Nicknames that work better (or just as good) in other cities.

[B-Rich]

Oh, they should revive it. For the minor league club, if nothing else.

For the record, in the one year (1977) we had the AAA St. Louis Cardinals affiliate, they, too were the New Orleans Pelicans.

I have no doubt, that for the messing around by Saints owner Tom Benson, we probably would've had it as our AAA franchise name. But it's a little too late now...

A little history for those who may not know: in baseball's expansion of 1993, the Denver Zephyrs needed to move due to the Colorado Rockies coming in. New Orleans at the time was the best spot to relocate them, and in fact the Zephyrs owners (the Dikeou brothers) planned to move them here. However, there were also two new AAA franchise slated to come on board for each of the two new expansion teams. One location lined up was Ottawa, the other was a "trade-up" for the AA Charlotte Knights. Thus the AA Charlotte franchise needed to move. Benson bought an option on that team and announced his intention to move them here as well, and name them the "New Orleans Pelicans". At the time, the only real place to play minor league ball was UNO's Privateer Field, and Benson proceeded to "tie it up" with a lease and also tied up the name "New Orleans Pelicans". The Dikeous still planned to move the Zephyrs here; there was a big brouhaha, and eventually minor league baseball stepped in and said AAA had precedence over AA, so Benson was out of luck and never completed the sale. The orphaned AA franchise wound up in Nashville on a two-year tempory basis (as the Xpress), while the Zephyrs came here, eventually getting the UNO lease (and after three seasons a nice new ballpark in suburban Metairie). All of this was occuring "last minute". But for Benson messing up the system AND tying up the name "Pelicans", I'm sure there could have been time and a fan call to have the current AAA franchise tagged as such. But now, it's been over 14 years of "New Orleans Zephyrs", and more living fans are used to it than those who knew the Pelicans of yore (who other than that one 1977 season, last played in 1959)... FWIW, a TESS search shows no ownership of "New Orleans Pelicans"...

The funny thing is, the Zephyrs have been sold twice since moving here, first to a consortium led by the Dikeous' local attorney, Rob Couhig, thence to minor league empresario Don Biever (sp.?). If Benson had really wanted to own New Orleans' minor league club team he has had two shots. But all he was interested in (as he still is today) is cornering the sports market in the area, and keeping the emphasis on HIS teams. There was even an article in today's NY Times mentioning that Hornets officials say they believe the Saints are pressuring their flagship radio station to limit references to the basketball team (link:Putting the New Orleans in New Orleans Hornets)

In short: yeah; perfect, cool historical name; great logo and merch opportunities, but the train has left the station.

[BaltimoreFan]

And how is it that I never hear about the arena football teams around here. I had barely heard of the Blackbirds before they began play, didn't know they were gone and hadn't heard anything about the Mariners.

They don't get hardly any media coverage. I just happened to come across both the Blackbirds and Mariners on Wikipedia. We also getting an ABA team next season, the Baltimore Bay Lions (I actually came across the Mariners by looking at the Bay lions).

[rams80]

And how is it that I never hear about the arena football teams around here. I had barely heard of the Blackbirds before they began play, didn't know they were gone and hadn't heard anything about the Mariners.

They don't get hardly any media coverage. I just happened to come across both the Blackbirds and Mariners on Wikipedia. We also getting an ABA team next season, the Baltimore Bay Lions (I actually came across the Mariners by looking at the Bay lions).

Word of advice: Don't get too excited about that team either.