Earlier this month, I wrote an article about the Pelicans.com domain name. Pelicans.com was owned by a band called “The Pelicans,” and they listed the domain name for sale with domain brokerage Media Options with a $125,000 asking price.
I wondered whether the NBA’s New Orleans basketball team would purchase Pelicans.com because the team nickname was changing from Hornets to Pelicans next season. It would make sense to own the exact match domain name, especially since the league already owns so many other .com exact match team names.
Very recently, the registrant information for Pelicans.com changed, and it’s now showing Marksmen, Inc. as the registrant. Marksmen is a company that often acquires domain names on behalf of large clients. Although I don’t have information about whether the NBA or the New Orleans basketball team acquired the domain name, I would guess that they did.
The landing page for Pelicans.com doesn’t give anything away, as it’s currently a Internet Traffic PPC page with a “for sale” notice at the top and a link to the Pelican’s (band) website. If the NBA did buy it, it makes sense that it’s not directed anywhere since the Hornets are still playing, and the team name change doesn’t take place until the offseason in a couple of months.
I reached out to Andrew Rosener of Media Options, and he wasn’t able to tell me who bought the domain name. According to Rosener, “we reached out to all the potential buyers including the NBA team and we feel it ended up in the right hands but I can’t comment on the buyer or price unfortunately.” I also reached out to Marksmen via Cyntia King (who is listed as the registrant), and as with all of their acquisitions Marksmen has strict confidentiality agreements, so she wasn’t able to offer any details.
I’ll be keeping my eye on the registrant information to see if the NBA did acquire Pelicans.com. If they didn’t, they missed out on a big opportunity. No matter who bought Pelicans.com, the deal materialized pretty rapidly, so kudos to Media Options for that.
Interestingly, the NBA recently became the registrant of NewOrleansPelicans.com, which had been owned by someone else.
Good story!
Hi Elliot:
I have heard through the grapevine that an actual group of pelicans from Pelican Hill, CA (on the coast of Southern California) are in process of acquiring the domain name. They are in process of doing an llc, arranging for level b financing and have signed a lease on a 20,000 square foot office and fulfillment center in Newport Beach. Really!
E, I looked at the whois and see what you mean.. I certainly hope you are correct, either that or a buyer just spent 6 figures to change to a parked page with basketball ads lol
You can’t make this stuff up.