Okay. I can’t speak for everybody, but I’m personally choosing to consider myself ‘over’ Wednesday’s Draft Misery. Stern didn’t screw us, Benson didn’t screw us, the makers of the ping-pong balls didn’t screw us…we simply lost out to the whims of the fates. Again. But heck…as Charlotte sports fans, we’re used to it 😉

The most troubling thing I’ve seen the last few days is the fan-on-fan negativity. Pro-rebrand/anti-rebrand…it doesn’t matter. People are angry, and hurt, and they’re taking it out on each other. Listen, gang…this is the WORST thing we can possibly do. The thing we have to keep in mind, regardless of what they’re called, those guys that suit up 82 times a year are OUR team, and they represent OUR city. Obviously, all of us here want our Hornets back. My wardrobe has morphed into a teal and purple bonanza. I literally dream about this stuff. But that doesn’t change the fact that, at this point, the ‘Cats are my team. If you truly believe in this Movement; if you truly yearn for the day that Hugo stalks the sidelines of the Cable Box, I implore you to adopt a similar approach. Divisiveness and an ‘us versus them’ mentality is the absolute opposite thing we need right now. We need solidarity. We need unity. By all means, let the ‘Cats management know that you’re still demanding your Hornets back. But at the same time, let them know that you support them through thick and thin. When someone attacks you for your view on the subject, take a deep breath, and calmly explain why you’re right. That’s the thing, gang…we own the deed to the TRUTH. We’ve faced a little adversity with the Draft fiasco, but that doesn’t change that reality.

I look at this as an opportunity, True Beelievers. We have the chance to be the most relentlessly positive, beacon of unbridled joy and passion that this team has going for it right now. We have to resist the urge to cave in to negativity and focus on the future. We’re about to get a heck of a player in a month’s time. We have loads of fun stuff planned for the summer. Let’s drop the melancholy and get PUMPED!!! We’ve worked too hard and come too far to let a little thing like a Draft Lottery kill our Buzz. As hard as it may be to believe right now, the bitterness of Wednesday WILL fade in time. However, what we have going for us…this thing that is so close we can hear flap of wings on the horizon…this thing can last FOREVER. So put a smile on your face, throw Wednesday out with the rest of this week’s garbage, and let the world know that our Hornets are coming home.

Not if, but when 🙂

Well said by John Morgan….the leader of the “We Beelieve” campaign.

Come Out Tonight! From 7 pm to 10 pm and join us at Baileys for a night of Hornets excitement there hasn’t been since they left the Queen City. There will be something for everybody!

We will have free food buffet courtesy of Rave. There will be waitresses dressed in teal and purple! Trivia with prizes that I cannot disclose….lets just say 50 yard line *cough* Panthers *cough*! a photo booth for a dollar and a raffle where proceeds will go to Metro School. If you have fallin in love with the Bring Back The Buzz gear it will all be at Baileys tonight!

I know your next question is “how do i get there?” Have no fear! go to the main page at Bringbackthebuzz.com and click on the link at the top which will take you right to the Facebook Event with directions and an address listed. Come out and find out the stuff I didnt talk about on here 😛

The official “Bring Back the Buzz” logo

• • Bailey’s Pineville

    8500 Pineville Matthews Rd, Charlotte, NC 28226

    Wednesday, May 30, 2012 ——7:00pm until 10:00pm

The season’s over, but the fun has just begun!!! Wow. That’s as lame an intro as you’ll ever find anywhere. But it happens to be true. LEAVING IT IN!!!

The event title says it all: we, alongside our pals @ R.A.V.E. Trivia, are hosting a live, Charlotte Hornets’-theme…d team trivia event the night of the NBA Draft Lottery (Wednesday, May 30th) @ 7 pm. Based upon the NBA’s convoluted lottery system, there is only a 25% chance we’ll be celebrating the fact that Anthony Davis will be wearing teal and purple in the near future. However, there is a 100% chance that this is going to be the party of the century.

There will be oodles of amazing Hornets’-related prizes for the trivia winners and Baileys has committed to some RIDICULOUSLY gracious free stuff that I’ll post about when we have it all hammered out. But for my money, the coolest thing we’re doing has to do with the CHARITY RAFFLE we’re putting together. We’re putting together a set of AMAZING prizes that we’re going to raffle off, and all of the proceeds are going to the METRO SCHOOL of Charlotte, who serves 250 students, age 3-22, all of whom are cognitively (and in many cases, physically) disabled. Come on out and support this wonderful cause!!!

