Huge breaking news. Straight from the Hornets website:
May 3: Hornets vs. Spurs, 9:00 p.m.
Giveaway: Gold “Fan Up New Orleans” T-Shirt, courtesy of Toyota (everyone in attendance)
Peja Stojakovic Head (everyone in attendance)
Yes! Seriously! No joke.
Oh wow, so let me get this straight. We’re going to have CP3’s “Gold Out” on Saturday… the game is at 9 PM, meaning everyone will be Jazzfesting/partying in the street all evening beforehand… and… and Pejas on sticks! This is almost too much for HornetsHype to handle.
The Hornets are also not messing around with the Buzzfest. Dollar beers will start flowing at the fine, fresh hour of 6:30. Except if you’re a season ticketholder. Then you’ll get the only thing better than a dollar beer. And what’s the only thing better than a dollar beer?
Yeah, you know it.
(Edited: This is just indicative of the kind of fan I am. mW just walked through the door and I said I just posted huge breaking news. He was like, “Chris Paul is MVP?” I was like, “Dude, Peja on a STICK!” … yeah. It’s a good thing y’all don’t come here for deeply compelling statistical analysis.)
I cant go Saturday but have tix for Game 2. I WANT A PEJA ON A STICK! Im a fully recovered Kings fan thanks to the Serb Sniper. Someone please collect one before I make a vain attempt at making one. You dont want me to try to do crafts….trust me on that.
GEAUX HORNETS!
I’m loving the giveaway. It’s like Christmas in May.
Hilarious! Hopefully he doesn’t laugh his ass off when he sees everyone waving it.
Gosh, I hate not being in New Orleans.
I’m not sure what the Peja-on-a-stick is going to accomplish, but they’d better talk about this during the game on TV. Never seen an organization appeal to the fans like this. Ever. Needless to say, I’m thoroughly impressed and amused. <3 Hornets.
Peja will hopefully be told ahead of time. Otherwise, he might actually shit himself on the floor.
I’m afraid if I hold up the Peja head, then Bruce Bowen might kick my hand by mistake!
No whistle either.
haha $nave. Have you gone onto youtube.com and searched Bruce Bowen? For the record, I’ve seen Wally Szczerbiak (amazing), Amaré, Steve Nash, CP, and Ray Ray in the famous Bruce-Bowen-kicks-player series.
Volume two of the series features such moves as undercuts and entanglements with stars like Steve Francis, Jamal Crawford, Anthony Parker, and Vince Carter.
But favourite Bruce Bowen moment (and the music is similarly glorious): http://youtube.com/v/XhTjSrZi91Y&feature=related
its called a serbsicle…and i want one
Can’t take any credit for the Peja head idea or the Saturday promotion(s) including the gold shirts, but I will definitely tell those responsible “job well done.” Mark, it is great from the org’s standpoint for you to say what you did about “never seen a team appeal to its fans like this.”
Honestly, I feel like this is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of what you’re going to be seeing in the future. Wait until we get a full summer to prepare and another year to get further established in NOLA. It’s huge for everyone to put down roots here and make all of the different connections with fans, other New Orleans businesses, sponsors, etc. Next thing you know, you end up with 18,000 Peja heads on sticks… haha.
In the meantime, if you’re in the CBD today, I just got this e-mail so stop by if you can:
New Orleans’ favorites the Soul Rebels, Hugo and the Honeybees will lead a special ‘Fan Up Friday’ second line through the French Quarter. ‘Fan Up’ signs and Peja heads will add to the march.
The ‘Fan Up Friday’ second line will begin at 11:30 a.m. at Café Du Monde and conclude at the corner of Canal Street and South Peters, at Harrah’s.
T-shirts, rally towels and static clings will be given away to those who participate in the ‘Fan Up Friday’ second line.
The entire city of New Orleans is encouraged to ‘Fan Up’ and wear Hornets gear to show their pride as the team begins the second round of the NBA playoffs.
Tell them we love it!
There’s been some great stuff so far, and I know it’s only going to get better. I feel like this year is already a win… anything more from now on is just icing on the cake. Read today that season ticket sales are going really well too!
Im part of the demographic that is impossible to market to. With that in mind, the Hornets as an organization has totally sold me. I wasnt even annoyed when I was getting the marketing calls early in the season. They never caught me at home and I almost called back to apologize for not being afford that much change at one time. I have bought a t-shirt or something every game Ive been to. I had to choose between the playoffs and Jazzfest this year and the choice wasnt even close.
