Maybe then the Jazz can be renamed the Hornets. That way, if the New Orleans whatevers move to, say, Buffalo, the NBA can have the New Orleans Jazz again.
Roger C.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 13:09I would have preferred the trade, giving Utah the Bobcats name, New Orleans the Jazz, and Charlotte the Hornets. Makes WAY more sense. As for the Pelicans, that's a horrible name dude.
Aaron
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 13:41If/when the Sacramento Kings do move to Seattle, perhaps New Orleans should retain their name and history since the Kings will likely be called the Supersonics.
Michael Jacobs
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 14:17None of these names mentioned, sound like a pro basketball team. They sound like they'd fit better for a minor league baseball team. But on that note, I'd enjoy the Swamp Dogs or the Bullsharks.
Frank Fleming
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 14:36Awesome
Kieran McAlister
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 15:10Seeing the Charlotte Hornets again would be SWEEET!! Hopefully it'll be the beginning to helping to save that franchise and keep it there.
Daniel Brooks Moore
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 15:27Really wish I received the call to design this logo!!!
Brian Castner
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 16:32If they don't screw it up Pelicans will look great. Nice unique name to fit in with the city. And hopefully this means I more Bobcats in Charlotte.
Bill A
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 16:38Ducks, Penguins, and now we have Pelicans. To honor the state bird, they could have gone to license plates. I dunno, I grew up liking malevolent-sounding names like Fighting Saints, Pirates, Vikings. Who knows, I might today be a Philadelphia baseball fan if it weren't for the weak-sounding "Phillies" moniker which had me thinking as a boy that they were named after female horses. (Actually, it was the Athletics five World Series titles to the Phillies goose egg at the time thats kept me in green and gold since 1971.) I like the idea of the unprecedented trade of team nicknames that would settle the score so to say for fans of teams that have left New Orleans and Charlotte - and make sense for a team representing Utah. Throw in a little bit of realignment to iron out the kinks of recent relocations and the cager circuit will be sittin kinda pretty.
Christopher Fernandez
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 16:43http://bringbackthebuzz.wordpress.com/2013/01/03/leaked-possible-new-orleans-pelicans-logo/
Logan R
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 17:17Are they just unveiling it or are they gonna change there identity mid-season?
Dante
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 17:49I'm looking forward to it. New Orleans presently has one of, if not the best uniform in the league right now, so hopefully changing the nickname won't ruin that.
Aaron
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 21:02Yes they do. But when Charlotte retains the Hornets nameplate, the uniforms will go with it.
Sean
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 17:45That "Leaked" logo on the hat is symmetrical but about a quarter of an inch from being centered. Either a quicky job or a botched fan idea. 2013-14...can't just switch midseason dude.
Jed
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 22:23Glad they're bringing the Hornets name back to where it belongs...in Charlotte...the Pelicans logo doesn't look too bad, IF this is going to be their official logo and name starting next season. The Bobcats name were absolutely awful!
Aaron
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 22:50Cougars probably would've been a better name.
ingmar66
Thursday, January 24, 2013 at 04:42Wearing my purple and teal Charlotte Hornets knitted hat today. Let's hope MJ and the rest of the Queen City will have their Hornets name and uniforms back (be it in the current NOLA version, which I really like. Sure, the fleur de lys and Hugo's mardi gras attire will have to be left behind in the Crescent City, but for the rest, ship it to Carolina), so they can ditch the forgettable Bobcat era. As for Pelicans, I like it. Jazz would have been better, but Utah will never give up the only groovy thing about Salt Lake City: the nickname of their basketball team.
Gary
Thursday, January 24, 2013 at 13:42Still would have loved to see the New Orleans Rougarou. Such an awesome name.
crackthatgame
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