If you’ve never been to Bailey’s, you’re gonna love it. Conveniently located off Highway 51 in south Charlotte (right off 485), they have something like 6000 tvs, 560 pool tables, 400 arcade games, and 350 foosball tables. I might be being a litttttle hyperbolic with those numbers, but only a little. It’s a fun joint for the whole family. Food, drinks, and a few metric tons of your best teal and purple pals. What could be better?

Listen gang…there is A LOT more to tell you about this event, but I’m gonna hold my tongue until I get it all set in stone. Suffice it to say: you’ll want to be there. I’ll keep y’all updated, but in the meantime, RSVP, and SHARE, SHARE, SHARE!!!

The official “Bring Back the Buzz” logo

Dear Michael,

There has been a lot of talk for many years about rebranding the Charlotte Bobcats. I’m sure you’ve heard it. In fact, you’ve addressed this subject at least twice that I have read. The first time was in an interview with the Charlotte Business Journal shortly after you were introduced as owner.
Michael Jordan On the Bobcats nickname:
“I’m open for anything. It’s a commitment — we have to go through the league. It’s a process. It’s a financial commitment. Am I willing to look at that and say, “Can we go down that road?” Yeah. If I get the understanding from the public that we need that — and it signifies change, yeah, I would do that. But once again, it’s a process. It’s a $3 million to $10 million investment to do that. I’m not afraid of that as long as, at the backside of that, I think the public is going to be happy about it, I think it’s going to be great for the organization, I think it’s going to be a new beginning. I would consider that.”
Next in your January, 2012 Chairman’s Corner Q & A on Bobcats.com
Carson in Gastonia said that he heard that if enough support was raised we would ask the league about trying to get the Hornets nickname. “That would be a very complicated and expensive process, and judging by what we’ve heard from fans it does not appear that there is the groundswell of support that many people believe there is.”
After reading the first article, I was really excited and hopeful that we could rid ourselves of the Bobcats nickname that has never resonated with very many Charlotte area fans. My hopes took a bit of a hit when I read your Chairman’s Corner letter but, I understood that the “Hornets” belonged to another team and getting it back would be next to impossible. I still held out hope that you would make a change but, realized that a name change to anything other than Hornets most likely wasn’t worth your investment. I reluctantly began to realize that we were stuck with the “Bobcats” name.
Who would have ever imagined that the owner of the most hated NFL team to most Carolina Panthers fans, could also be the man to breathe life back into our NBA dreams? “We want to change the name from Hornets to something that means New Orleans and Louisiana,” Tom Benson said. Just typing that makes me smile. Just typing that stirs emotions from deep within. Emotions that I thought died when my team was taken from me.
The great thing about having those emotions stirred was realizing that I wasn’t alone. No, there were many, many other fans that were invigorated by the chance that our first love could really be coming home. Suddenly, the local newscasts, newspaper articles, radio shows, fan message boards, twitter, and facebook were flooded with the excitement that Hugo could be coming home. A grassroots effort coined “Bring Back The Buzz” has organized support rallies, there is even a documentary being filmed to capture the excitement. A recent online poll conducted by the Charlotte Observer had over 10,000 respondents of which, 84% favored the Hornets nickname. Not only did the “Hornets” win in a landslide, those that favored the “Bobcats” came in at only 3%, trailing behind “Cougars” and “I Don’t Care.”
The groundswell that you didn’t believe existed has suddenly and furiously grown into a great Tsunami.
The fans speaking up and pleading for change isn’t a new phenomenon in Charlotte’s NBA history. You see, the Hornets were originally going to be called the Spirit. When George Shinn and his ownership group announced that Spirit would be the nickname of Charlotte’s expansion franchise in 1987, the fans voiced their displeasure. Shinn decided to sponsor another name-the-team contest and had fans vote on six finalists. More than 9,000 ballots were cast and Hornets won by a landslide, beating out Knights, Cougars, Spirit, Crowns, and Stars.
When the “Bobcats” name was chosen, again there was disappointment but, this time the owner didn’t offer the fans an alternative. This was Bob’s Team, this was Bob’s Cats. I think your old teammate summed up what many of us Charlotteans felt. “It sounds like a girls’ softball team to me,” Steve Kerr told reporters. “I guess it shows there aren’t many good nicknames left to be had.”
“There’s a pride that comes with being here, and a respect for tradition that makes this a special place.”… “I want to build a connection between this team and this community”… “I’ll be bringing plenty of ideas and resources to the table but, I’m also here to listen. Your feedback is important to me because at the end of the day, this is your team too.”
Those are your words, from your letter to fans on March 21, 2010. I was excited by those words because I believed them. I believed that you would do anything you could to ignite this fan base, I believed that if the fans wanted something and it was within your control- that you would make it happen. If this is really our team too, please listen to us, please bring Hugo home, please “Bring Back The Buzz”, please bring the Hornets home to Charlotte.