The Hornets as an organization has been as brilliant as the team this year.
Matt– Ditto on the Jazzfest. I didn’t even look at the lineup, because we’d already bought the playoff tickets.
I think I’ve had more opportunities to go to special stuff before games… go to practice… meet the players… get things free… than is reasonable to expect from any team. I’ve seen people griping on the forums that there should be more stuff around town, more visibility… uh, hello. It obviously goes both ways. Because if you’d gone to even ONE playoff event, you’d have gotten more playoff giveaways (signs, decals, t shirts) than you could possibly need. I mean, what do you want? You want them to come to your house personally?
We’ve got this space behind our entertainment center that’s full of extra freebies, signs, 8 million thunderstix, and all the other stuff we’ve gotten multiples of over the last 2 months.
I got one of the decals from one of the stilt-walkers at Game 2 but I dindt know what it was for (shirt? car? lawn?). I went to the trouble of asking someone at Game 5 what they were (they ARENT disposable! Theyre Hornets stuff!).
Ticktock, I sent you a message on flickr that linked to my hornets pics.
Mine’s in my car. It clings nicely.
I had to crumple mine up in my camera bag, so Ill have to try and make it flat again :/
From personal experience, Mavericks games did not offer too much freebies, though that is to be expected from a regular season game against lower-seed playoff teams. We got gift cards for a gambling site, a flimsy team manual, and those annoying hand-clapper things. Way back when when the Mavs sucked dearly, I remember a giveaway of official rubber-sized basketballs for children under 13 or so (which I still have!), and I have the utmost appreciation for small things like that.
The reason I’m proud of this organization’s catering is that you cannot blame the organization anymore for not trying to hype the fans. The last few seasons I was tired and disgusted with the low turnouts for games (heck, even stemming back to Charlotte), but I talked with a friend earlier today from NOLA and her Nawlins native folks didn’t know of a basketball team until late in the season. I’m even hyped by the Peja-on-a-stick wallpaper. Eccentric, much like the city itself!
Only thing I really wish is for some freebies for myself (do the Hornets offer some fan-pack?). Being out of state for a team you root for is special in that you’re practically the only fan, but I wish I could show more love outside of T-shirts and printed Predrag heads on my door.
Love what you guys have to say about the promotions and giveaways by the team. I have been surprised by the extent of some of it myself, after experiencing some of what NBA teams in the Northeast (where I’m originally from) do.
What’s even better is that there will probably actually be MORE freebies in future Hornets seasons if the team continues to be successful on and off the court, not fewer. One of the reasons we have more giveaways than many NBA teams (I would say it’s more than “all” NBA teams, but I don’t have the across-the-board knowledge of what other franchises do to verify it…..) is because the sponsors of the team have been great.
The more successful the team is, the more people attend the games, the more they watch it on TV, etc. – the more sponsors want to be a part of the Hornets, because the sponsors know they are getting bang for their buck in terms of advertising (because a lot of fans are seeing the ads). When that happens, you have more and more companies who will gladly sponsor giveaways, or even come up with their own ideas for Hornets giveaways, such as the Geico caveman masks.
Honestly, I don’t remember ever seeing multiple quality giveaways from an NBA team at the same game before coming to the Hornets. I was always happy in Toronto, Philly or NJ to get something like a schedule magnet or an autograph card.
Your insight certainly provides a much more fleshed out picture of the organization, so I always look forward to reading your comments, Jim.
While the results are positively wonderful, it’s actually still a little disappointing that this involvement of the organization is based on performance. Which, obviously, fits the standard business model, but as a die-hard fan, I see some room for dedicated improvement.
The only potential problem is fan expectations. While they deserve to expect greatness from the team, even I’m overestimating what I would/could get at a game (my size Peja-on-a-stick? I shall expect this EVERY game!). But hey, something is better than nothing, and certainly while the ride is lasting, the fans have been getting TONS more than something.
Again, you can tell I’m envious of those in NOLA, but that just shows how much love is going into this team, which is 180 degrees from the start of the season (not 360 degrees. I’m looking at you, Jason Kidd). Can’t hate on that.
Thanks Mark. As I’ve said before, I really do like this site and based on the premise of why it was created, they deserve major thanks from the Hornets for the effort and time they are putting in to (their words) “spreading the love for the Hornets.” I like that there is so much discussion here about non-basketball stuff. I am the biggest NBA fan you ever could meet, but you can get basketball talk on about 5 billion other sites.
