Erie BayHawks (2019–)


The Erie BayHawks are an American professional basketball team of the NBA G League and an affiliate of the New Orleans Pelicans of the National Basketball Association. Based in Erie, Pennsylvania, the team began play in 2019 and plays their home games at the Erie Insurance Arena. The New Orleans Pelicans plan to relocate their G League franchise to Birmingham, Alabama, to play at a renovated Legacy Arena by 2022.

History

On March 30, 2017, the New Orleans Pelicans announced their intentions to have an owned-and-operated development team by the 2018–19 season located in the Gulf South region. The organization then announced they were looking at 11 different locations: Mobile in Alabama; Alexandria, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Monroe, Shreveport, St. Tammany Parish in Louisiana; Gulfport-Biloxi and Jackson in Mississippi; and Pensacola, Florida. The list was narrowed when the Pelicans' received six proposals their April 25 deadline: Baton Rouge, Jackson, Mobile, Pensacola, Shreveport, and St. Tammany Parish. By August 2017, the only two cities still in contention were Pensacola and Shreveport. On September 12, the city council in Shreveport unanimously voted against building a new arena for the G League. By March 7, 2018, the Pelicans' general manager Dell Demps stated they had put their efforts in creating a G League team on hold after Pensacola was the only remaining candidate from the submissions. The possibility of expansion was further complicated by the death of Pelicans' owner Tom Benson on March 15.
On October 24, 2018, the Pelicans announced plans to place their G League team in Birmingham, Alabama by 2022. The team will play at Legacy Arena located in the Birmingham–Jefferson Convention Complex. As the arena needs to be renovated, the Pelicans' affiliate will begin play during the 2019–20 season as the Erie BayHawks after the Atlanta Hawks' affiliate, also playing as the BayHawks, moves to College Park.

Season by season

Head coaches

Current roster