Thank You,
Jason Gibson
(Please see post script below)

Dateline: Nov 15th 1996
This date most likely doesn’t stick out in your mind but, I remember it like it was yesterday. I mean who doesn’t remember the day that they got to meet the person they idolized? There I was sitting at the baseline for the Chicago Bulls vs. Charlotte Hornets game; I was watching the team that I had loved for so long playing against the greatest player to ever play the game. I must admit that although I was a diehard Hornets fan, I was pulling for you to score 100 points but, I wanted the Hornets to score 101. You see no matter how much I wanted you to personally succeed; I wanted my Hornets to win even more. Despite a sold-out Hive of 24,042 fans, your Bulls were too much to overcome. As soon as the final buzzer sounded, I was able to sneak past security and to catch up with you right before you made your way into the tunnel… “Excuse me, Mr. Jordan. Can I please have your autograph” I excitedly said. Your reply, “Not right now, maybe next time”. I walked away dejected, when would I ever get a chance to have Michael Jordan sign something again?
Michael, I’m ready to cash in my “maybe next time”. Only this time I don’t want your autograph on something of mine, I want your autograph on the contract that officially makes the Charlotte Hornets a reality again.
Tom Benson has offered up the greatest assist in the history of Charlotte basketball… Can you still finish?

Dear Mr. Jordan,

I am a 16 year native of this great state of North Carolina, born and raised to be proud of my heritage. Obviously, being that young, I dont remember much about the glory days of our very own Charlotte Hornets. However, I have some recollection of a very special night in my childhood. A night spent at the old Charlotte Coliseum on Tyvola. The Hive was alive in 1998, your final year in a Chicago Bulls uniform. The Bulls were visiting the Queen City for a short playoff series against the Hornets, which they took 4 – 1. My father brought me to see you play. Being a family of Tar Heel fans, your legacy was already cemented upon his mind during the 1982 NCAA championship. He knew that you were the greatest of all time. With the rumors swirling about your impending retirement, he took me to see his hero, in hopes (now fulfilled) that you would also become mine. But I digress: Mr. Jordan, I was not at the only win. But I can still hear the roar of the crowd and feel the atmosphere of that night. The buzz building in the arena became almost too much. The sheer joy of being at an NBA game. The noise meter going nuts. This was Charlotte basketball in the 1990s. The crowd was in full support of the home team, and I brought home a Charlotte Hornets stuffed mini basketball, a possession I still cherish and treasure. Then came the bad times. Even having been to only a handful of Hornets games in my life, I felt hurt and betrayed when our beloved bees skipped town and headed down to NOLA. I didnt consider myself a die-hard fan, but when the Hornets were gone, I realized how big a hole their absence left. Luckily, with the Panthers sudden run for the Super Bowl crown and some competitive teams on the football field, those problems were forgotten… temporarily. In 2004, Bob Johnson introduced Charlotte to his ego-based team, the Bobcats. Again, my family are big UNC fans, so I tried, really tried, to give the Cats a chance. After attending the home opener, I recall having Bobcats fever. When they drafted my two favorite Tar Heel players, Shawn May and Raymond Felton, with shiny new NCAA championship rings from the 05 season on their fingers, I was enamored. I became engrossed in following the Bobcats, but eventually, May got hurt and ceased to exist, except for the chair(s) he took up on the bench, and Felton was traded out. I grew less and less interested in the Bobcats and eventually settled on my new team: the Chicago Bulls. Why, you may ask. Simple: Michael Jordan. Derrick Rose is a bright face and fresh talent in the NBA, but if thats all that drew me there, I could have chosen the Heat with their Big 3. But, no, the draw of history and my favorite athlete of all time brought me to support the Chicago Bulls, something I still do. I still pull for the Bobcats. But its difficult to do so when the team has nothing that connects me to it. I grew up all but worshipping you, Mr. Jordan, and some of my fondest memories involve playing basketball on a Nerf hoop in my dads office room and imitating your famous tongue-out play. Thats what connects me to the Bulls. But I have a much deeper connection to the Hornets. The teal and purple course through my veins every bit as much as Carolina Blue does. In the past year, it would be hard to pinpoint how much Ive spent on Hornets merchandise, but its definitely much more than Id ever spent on the Cats. My Hornets collection ranges from your pair of Aquatone 8.0 basketball shoes, to the Summit Lake Hornets shoes that just recently released. I own numerous hats and shirts depicting the Hugo of old. The extent of my Bobcats collection is a free adjustable hat that was a game giveaway, a home Raymond Felton jersey (also a giveaway sponsored by the Presbyterian Hospital), and an orange, signed Felton jersey. Therefore, 2/3 of my 3 Bobcats items didnt require a sacrifice of money on my part. Is that really how sales should be? I know you once told Jerry Reindsorf that if he couldnt make a profit, he should sell the team. Im not suggesting you sell the team–Im convinced youre much better than what we would wind up with–Im suggesting you find a way to make profit. Its simple, really: Bring Back The Buzz. The We Beelive/Bring Back The Buzz/Charlotte Hornets 2.0 movement is simple. Were all Charlotte basketball fans. Some could even be considered Bobcats fans. But the only way to truly capitalize on the team and to draw unheard of crowds into TWC Arena is this: Bring Back The Buzz. Charlotte Hornets merchandise rules the day, Mr. Jordan. Even Cam Newton and Fabolous rocked Hornets gear with you in the room this past year. Assuming the draft goes well, theres really only one thing left to bring your reconstruction program to the point of its fruitition: Bring Back The Buzz. Return the Hornets to where they belong, in Charlotte. Its a simple request. Please dont hurt your reputation and shut out 83% of your fanbases wishes. You are North Carolinas favorite son. Why not

