Meanwhile in Atlanta

[elocomotive]

Fair points the article makes:
-Fan support wasn't that awful (they averaged 85-90% attendance for several seasons, though most years they were closer to 70% and 13,000+ averages) and could have been better with better ownership
-The NHL is keeping the sinking, failing Coyotes in Phoenix (a problem for years) while suddenly yanking the Thrashers.

Fair counters:
-Nobody in Atlanta was going to buy this team, especially with no concession/arena revenue in the picture. The business is losing money, the owners want to shed it, and the fans/business leaders of the area did nothing extraordinary (or even ordinary) to save it.
-Fan support has not been that great either - the Blue Jackets have a very similar performance history, are a much smaller town, and have pummeled the Thrashers in attendance.

 

[dash]

Good news for Winnipeg fans (a tweet from James Mirtle):

Don Waddell: "I am not moving to Winnipeg."

 

[Comeds]

Good news for Winnipeg fans (a tweet from James Mirtle):

Don Waddell: "I am not moving to Winnipeg."

That really is the best news for them. The Thrashers had one season with a real GM, and Atlanta wont get to see the turnaround. Waddell was awful.

I just disagree with the notion that the fans did not support a winning franchise in Atlanta, for 12 seasons it was normally not a good franchise at all. It had a few shining moments of competitiveness.

 

[Comeds]

Damn it! I was just watching the entire season on the DVR and was only up to mid-December. Here I thought Atlanta was going to take the division, Crosby was going to win the Ross by 50 points, and Philly was going to win the Cup!

Oh well, at least I can see how those other two play out.

Sorry, I do not think this site allows the use if spoiler tags.

Do they?

Spoiler

Nope!

 

[elocomotive]

I think I figured out why things never worked for Atlanta. Their coaching strategy was flawed.



Together for every pass? You gotta spread it out more! Together for every hit? Well who's defending the other four skaters?

 

[sabresfaninthesouth]

Good news for Winnipeg fans (a tweet from James Mirtle):

Don Waddell: "I am not moving to Winnipeg."

He could just be planning to screw things up remotely.

Not sure he could do any worse, even if he doesn't see a single home game all season.

 

[flyersfan4706]

Too bad Kovy isnt with them anymore. Would have been fun to see him go up there for a really hungry fanbase

 

[beantownmaniac]

...um sorry Boss, but that isn't necessary
The Falcons, Hawks, and Braves do pretty nice. We are mediocre in attendance for each fanbase EXCEPT the Thrash. But not horrible...I'll try to find some stats.

The Thrashers filled the arena to 73% on average this season. The Hawks were in the 87% area I believe, the Falcons were at 94% or so last season, the Braves are sadly around 55%. You can get these numbers from the swamp.

 

[beantownmaniac]

But that happened all the time with that team and there was always a big collapse. If that happens frequently why would anyone expect last year to be different (spoiler alert- It wasn't) ?

With the exodus of players, with the same people who ran the team poorly for so long still involved with the team I do not blame the fans for not getting excited about a hot start.

Some markets with "great" fans can not attend games when the team is bad and its a because they are protesting the ownership or some such nonsense, but when a team in a "non hockey" market does poorly and fans don't attend games when the team is bad that's because they are bad fans.

I love the NHL but if I lived in Atlanta and was a fan of the Thrashers I am not sure how much of my money the team would get every year.

Please don't say you're comparing the situation to Wirtz. He was routinely voted the worse owner in sports, not just the NHL.

 

[beantownmaniac]

Fair points the article makes:
-Fan support wasn't that awful (they averaged 85-90% attendance for several seasons, though most years they were closer to 70% and 13,000+ averages) and could have been better with better ownership
-The NHL is keeping the sinking, failing Coyotes in Phoenix (a problem for years) while suddenly yanking the Thrashers.

