Deal not done to sell and move Thrashers
While negotiations between the Atlanta Spirit and True North Sports and Entertainment continue, no deal has been reached to sell the Thrashers and relocate the team to Winnipeg.
Despite a published report Thursday night saying a deal was done and would be announced Tuesday, officials with the Thrashers, True North and the NHL said no such agreement has been reached.
Several Thrashers officials told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Thursday that the report was unfounded. The Winnipeg Free Press reported that a high-ranking True North official denied the report.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, speaking earlier in the day on NHL Live, said no deal has been made to move the Thrashers to Winnipeg– and criticized reports of a possible move. However, he did not rule out relocation unless someone steps forward to own the team here.
“We get reports, speculation, that the team’s gone. And there’s no deal,” Bettman said. “I can tell you that with certainty that there is no deal for this team to move. Am I predicting that there will never be or that there won’t be at some point in time? No, I’m not saying there is or there isn’t.”
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly also issued a denial. “The Board has not been asked to consider nor approve any transaction involving the sale and/or possible relocation of the Atlanta Thrashers’ franchise. Any suggestion to the contrary is entirely untrue.”
The Thrashers and True North have been in active negotiations, as reported by the AJC. The team is also searching for a buyer willing to keep the team in Atlanta. However with time running out to find local ownership, a deal with True North could be reached in the near future. A move to relocate the franchise would have to be made soon in order to begin play next season.
Bettman said the NHL always wants to keep a team in its current market but must have an owner to operate it there.
“The decision as to whether or not to move a club doesn’t come out of looking at two markets and saying, ‘This market would be better than that market,’” he said. “We try to keep our clubs where they are. And if it is ultimately determined that a club has to move, generally the reason . . . is because nobody wants to own a team there anymore, nobody wants to fund the losses and [the current owner] can’t find a buyer.”
The Thrashers’ ownership group has said that it faces a “sense of urgency” to shed the team’s operating losses and that if a buyer can’t be found to keep the team in Atlanta, relocation is a possibility.
The first two callers to Bettman’s show, broadcast on satellite radio and the Internet, were Thrashers fans. The first said Atlanta will support a hockey team if ownership meets the fans halfway by putting a competitive product on the ice.
“I understand and respect that,” Bettman said, “but the key to this may be, in the final analysis, whether or not somebody wants to own the team in Atlanta. In the absence of either the current ownership group continuing to own and operate or somebody stepping forward who wants to buy the club, that becomes the situation that concerns us or any sports league.
“We’ll only leave a market - in this case Atlanta, picking up on the caller’s statements – if we have to. And hopefully the current ownership group will figure a way out of this that makes sense for everybody,” he said.
The caller told Bettman that the Thrashers drew strong crowds in their first five seasons and that a fan rally will be held Saturday to show support for the team.
Noting that the Thrashers have ranked near the bottom of the league in attendance the past two seasons, Bettman said: “I understand that there may be dissatisfaction there, but demonstrating your dissatisfaction by not going to games is an interesting strategy. It’s your absolute right. But if it becomes a turnoff for anybody who might want to buy the franchise, the long-term consequences could be severe.
“It will be interesting to see how many people show up at the rally on Saturday,” Bettman said.
He declined to put a deadline on a decision about whether the team will be moved.
“Obviously, as it relates to next season, time is getting short,” he said. “We have to do a schedule. We’re doing a schedule with our broadcast partners; we have to have it done for clubs by the end of June. And it’s not something you can do in 28 or 48 hours.”
- Staff writer Tim Tucker contributed to this report.
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381 comments Add your comment
Attendance a Joke
May 20th, 2011
2:37 pm
Judging the popularity or success/failure of the Thrashers by attendance is a joke. After all, there were 12,000 people at the Blue Jays game last night according to the box score. Of course, TV doesnt lie and there could not have been more than 6,000 people at the game – AT MOST. Toronto is a city of 6M+ people – is baseball just as “niche” and unpopular as hockey in Atlanta? The Blue Jays have not drawn flies in years with what have been .500 teams. Should the Jays be moved?