Dear Mr. Jordan,

I’m going to get straight to the point.  If the Hornets name does become available, please bring it back home to Charlotte.  There are numerous reasons to bring back the name.  I won’t talk about all of them because I’m sure you’ve already heard them.  The main thing is to realize that it’s not just a name to us.  It’s an identity.  It is who we are, the Charlotte Hornets.  What we have now is a city with a basketball team that nobody half cares about.  Yeah, there are people, not many though, who claim to be Bobcat fans.  But none of them are passionate about the Bobcats.  None of them are passionate about their home team like we were for the Hornets.  And passion is what defines a franchise and builds it to glory.  Not just passion from the fans, but from everybody involved with the organization.  Without passion, there is no life or hope for future success.  The only perk to coming to see a Bobcats game now is to watch the other team play.  Far too many times you’ll hear from our fans, “Oh Blake Griffin is in town tonight, I’m definitely going to the game.”  And while at the game, too many fans cheering to see nice plays from the other team.  This franchise is an embarrassment right now.  But not just right now, the last several years.  Every year we’re consistently close to last in attendance.  The last number I seen is an average of 14,000 per game, and you know half of them are just there to watch the Lady Cats because they’re more exciting than the basketball team.  And I’m talking about the same city who led the league in attendance for eight years.  The same city, the same sport, with a different name and different results.  And there are people who say a name means nothing?  A name is a large part to a franchise.  People want to say, “Well the Jazz name in Utah doesn’t make sense and the Laker name in L.A. doesn’t make sense, but they’re winning, so the fans don’t care what their name is.”  But there is a huge difference between us and them.  Their fans embrace their name.  They know it doesn’t make sense, but they still embrace it and wouldn’t want to ever change it.  The fans in Charlotte have never and will never embrace the Bobcat name, no matter how good the team is.  We don’t want to change our name just because we are having a historically bad season.  Even if the Bobcats were undefeated, there will be many Charlotte fans screaming to change the name back to the Hornets.  It is our identity.  People of Charlotte are attached to the Hornets name.  There is nobody that is attached to the Bobcat name.