Fair counters:
-Nobody in Atlanta was going to buy this team, especially with no concession/arena revenue in the picture. The business is losing money, the owners want to shed it, and the fans/business leaders of the area did nothing extraordinary (or even ordinary) to save it.
-Fan support has not been that great either - the Blue Jackets have a very similar performance history, are a much smaller town, and have pummeled the Thrashers in attendance.

the NHL doesn't own the thrashers, that's why. It just pisses me off that Bettmann didn't even try to help Atlanta the way he does Phoenix.

 

[DaBoltsNIsles]

If Don Waddell had a clue about building a hockey team the Thrashers never would have moved. He had superstar players like Kovalchuk, Hossa & Heatley on the roster granted not at the same time because Hossa & Heatley were traded for each other, but he couldn't put a decent team around them.

They only made the playoffs once in team history & got their butts kicked in round 1.

Winnipeg has some good young players on their roster in Kane, Burmistrov & Bogosian. Other than that the farm system is weak. There's a reason why Dudley said this offseason he may have to look at the RFA market for a top 6 forward. What they really need is a #! & #2 center. I mean when Nik Antropov is your teams 1st line center you really don't have a chance.

 

[sabresfaninthesouth]

Please don't say you're comparing the situation to Wirtz. He was routinely voted the worse owner in sports, not just the NHL.

His reference could apply to a lot of situations.

Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Boston to name a few traditional market teams that suffered bad attendance based on off-the-ice issues or poor performance.

Go back a bit further to Edmonton's problems in the early 90s. The North Stars relocation. Hartford's relocation.

 

[DaBoltsNIsles]

the NHL doesn't own the thrashers, that's why. It just pisses me off that Bettmann didn't even try to help Atlanta the way he does Phoenix.

When the city of Atlanta says they can make more money on events in the Arena if the Hockey team leaves what is Bettman supposed to do?

 

[BostonAJ]

Why does Canada always have to kick Atlanta in the balls? You're gonna find yourself with a peach embargo pretty soon.

 

[pixburgher66]

I do wonder why Bettman is so set on keeping Phoenix in town but moved Atlanta quite quickly...but, I think the biggest difference THERE is that PHX has an owner who wants to keep them in town, it's merely the city that's causing issues. They couldn't find a buyer in town, they already went down the road of buying a team and waiting for an owner in town (PHX), and basically don't want to support another struggling team. I don't think they should've ever bought PHX to begin with, now every time a situation like this comes along, the automatic response is "NHL come save us!"

 

[flyersfan4706]

Anybody see the episode of The Office when Michael goes to Winnipeg? Reminds me of this...

 

[DaBoltsNIsles]

I do wonder why Bettman is so set on keeping Phoenix in town but moved Atlanta quite quickly...but, I think the biggest difference THERE is that PHX has an owner who wants to keep them in town, it's merely the city that's causing issues. They couldn't find a buyer in town, they already went down the road of buying a team and waiting for an owner in town (PHX), and basically don't want to support another struggling team. I don't think they should've ever bought PHX to begin with, now every time a situation like this comes along, the automatic response is "NHL come save us!"

Actually the city wants to keep them in town. Glendale has two state of the art arenas. One houses the Suns the other has the Coyotes. The city of Glendale believes the loss of the Coyotes would hurt the city in a big way in terms of jobs. Hotels, restaurants & the like would lose a lot of business & be forced to lay people off. This is why they were so willing to give the NHL another 25 million. & apparently will do so until an Owner can be found.

 

[Eddie_Shack]

My gut feeling is that NHL hockey wasn't going to work in Atlanta. Maybe if you kept the team there and sustained a loss for 20 years, all while pouring money into youth hockey... yeah, then it might have flourished. If we had 29 other healthy franchises, that would have been a great option to build the sport in a huge US market. But it wasn't an option.

If I was a Thrashers fan, I would be pissed. Florida and Phoenix are also on borrowed time and have been given MUCH more time to succeed, and in fact have had much better teams and players to rally around. Yet attendance in all markets has been comparable.

Much like what's happening in Phoenix, if they had somehow kept the team in Atlanta they would have just been delaying the inevitable.