The BettFather
May 20th, 2011
2:39 pm
Apparently Philips Arena has 96 luxury suites (approx twice as many as MTS Centre) and 2,893 club seats. MTS Centre would also be the smallest home arena in the NHL with capacity of 15,015. This past Sept an exhibition game between the Stanley Cup Champs Chicago Blackhawks & TB Lightning didn’t even sell out at MTS Centre.
So Todb, how are these numbers going to work again?
The BettFather
May 20th, 2011
2:42 pm
Dude, 41+% is pretty darn close to 50%:
The average Canadian family spent more than 41 per cent of its annual income on taxes in 2010, more than it paid for food, clothing, and shelter combined, concludes a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, Canada’s leading public policy think-tank.
is it cold in Canada? Should I wear a jacket?
May 20th, 2011
2:48 pm
Bettman takes a multi-million dollar payoff from the BUYER…..Extorts even more money from the SELLER…..Extorts even more money from the Glendale City Council…..All for what?
For trying to correct two huge mistakes by committing another huger mistake! Letting the OctoCluster own the Thrashers franchise was the first mistake and buying the Phoenix Fiasco was the second one. Now he’s sending the Thrashers off as sacrificial lambs to the coldest place on the entire planet Earth with the smallest market in the league and the smallest arena in the league….Not to mention you have to physically chain your car’s frame to the nearest streetlight in order for it to still be there when you return!
Can anyone say T-R-A-I-N-W-R-E-C-K waiting to happen?
@Thrasherfan
May 20th, 2011
3:00 pm
who cares? Even if I agreed with you that the Jets will lose money, who really gives a damn? Its their money and they’re willing to lose it ( but we won’t ). Phoenix has their Mayor Scruggs handing over good money after bad and now we have the wealthiest owner of any team in ANY sport willing to do the same in Winnipeg.
The fact that you clowns can’t see that times have changed – Cdn dollar worth more than USD – SALARY CAP – and the new Jets owner OWNS THE BUILDING. Those 3 factors alone add up to much more profit for this owner than the previous owner. Had the one fact ALONE that the previous Jets owner didn’t own the building been different, the jets likely never would have moved.
And now you have Spirit selling the arena and the Hawks and the new owners do not want the hockey team – so even if you did find an owner to keep the team in Atlanta they would have to RENT THE BUILDING THAT IS ALREADY LOSING MONEY!!! So they would be paying rent AND not make any money from concessions. THRASHERS ARE GONE GET OVER IT
Winnipeg = Poverty
May 20th, 2011
3:05 pm
@ The BettFather Everybody knows MTS Centre and the tiny hamlet of Winnipeg just isn’t going to work. Is the NHL this desperate? What does that tell the rest of the owners about Bettman to let a deal go through to a place that hasn’t been able and will never be able to support a team. Gary you expanded the NHL much too fast and now you’re trading one headache for another. A town of 730,000 with an arena of only 15,015 just won’t work in league with payrolls of $57 million.
Atlanta Ghetto Slum
May 20th, 2011
3:10 pm
Bettman works for the owners you tool. The owners made the decision. All your BS is great cuz then its really going to sting when season tickets for the ENTIRE STADIUM SELL OUT IN UNDER A WEEK.
And not, you’re only allowed to buy season tickets if you sign up for THREE YEARS.
So lets talk after the 2013/14 season and see where we’re at. In the meantime, losing money or not, we have hockey and you have dog figthing. Enjoy it.
Winnipeg = Poverty
May 20th, 2011
3:30 pm
@ Atlanta Ghetto Slum Wow! I feel so humbled by the Winnipegger who got an education in one of Winnipeg’s one-room schoolhouses. Here’s some questions for you. When is the farm tractor parade down Portage and Main? Will the city of Winnipeg make good on its promise for a free chicken to each Thrasher player that will be willing to play there? Will Thrasher wives and girlfriends still get free horse and buggy rides to the MTS Centre for games?
is it cold in Canada? Should I wear a jacket?
May 20th, 2011
3:47 pm
LOL….Look at all the trash-talking Northerners getting all bent out of shape….That’s simply not good form you know, eh?
You couldn’t sell out MTS when the STANLEY CUP CHAMPS came to play there…LOL And you have the balls to get on an ATLANTA sports blog and rag on ATLANTA fans for their “failure” to support hockey????
