Our Turn, Charlotte! The Night the SWARM Was Born

From the Bring Back the Buzz archive. First published December 5, 2012 on bringbackthebuzz.net, lightly edited.

We wrote this in December 2012, right after New Orleans revealed it would become the Pelicans. For the first time, the Hornets name was truly in reach. Read it now, and you'll see the same idea behind every TEALgate we throw: get off the screen and show up together.

For almost three years we've been working to get the Hornets name back to the original hive of its rebellion. For almost three years my brother and I have been called almost every name imaginable: nostalgic, pipe-dream smokers, delirious, and plenty we can't post.

Our first fight was letting people know we're Bobcats fans. We were never thrilled with the name, but we've always supported the NBA in Charlotte and wanted it to thrive in the city we were born and raised in. We know what this city is capable of. We all saw it with the Hornets.

From the computer screen to the streets

When we started, this seemed like an impossible goal. There was no news about New Orleans changing its name, and nobody was even blogging about it. Then we met John Morgan of We Beelieve, and suddenly we didn't feel so crazy. None of us had experience running a campaign. The three of us agreed on one thing: we had to take this movement off the computer screen and onto the streets.

That's how the SWARM Time Warner was born. The mission: find as many people as crazy as us, get them in Hornets gear, and recreate the atmosphere of the old Coliseum. It was a HUGE success. We poured into the arena chanting "Charlotte Hornets" and carried it from the entrance to the nosebleeds. We were the loudest people in the building. Strangers who'd never heard of us joined in. By the end of the game, a couple hundred people were chanting in the lobby. Then the calls from radio and TV started. Charlotte believed again.

Then everything fell into place

As if on cue, New Orleans got new ownership and rumors of a rebrand surfaced. Over the next year, Tom Benson hinted at a new name. The league's deputy commissioner came to Charlotte, and talk of a Hornets rebrand reached Jordan himself, who said that if the community showed interest, they'd look into it. Then came New Orleans' new colors, and days later a new name for next season: the Pelicans.

The ball is in our court. The people have always been the backbone of this movement, and you've been amazing. Now we're in the home stretch, and it's time to plead like never before for this city's history and identity. If you want the name back as badly as we do, get off your computer and join us on the streets.

What came next

The next SWARM, in January 2013, packed the cheap seats in teal and purple (read about it in The Silent Swarm). By May 2014, the Hornets name was home. The streets part never stopped: it's now a TEALgate before every home game.