Some people also want to say the Hornets are history and we need to just forget it.  Those people were either not around this region back in the Hornets glory days or just can’t come up with a better argument for why we should keep the Bobcats.  We’re not living in the past, we’re simply remembering how bright our past was and recognize the great possibility of how bright our future can be.  Let’s say we get the number one pick and draft Anthony Davis.  That will help add some excitement to the Bobcats.  Let’s even say we get the number one pick next year.  There will certainly be more excitement in Charlotte than there has been in a while, but the seats still will not be full and the fire and passion that was present with the Charlotte Hornets will still not be there.  Also, there is a 75% chance we won’t get the number one pick this year.  What if we get the third pick or even the fourth pick.  Oh, I can just see that bringing tons of excitement for the 2012-2013 season.  If you obtain the Hornets name back to Charlotte, that alone will excite more fans than a number one draft pick.  That might sound weird, but that shows our passion for OUR Hornet name.  This is clearly what the fans want, just as it shows on the Charlotte Observer poll, with an overwhelming 84% wanting the Hornets name, and just 3% wanting the Bobcats.  If that don’t show you how the future looks for the Bobcats, then nothing will.  How will the Bobcats ever instill passion in a fan base where only 3% want the name?  Can you just imagine if the Bulls changed their name to the, let’s say Wildcats for example?  Can you imagine the distraught among Chicago fans?  They certainly would not say, “Well it’s just a name, it still comes down to what the players do on the court.  Go Wildcats!”  Instead, fans would fight and do whatever it took to get the Bulls name back, just as we are doing in Charlotte.  We don’t want the Flight, Cougars, or any other name that has been tossed around as an idea.  Those names would not entice more fans to come to the game and it would be like the Bobcats all over again.  The only name we want is the Hornets.

From a business standpoint, bringing the Hornets name back would be the smartest thing to do.  It’s been figured that bringing the Hornets name back to Charlotte would cost anywhere from $2.5 million to $10 million.  Some people want to sit back and say there is no need to spend this money on a team this bad.  Those are the same people who cannot foresee that there will not be a basketball team in Charlotte several years down the road because we will keep losing money and have to sell.  Everybody’s heard “You have to spend money to make money,” and that is certainly the case here.  Also, if we do not change the name back to the Hornets after the possibility has become so real, the Bobcats will lose even more fans and we cannot afford to lose what we don’t have much of.  We all know that changing the name will not simply earn us more wins, but it will definitely get us back on the right track.  It will instill that sense of Hornet pride back in the community, which in return will get people excited about the NBA again in Charlotte.  It will automatically increase attendance.  The players will have the chance to play in front of a passionate crowd, which will result in harder play and more wins.  It will be a chain reaction in our community that will be fun to watch happening right in front of us.  As bad as this season was, and as much pain we’ve all felt watching the Bobcats lose night after night, it will not compare to the pain we will feel if this Hornets movement is ignored and rejected.  A change back to the Charlotte Hornets will easily help us forget all the terrible times the Bobcats gave us.  Our future has a great chance to be bright.  All we need is for you and Bobcats management to see how bright the future could be, and listen to your fans when we say BRING BACK THE BUZZ!

Sincerely,

Garett Fesperman

Dear Mr. Jordan,
Long before “SuperCam”, the internet and dvd’s dominated our world, there was the Charlotte Hornets. Every night the bugs took to the court, it joined not just a city, but a wide range of people together as one. The first time I saw the Hornets I was at awe. Finally we had a sports team. Finally we had “our team”. I was seven years old.
The cooliest thing was seeing Charlotte make the playoffs for the first time. The whole state was electric. Seeing Alonzo Mourning sink the historic Boston Celtics was magical. The Hive was rocking, and would stay that way for many years. Until the downfall of our once glorified leader in a scandal that rocked the city. Still, we pressed on, determined to one day finally wear that championship ring.
We grew up knowing the players on a first name basis. ” Man did you see was Zo did? How about L.J. or Dell?” I challange anyone outside of your front office to name every single Bobcat in franchise history. I am willing to bet there are quite a few people who can still recall the entire lineup of the Hornets first season. That’s the connection you are seeking with the fans. As the Bobcats, you WILL NEVER have that.
WE dont ask you, Mr. Jordan, we DEMAND Mr. Jordan a change. We need to feel the Buzz again. The same Buzz that sold out the Coliseum for years. The same Buzz that made thousands of people proud of their team no matter what the record. Mr. Jordan, BRING BACK THE BUZZ. BRING BACK MY HORNETS.

Sincerely,

Perry Bumgardner