OK, so Sunday night on the postgame press conference, Chris Paul said he wants to see the arena in GOLD.
This is gonna be one of those moments when I’m going to bitch about the Hornets organization. I love ‘em, but… remember how I said we needed to organize the fans better? This is a prime example. OK, scratch that. Except the part about loving the Hornets. See the bottom of the post for an explanation.
Because the players said they wanted gold. Tyson just said it again on his blog today. And CP3’s quote was in the paper, but people might have missed that. Yet… the giveaway tonight is thunderstix. Now I’m not saying it’s reasonable to get 20,000 t-shirts printed on short notice because the players want gold and not teal, but… you know, they could have sent around an email or posted something on the site telling people definitively what to wear. Complicating the issue is the fact that the “Fan Up New Orleans!” shirts are teal. And the previous giveaway was black. And prior to that, white. See the problem? People are not gonna wear the gold gear if they don’t have any (unless you want to see a sea of LSU), and people are not gonna wear a solid color at all unless it’s splashed all over town that they’re supposed to. I think whenever they do t-shirts they should put them on the seats so people realize they have to put one on.
So. Will the fans pull this together to look impressive tonight?
I’m gonna go with, “Ha. No.”
At least we can yell.
Update: I’m told (check out the comments) that CP surprised everyone with that remark, and the staff was scrambling around looking for 18,000 gold shirts on short notice. So… I apologize for the criticism. At least they tried! SO. What to wear? I’m going to wear my teal TC #6 jersey over yellow, and call it a compromise.
Hey ticktock. I saw your post about the Hornets org. The feeling is mutual, we love Hornets Hype!!….
But to give you a little more info, our promotions department was scrambling at the crack of dawn Monday morning to try to order 18,000 gold T-shirts after Chris Paul said that in the postgame Sunday night (obviously that comment was unexpected). I heard fourth-hand that they found a few places that had a few thousand gold shirts in a warehouse, but eventually we realized it was going to be impossible to pull it together in time to get 18,000. It’s possible they could have ordered less than they needed, but then we would’ve had the problem of people not being able to participate in something we wanted to be for the entire Arena.
We probably could’ve clarified what color fans are supposed to wear, but that announcement could’ve been a little potentially awkward: “Guys, even though Chris Paul said wear gold to the game, don’t bother because we couldn’t get the T-shirts printed this late. If you want to wear gold on your own though, cool.” haha.
Maybe we can figure this out better down the road when a similar situation arises. Remember this is our first playoffs in a little while! haha.
Ahhh… I figured it was going to be something like that! Oh well. Guess CP should have picked teal… haha. I figured he said that off the top of his head… after he said it, we looked at each other and said, “But we don’t have yellow!! They better be giving something out.”
It’s nice to know they tried. Next time!
I still think the official Jordan Brand CP3 MVP shirts were quite awesome. I wish I could’ve nabbed an official one, at non-eBay prices. Preferably with the purchase of a ticket, haha.
I may be an old fart, but I say bring back the purp! My purple wardrobe is lacking, and I need one to match some shoes.
I still think they should make the heads on a stick for the starting five, just have them waving the whole game(course then only the front row would be able to see the game) okay okay so not that…. hmmmm….
Okay so I was watching the press conference for byron scott today and I just have to ask to see if I’m going crazy. Does anyone else get this george w. bush vibe from george shin……I’m not sure why I get it but I do.
To the crowd’s credit tonight, it was kind of a Mardi Gras collage. Almost all the fans had teal, white, gold, or purple on tonight. I’ll settle for that. Because they were vicious tonight and were on their feet for the entire fourth quarter. Wooo!!!
Thanks ticktock. By the way, it’s amazing to me how many times stuff like this has come up over the past couple years, where people think that the Hornets org did something (or didn’t do something), because of speculation that assumed things that weren’t actually the case.
I could write a book on this subject, but to use one really good example, when Julian Wright did his rookie photo shoot and his jersey had an OKC patch on it, we got a bunch of e-mails from angry people who were disgusted that the patch appeared on his jersey in the pictures. Unfortunately, the Hornets org had ZERO role in that photo shoot, which was being held near New York City, and those jerseys were ordered months earlier.
