Erie BayHawks

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.[5] 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.[6] The list was narrowed when the Pelicans' received six proposals their April 25 deadline: Baton Rouge, Jackson, Mobile, Pensacola, Shreveport, and St. Tammany Parish.[7] By August 2017, the only two cities still in contention were Pensacola and Shreveport.[8] On September 12, the city council in Shreveport unanimously voted against building a new arena for the G League.[9] 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.[10] The possibility of expansion was further complicated by the death of Pelicans' owner Tom Benson on March 15.[11]

On October 24, 2018, the Pelicans announced plans to place their G League team in Birmingham, Alabama, by 2022 and play at Legacy Arena located in the Birmingham–Jefferson Convention Complex. As the arena needs to be renovated, the Pelicans' affiliate began play for the 2019–20 season as the Erie BayHawks after the Atlanta Hawks' affiliate, which had previously been playing as the BayHawks, was relocated to College Park, Georgia.[12][13] On December 9, 2020, the New Orleans Pelicans announced a name-the-team contest.[14]

• BayHawks website