Can’t even sell 15,000 lousy once-in-a-season NHL tickets to see the Cup Champions play there and you think you’re going to SELL OUT 15,000 SEASON TICKETS IN UNDER A WEEK? Oh…This is rich stuff guys! LOL
OOPS….Laughing so hard I think I just felt a little pee come out…LOL
You’re not going to be paying for a chance to see the Stanley Cup Champs play every night. You DO understand that right? Your Moose games are probably more competitive than some nights when the Thrashers decide to go out and take the ice….Believe me…Some nights it’s a toss-up for them in the locker room whether they do come out and play or not, and that’s to play in front of an avg of 13,500 per night!
After they lose 15 of their first 20 home games at MTS, you’ll be able to hear a grasshopper fart in that arena. You won’t have to worry about a capacity of “only” 15,000!
Can’t sell out to see the Stanley Cup Champs play but you’re going to sell 15,000 season tickets in less than a week to see the Thrashers play! Oh man….Haven’t heard anything so funny from the Great White North since Bob & Doug McKenzie held a beer fart smelling contest — and they BOTH won! LOL Get it? They’re Canadian……LOL
Winnipeg = fat ankled women
May 20th, 2011
3:56 pm
Lets see how the arena in Winnipeg looks after the team misses the playoffs for the next decade. Although I admit that on a -10 degree night the only competition for entertainment is making a snowman, the simple fact of the matter is that unless the people in the ‘Peg are even more stupid than I thought they too will not support a perennial loser – they will likely just go to a bar, drink some Molson, and watch the Habs.
Anti-G52
May 20th, 2011
4:05 pm
This is becoming just like the Phoenix forums. 100 straight posts as to why Winnipeg shouldn’t have the Thrashers and not 1 post as to why Atlanta should keep them.
Balkin
May 20th, 2011
4:13 pm
Chill-lax everyone. I’m on the phone right now with ASG looking to make a deal for the arena, the basketball team, and ….. what was that other thing they were going to throw in? Oh yeah! That funny sport played on ice.
I got it covered.
NHL Business Model
May 20th, 2011
4:14 pm
The reason why the NHL should stay in Atlanta is simple:
By the NHL leaving a market of 6M to a market of 700K, the value of every franchise just went down. Owners buy teams to make money and the value of the NHL, as a league, is lower when the #8 US TV market leaves and is replaced by a tiny city in Canada. Furthermore, the NHL is on the verge of having 6-8 teams, all in the South and many in large markets such as South Florida, Dallas, and Phoenix that will also either collapse, fall into bankruptcy, or need to move. Unfortunately, there is nowhere to move.
So the bottom line is simple: the same reason for moving into the South is the same reason that leaving is bad for the NHL.
Note the local TV ratings for this season….
http://hfboards.com/showthread.php?t=819013
Chris M.
May 20th, 2011
4:20 pm
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=366374
The prospect of potentially seeing the franchise move from Atlanta to Winnipeg has him divided. On one hand, Mason feels bad about the fans and team employees that would be left behind in Atlanta but it would also give him a chance to live out a dream.
“There’s definitely things that would be really cool about it,” said Mason. “Playing in Canada, for me, it’s something I’ve always wanted to do. It would be really cool.
“Just playing in front of a packed house every night would be awesome.”
We should have invaded in the 1800s....
May 20th, 2011
4:48 pm
Despite being a hockey fan, I’m at the point where I almost want the move to Winnipeg to fall through just so I can go on blogs and taunt all the “Winnipeggers” who troll around here. Lame.
is it cold in Canada? Should I wear a jacket?
May 20th, 2011
5:03 pm
Why should there be ANY posts as to why the Thrashers should stay in Atlanta when the fix is in? I mean, we’re not STUPID you know? We realize we’ve been had. We know the deal was done months ago even though we’re still being lied to every hour on the hour by league officials. The ownership doesn’t want the Thrashers and hasn’t wanted them for at least the past 6 years that they’ve had them on the market. They’ve so run the franchise into the ground that there’s only ONE potential buyer in the entire world that even wants it….And it wasn’t even that buyer’s first choice!
