The franchise began in Charlotte, New Carolina around 1985, and the team played its first regular season in 1988. Since then it has contended with the best basketball teams in the United States and given a pretty good account of itself. To catch the Pelicans live in action, buy New Orleans Pelicans tickets now.
History:
Formed as result of the NBA’s decision to add four new teams to the competition, the Charlotte Hornets came into being due to the efforts of entrepreneur George Shinn. Shinn gathered prominent local businessmen and convinced them to support a new basket ball franchise. His efforts were being ridiculed on the media, since people thought that a comparatively small city would not be able to support a basketball team.
But Shinn knew what he was doing and had an ace up his sleeve. It was the Charlotte Coliseum. The state of the art arena was under construction and would be the show piece attraction for the Hornets, since it was the biggest basketball-specific arena to be ever built. Around 24.000 people could sit and watch a match there, something which no doubt spurred the NBA to grant them a franchise. They were the 24th team to be granted an NBA franchise.
Charlotte Hornets (1988-2002):
The team originally wanted to use the name the Charlotte Spirit, but chose Hornets after a name-the-team contest was concluded. Unlike many NBA teams, who would try to invest in the future by drafting youngsters in their squads, the Hornets chose to fill their squad with veteran players in the hope of giving the new team some semblance of stability.
Naturally, the early years were hard as the team tried to find its balance and they had an overall negative difference with reference to games won and lost. They were unable to qualify for the playoffs for their first four seasons despite continuously improving. Things started looking up in the fifth season as they finally qualified for the playoffs and finished fifth in the Eastern Conference. However they lacked the experience to make it all the way and bowed out in the second round of the playoffs.
The New Orleans Hornets (2002-2005):
The team moved to New Orleans in 2002 after disagreements with the Charlotte local administration regarding building a new stadium. The team played its first match against the Utah Jazz, which ironically was New Orleans’ previous team. The Hornets defeated the Jazz in their first game at their new home, the New Orleans Arena. The team saw somewhat turbulent seasons after that full of mixed results.
New Orleans Pelicans (2013):
The franchise decided to change their name to the "Pelicans" at the conclusion of the 2012–13 season. This was decided to give the team a more local flavor as the “Hornets” would always be associated with Charlotte. The “Pelicans” were chosen keeping in mind that the brown pelican is the state bird of Louisiana.
Over the past couple of years the team has shown great improvement in terms of their results. They were able to make the playoffs in the 2010-2011 season as well though could not do so in the next season. However generally results have been improving and the team considers itself to have been reborn. With an added incentive of now being a completely local New Orleans team, they have everything to play for. So buy New Orleans Pelicans tickets now and watch them try to establish themselves as the best team in the country.