Mark, regarding your last post, I hear what you’re saying, but unfortunately there isn’t a whole lot the org can do about people expecting more and more and more. The only thing it can do is keep providing worthwhile giveaways and hope people enjoy them, so they will go home after the game and say “Wow, I got all of this great stuff from the Hornets, in addition to getting to watch the game.”
I’d like to clarify, because it’s not really the “involvement of the organization” that I was talking about that is based on success of the team. The involvement of the organization has been immense, even back in August or Sept., when the team hadn’t played a game yet or sold a ton of season tickets. Even the team website writer was driving around near where I live, dropping off boxes of pocket schedules at area businesses, gas stations and other places where a lot of people would see them, so hopefully casual fans or non-fans would know the Hornets were back and when the games were going to be played, in case they wanted to go.
We committed to a ton of grassroots marketing efforts before anything positive had happened basketball-wise. There are a zillion other things I could point to, but from my standpoint, I came up with the idea in the summer of making sure we had articles about fans in the game program for every home game (anyone who has been to a game this season has probably noticed those features). Next season don’t be surprised if that becomes an even bigger part of our program. The Fan Up concept has exploded, so it’s a no-brainer to me. I hope to commit to getting a lot more of them done in the summer when we have much more time to work on long-term projects.
The game program – which as many of you know, is free – also gets bigger and bigger page-wise depending on the number of sponsors who want to buy ads in there (more sponsors, more ads, more pages – more articles for fans to read). Which brings me back to my original point…… that the involvement of sponsors helps the Hornets deliver all of these “extras” that fans are getting. The point I was making was that as much as fans are hopefully happy with things now, it should get better because of more outside companies buying in and being excited about the Hornets.
Thanks for clarifying Jim. To reiterate, I am not in New Orleans, so it’s difficult for me to gauge ANYTHING Hornets-related, given the lack of media support, and obvious locational discrepancies.
I’m glad to hear of the organization’s involvement with the community, especially regarding the team website writer. Again, I’m not in NOLA, so I’m appreciative of you telling me this, because honestly, I didn’t see much support early in the season, with or outside media. I only recently discovered hornetshype (via hornets247), so this allows me to check on the smaller things that make up our happy little Hornets community. Or nest, if you will.
Hailing from Dallas, we’ve been spoiled by good basketball ongoing many years, so again, our Hornets recent success is a breath of fresh air for me. Here’s hoping the league and the organization will push for more success in the upcoming seasons, cause I know I’ll be rooting, Peja-on-a-stick or no (by the way, I still want one)!
Thanks for the praise for the site Jim. Both ticktock and I feel like the Hornets team and the Hornets organization have made it easy to love them. I’ve always liked basketball and just happen to live in Nola. But ticktock wouldn’t have even been a fan if I didn’t get a pair of tickets for the season. That should tell you how successful the team has been on both fronts. Now we’re having so much fun reporting the “other side” of the sport.
The Hornets this year have been amazing: they’ve put together not only a talented set of athletes, but a set of real good people. Meanwhile, the organization as a whole has embodied everything New Orleans, making it its true home, and managing to master the bon vivant mentality while concomitantly intertwining it with good business sense. Every move they’ve made has been genius: from renegotiating their lease deal to their promotions to their slogans to their several programs, most recently Fan Up.
Passion. Purpose. Pride. It speaks to the team. It speaks to the organization. It speaks to the city. It speaks to their fans.
Does anybody know if i can get a Peja-on-a-stick in the UK it’s a nightmare trying to get anything over here that’s hornets cos they aren’t marquee like the knicks or the lakers, infact anything playoffs new orleans style would be great, i wish i could be over there for the playoffs but i can’t get there this season but i’m going to watch the hornets on europe live tour so hopefully the stars are gonna be out for that, also does anybody know a way i could get some hornets games shown on the net? cos i’ve only managed to see 3 all season and the rest of the time i’ve had to listen to the listen live radio link on nba.com
David – I think there’s usually some illegal internet feed where you can get video… but I’ve never watched it. Someone on HornetsReport would probably know.
Everyone who doesn’t live here – Maybe if I can get my hands on some extra freebies, I’ll send them your way. I’m not saying it’s a definite, but I’ll try.
hey david, i was once in the UK and i know how desperate
you might be
If you email me at pantouflas_at_hotmail i’ll tell you how
you can watch everything
cheers mate
vas
Thanks for_internationals!
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