The Silent Swarm: How Charlotte Fans Took Over the Arena

From the Bring Back the Buzz archive: a look back at the SWARM nights of 2012 to 2014, pulled together from our posts at the time.

Before there were TEALgates, there was the SWARM. Between 2012 and 2014, Bring Back the Buzz and our friends at We Beelieve organized nights where Charlotte fans packed into Bobcats games wearing teal and purple, to show the city and the team exactly how much the Hornets name still meant. Today's TEALgates at The Local are a direct descendant.

2012: Off our computers and onto the streets

The first SWARM in March 2012 started as a pregame bar crawl and ended in the arena. The message was simple: get off the message boards and show up in person. As we wrote that night, the momentum kept building, and the team wouldn't be able to ignore us for much longer.

The SWARM Time Warner nights

Over the next year we organized three "SWARM Time Warner" events. The January 2013 SWARM took over the cheap seats in sections 205 and 206, with tickets as low as $7. We were loud but respectful, organized and unified, and it felt like we were everywhere. Behind the scenes, the team told us they loved the energy and the attention it brought.

April 13, 2013: the Silent Swarm

For the last weekend home game of 2013, against the Milwaukee Bucks, we tried something different. No coordinated chants, no section takeovers, nothing that might read as defiance. Just pure support for our team, in teal and purple, one last time before the name came back. We called it the Silent Swarm, but don't let the title fool you: it was as loud and proud as ever.

The night started with a free pregame keg at Fitzgerald's and ended at an afterparty at TILT. There was even a contest for the best Silent Swarm photo, with a free Bring Back the Buzz shirt as the prize. A few weeks later, the team announced it would apply to bring back the Hornets name.

April 16, 2014: SWARM4CHARITY

For the final regular-season Bobcats game, we threw one more: SWARM4CHARITY at Fitzgerald's, celebrating the end of the Bobcats era and raising money for the Charlotte Rollin' Bobcats wheelchair basketball team. We raffled off one-of-a-kind Hornets memorabilia, and the best part of the night was that two of the six items went to Rollin' Bobcats players themselves: an inaugural-season Hornets ticket and a pair of Al Jefferson's game-worn, signed size 18 shoes.

The SWARM lives on

The Hornets name came home a month later. The SWARM never really ended. It became the Crown Club: TEALgates before every home game, away trip takeovers, and a charity partner every season (today it's Safe Alliance). If you were there for a SWARM, thank you. If you weren't, we saved you a spot.