NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats plan to become Charlotte Hornets
Michael Jordan changing Charlotte’s name to Hornets
CHARLOTTE — Charlotte Bobcats owner Michael Jordan is changing his team’s name to the Hornets.
Video Link: NBA franchise owner Michael Jordan makes Bobcats changing name to Hornets public announcement
http://www.nba.com/video/channels/nba_tv/2013/05/21/20130521-cha-announcement.nba
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Video: ESPN Money Talk : Bobcats Changing Name To Hornets
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May 20, 2013
Michael Jordan submits application to change team name to Charlotte Hornets
By By Nick Needham –
AP/WBTV 3 CBS Charlotte
CHARLOTTE-Charlotte Bobcats Owner Michael Jordan announced Tuesday that he has asked the NBA to allow him to change his team’s nickname to the Charlotte Hornets.
Jordan made the announcement at the Bobcats practice facility at Time Warner Cable Arena Tuesday evening.
“You guys wanted the Hornets name back,” Jordan told the crowd gathered. “I was always astounded by the way the fans supported the team.”
If approved, the Hornets nickname would go into effect for the 2014-15 season.
The NBA Board of Governors will vote on the name change at its July meeting in Las Vegas.
Reports have swirled for weeks that the Bobcats are setting the stage to change their nickname to the Charlotte Hornets.
CBS Sports reported Friday that the Bobcats have already begun the process of changing the team’s name.
The Bobcats have remained mum on the speculation.
NBA officials said earlier this year in a visit to the Queen City that a name change typically takes 18-months and several million dollars to rebrand all the teams merchandise and logo.
NBA deputy commissioner and COO Adam Silver previously said it would take “about 18 months” for the Bobcats to change their name. That means Charlotte could once again become the Hornets by the 2014-15 season.
The Hornets resided in Charlotte from 1988-2002 before then-owner George Shinn moved the franchise to New Orleans.
The New Orleans Hornets recently changed their name to the Pelicans.
Silver said in an April interview if the Bobcats decided to change their name to the Hornets it would be “an enormously complex process and a very expensive process for the team. From everything to the uniforms, to the building, to the letterhead to the signs on the offices – all of that has to be taken into account.”
While he didn’t estimate how much the change would cost, Silver did say the fact that the league owns the rights to the name Hornets could help speed up the transition process.
“I’ll let [the Bobcats] speak to their own time line, but we’re supportive of whatever they do,” Silver said in April.
The Bobcats conducted a Harris Interactive poll in January to determine if fans were in favor of a name change. The Bobcats have never announced the results of those polls.
The name Bobcats originally incorporated the first name of the team’s initial owner, Bob Johnson, who later sold the team to Jordan in 2010.
In February, Jordan weighed in on the idea of changing the team’s name to the Hornets in his monthly “Chairman’s Corner” column on the team’s website, but was non-committal on his intentions.
“Judging from the emails you’ve sent me, the opinion seems to be very mixed,” Jordan said on the team’s website. “Some of you have said we should change the name and some of you have said we should not. In fact, a few of you even suggested that we should change the name to something new altogether, and not use Bobcats or Hornets.”
Jordan added that “there are a lot of factors to take into account and a lot of information to sift through. This is a decision that we will not take lightly and we will not make hastily. We want to do what we believe will be in the best interests of our organization and our fans.”
The NBA board of governors is scheduled to meet in July and it’s possible they could vote on the name change at that time.
Although the Hornets never experienced much playoff success in Charlotte, they were extremely popular team among fans.
The Charlotte Hornets had a sellout streak of 364 games – a span of nearly nine seasons – before interest began to sag in the final years and Shinn relocated the team.
The Bobcats haven’t been nearly as popular in part because of their struggles on the court.
They’ve only been to the postseason once since they began play in 2004 and finished the 2011-12 season with a 7-59 record, the worst winning percentage (.106) in NBA history.
http://www.wbtv.com/story/22301984/michael-jordan-nba-hornets-charlotte-bobcats-bring-back-buzz
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Video: Come Home Hugo– The Charlotte Hornets
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Video: The Sound of the Charlotte Hornets
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Video: Charlotte Hornets are coming back home
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Video: 1988 Charlotte Hornets uniform reveal
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Related post
NBA: Is “Hugo” coming home to Charlotte?- Rebranding the Charlotte Bobcats to the Charlotte Hornets
https://dilemma-x.net/2013/04/17/nba-is-hugo-coming-home-to-charlotte-rebranding-the-charlotte-bobcats-to-the-charlotte-hornets/
Dilemma X 
May 19, 2013
Athletics