Soon it will be Winnipeggers unable to post a single reason to keep this cursed franchise in their town. Sooner than you think……That day is coming.
Hockey comes home
May 20th, 2011
5:32 pm
For all those Atlantans slagging Winnipeg, at least the Winnipeg Jets/Thrashers won’t be relegated to the back page of the Sports section behind road races, golf, high school football and assorted other Podunk sports. Hockey is coming home where it belongs. Now you have more nights available for tractor pulls at the arena.
Kirk
May 20th, 2011
5:35 pm
In this city for many years, when the product was bad, people would not spend their money. The Braves were a bad product until 1991, when Ted Turner let John Scherholtz run the team. The product improved and people started coming out to games. The Hawks were a bad product and was near relocation until Turner bought the team. The attendence improved once the product was better. The Falcons are the great point: Poor ownership, people would not buy tickets. Arthur Blank buys the team, the product improves, and now the Georgia Dome is sold out every game. Mr. Bettman wants people to spend their money on a neglected product, then says you are damaging the franchise when you do not. Of course Mr. Bettman would never say that the Atlanta Idiots, er, Spirit was the reason the franchis lost value. Bottom line, if we had a properly ran hockey team, there would be no reason to sell this fanchise. Sadly, Mr. Bettman is as ignorant as the Atlanta Idiots, er, Spirit.
Uh....
May 20th, 2011
5:55 pm
some guy from Winnipeg is trash talking about us having tractor pulls? My guess is there are more tractors in Manitoba than there are people.
Eugene
May 20th, 2011
6:26 pm
If the Thrashers move to Winnipeg, it probably will mean Nashville will be moved to the Eastern Conference and Winnipeg will be moved to the Western Conference. Winnipeg will not make the playoffs for at least 5 years if they’re in the Western Conference, we’ll see if the fan support is really there after 10 straight losing seasons.
Hockey comes home
May 20th, 2011
7:15 pm
I’m not from Winnipeg, I am from Toronto. I am just saying that a city that could care less about hockey does not deserve a team. I for one will do my best to buy tickets to the first Winnipeg Thrashers game at the ACC. By the way, hockey tickets aren’t cheaper than tickets to a movie when you live in Canada, we pay up to $400 a seat, and that is in real, Canadian money, not US funny money.
Oh really?
May 20th, 2011
7:38 pm
So, Hockey comes home, you’re not from Winnipeg but you’re spending time trash talking on Atlanta newspaper blogs? I figured there were things to do in Toronto, but I guess not.
If Winnipeg deserves a team so much, why did the Jets decide they couldn’t make money staying there? Because the arena was bad? Well, if it was sold out every night (which is what everyone in Winnipeg claims will happen with the Thrashers), the Jets would have been viable and stayed there.
By your logic, since the Blue Jays don’t draw fans like comparable Major League Baseball teams in the U.S., your city doesn’t deserve them (or the Raptors for that matter). Since Charlotte wants a baseball team, and Seattle wants to get the NBA back, I presume you agree that the Blue Jays and Raptors should pull up stakes and move, correct?
OHL
May 20th, 2011
7:50 pm
If the Raptors left to a US city that was significantly smaller than Toronto’s 4.8 million but had a large urban population that would pay to see NBA, I wouldn’t be saying things like we have 4.8 million people and you don’t. I would understand that it would get far more support if it went to a city that produced NBA basketball players and lots of people played the sport, even though that city is smaller than Toronto. I understand that it makes far more sense for the Grizzlies to be in Memphis than Vancouver.
Eugene, Detroit has already put in a request to move to the Eastern Conference. They complain about it every year and I think they would get it before Nashville, although we can argue all day about what makes more sense. It was already stated that the BoG won’t have time to consider it which is another indicator that this deal is done.
So OHL....
May 20th, 2011
8:34 pm
what about the Blue Jays? Should they move too, or are they not for an “urban population”?
OHL
May 20th, 2011
8:40 pm
Well to get down to it, neither the Blue Jays or the Raptors have the low attendance figures that the Thrashers have. So in that sense, neither of them should move. The Raptors actually do quite well in some years despite not being a playoff contender but I don’t think the Grizzlies did so good.