As much as I’d like to throw the league under a bus and blame them, the Hornets are only one of their 30 teams. The NBA definitely didn’t think it through and say to themselves, “Hey, this Hornets jersey we’re ordering has the OKC patch, but by the time we do this photo shoot in July, the Hornets will be back full-time in New Orleans. And their uniforms in 2007-08 will NOT have the OKC patch. So we better call back that order and get a Hornets jersey that doesn’t have an OKC patch!” It was more like “order the 30 team jerseys for the rookie thing. Oh, they’re already here? Good. Then take the darn pictures. What are you waiting for?” haha.
Then when the NBA started posting the pictures on the internet, I got 20 e-mails from fans who, because of the presence of the patch in the photo shoot, are a) threatening to cancel their season tickets, b) demanding that we immediately photo-shop the pictures and/or c) demanding we fire whoever was responsible for the photo shoot. A few other e-mails came from people who were miffed at Julian. A couple weeks earlier, before he got picked, he probably wasn’t even totally sure what the Hornets’ team colors were! haha.
There are several other instances where something similar to this happened, but like I said, you’ll have to wait for my certain to be best-selling book to come out. Haha. I realize people criticizing is part of the territory and we are not perfect (like any business), but I’m sure you can understand how it would be a tad frustrating at times when this situation arises periodically.
As mentioned though, I love Hornets Hype! Keep up the good work. This is some of the best “grassroots” marketing of the team around.
I had a very similar conversation at the game last night, about the color confusion. I heard CP ask for gold, which I don’t have, so I wore white, halfway expecting to be handed a yellow shirt at the door. My buddies didn’t hear CP, so they both wore teal. In the end, the arena was dotted with teal, gold and white. Not weirdly intimidating, but still showing the important kind of unity, which is a sold out crowd in team colors. I do want a gold shirt though. Just don’t make it saturday, since I have to be out of town!
The Peja lollipops are the best thing I’ve seen in a long time. I’m against making heads on sticks for the rest of the team, but I’m in favor of different but equally weird promos for other players. Or just keeping it for Peja alone, since that is the weirdest thing of all.
Jim–
I can imagine that drives the Hornets org crazy. Especially because certain NOLA fans are very quick to jump on any imagined or unimagined OKC slights. Even down to the H at center court which to this day you still hear griping about (FDB next year, though? please? I love that thing!)
Blaming the rookie for what his jersey says… that’s a crazy story. Oh, people.
Yeah, I don’t get the OKC antipathy myself. They were great enough to give our team a home for a few years. Obviously Mr. Shinn picked the right time to come back. So personally, I wish the OKC people good luck with the Sonics or with whomever they end up.
The FDB logo seems to be a huge hit with a lot of people, which is great. I have no scientific evidence, but I’ve noticed by looking around the arena that most of the new team apparel I see people wearing has the FDB on it, instead of the dribbling Hugo logo. I imagine you may have already heard this, but the team had been hoping to change center court to the FDB for the 07-08 season.
But the FDB ended up being added on the sides of the court. I think part of it not being set was because they had been working on the concept for the FDB for a while and decided on the final version in maybe August (or was it September?).
This is a whole other topic altogether, but that’s one example of why we are so looking forward to a full summer of planning for 2008-09. Nothing should be last-minute anymore. A big chunk of last summer was spent moving everyone here, as well as filling the various job openings in various departments that resulted from staff deciding to stay in Oklahoma and/or accepting jobs with other sports teams.
Then again, we’d be happy if the summer planning doesn’t start until late June, either, if you know what I mean…
I’d be happy too!
Totally. For one, (and with all due respect to the Hugo-logo), I am cool with the FDB replacing it. First of all, it’s meaner. The current bee looks so cartoonish and friendly. To use a D-League reference, your mascot’s gotta go Mad Ant on people. No one fears the Nice Ant. Or bee. Plus, it creates a bond with the city, by incorporating the fleur-de-lis. (And with our cross-street friends, the Saints, as well.) Plus, I hear Chad Shinn designed it…so…I’m guessing he’s impartial. Now all we need is Chris Shinn’s band to come up with a new Hornets theme song.