I don’t see the Blue Jays attendance being as bad as the Thrashers even though they get beat over the head by the Yankees, Red Sox and now even the Rays.
Hockey comes home
May 20th, 2011
9:16 pm
I fully agree with OHL. This is ultimately about dollars and if the Jays and Raptors were in financial trouble and decided to move to Omaha then so be it. My point is that just because Atlanta has a large population, it doesnt mean that it has a right to retain a team in a sport that it doesnt give a rat’s behind about. Pro sports teams should be situated where the locals are rabid fans, not where the sport is treated as a curiousity. Personally, if the NHL deciced to pull out of anything south of the 40th parallel and put another ten teams in Canada (and back in Hartford) then I would fully support that. I would hate to see the demise of Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Buffalo, New York Rangers, the Wild/Stars, and Philly but I could care less about the Panthers, Yotes, etc….
Give it a break
May 20th, 2011
9:49 pm
Not sure what the Canadians on this blog want, like Atlanta hockey fans are going to applaud their team moving anywhere else. Of course we want them to stay. And no, your protestations about how the people of Manitoba will pack the arena to the gills in perpetuity even if the team goes through a decade of futility like it has here holds no water. If that was the case, and would ensure the financial viability of an NHL franchise in Winnipeg, the Jets would still be there. The Jets left for the same reason the Thrashers will probably leave here – the NHL doesn’t work as a business in the metro area.
As for the trash talking, the only explanation I can find for people getting some sort of satisfaction by taunting disappointed fans in another city is that it’s a bunch of Canadians yet again manifesting their national inferiority complex. Yes, it’s true that the history of the world would be absolutely no different if Canada was part of the United States (as Canadian Paul Shaffer said himself on David Letterman one time), and that other than British Columbia, there’s not a place up there that anyone would live if they had a choice. The obvious issues that causes the Canadians to exhibit on this blog are unfortunate, but you really ought to find another, more productive way to deal with them than coming on here taunting hockey fans in another city.
Hockey in Atlanta
May 21st, 2011
12:16 am
I will be tickled to death when most, or maybe none, of the current Thrashers players want to relocate to Winnipeg assuming the sale and move of the team goes through. Then what ?
Hockey in Atlanta
May 21st, 2011
12:35 am
Tweets by AJC hockey writer Chris Vivlamore:
Sorry folks, talks between #Thrashers and TSNE continue but no deal is complete. 10 hours ago
AJC is told talks continue on sale of #Thrashers, but no deal is complete. 10 hours ago
Fans still planning to attend Thrashers’ select-a-seat event http://bit.ly/jWnUhZ 10 hours ago
New #Thrashers blog posted. Fans still plan to attend select-a-seat event. http://bit.ly/kp8WD6 10 hours ago
I’ve been told the #Thrashers are still selling season tickets – with at least one being sold Friday.
Harry in Roswell
May 21st, 2011
10:15 am
LOL “Give it a break” at @9:49 last night. You are right about the inferiority complex. I lived in Ontario for two years for work, and every Canadian I got to know had exactly that.
One thing no one rooting for Winnipeg on this blog has explained is why the Jets left if Winnipeg is the world’s greatest place for hockey. If the arena – whatever it was at the time – was packed every night, then why did the Jets go to Arizona?
Flames Fan
May 21st, 2011
7:30 pm
When I think back on the Atlanta Flames (30+ years after they left town), names like Eric Vail, Willie Plett, Guy Chouinard, Curt Bennett, Tom Lysiak, Boom Boom Gef, Jiggs McDonald come to mind. I could name a bunch more (Tim Echolstone, Bill Clement, Dan Bouchard…).
Should I think back on the Thrashers many years from now, I will think of Illya Kovalchuck, Danny Heatly…Damien Rhodes….Don Waddell….Atlanta Spirit.
Losing the Flames was a tradgedy. Losing the Thrashers is more like a mercy killing. The franchise has been souless from the start. My best memory is the playoff games against the Rangers in 2007 and Opening Night against the Devils in 1999. Other than that, nothing much stands out. I had season tickets for the first three seasons, and I tried to get to as many games as possible in recent years…but never, ever did this franchise tap any of the residual spirit of the Flames.
Please, get it over with ASAP.