Updated: Talks continue, fans still planning to attend Thrashers’ select-a-seat event
By Chris Vivlamore and Tim Tucker
It may be the 11th hour, but some Atlanta hockey fans are clinging to hope.
With the Atlanta Spirit ownership group deep into negotiations to sell the Thrashers to True North Sports and Entertainment, which would move the franchise to Winnipeg, current and prospective season-ticket holders plan to attend a select-a-seat event here Saturday.
“Our select-a-seat event will take place as planned at Philips Arena,” Thrashers president Don Waddell said Friday.
Team officials and owners declined to comment on the negotiations with the Winnipeg group.
One person familiar with the negotiations, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the fluid and sensitive situation, said no agreement had been reached as of Friday afternoon but that talks and progress continued. The person said complex issues were being hammered out and that it’s difficult to predict when a deal might be completed.
Talks also continued with a prospective buyer willing to keep the team in Atlanta, but indications were that the sale to the Winnipeg group could happen as early as next week.
The Canadian Press reported that Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz said Friday that although nothing is signed, sealed or delivered yet, there is an understanding the relocation “is going to happen” and it is just “a matter of time” before a deal is announced.
The Thrashers organization continues to operate. In fact, at least one new season ticket was sold Friday. The select-a-seat event will be run by ticket representatives with no team executives, coaches or players in attendance. The event will coincide with a gathering of Thrashers fans at the gulch area outside the arena.
For some, the seat event will be a chance to show support.
“We are going about it like business as usual in hopes there is still a season,” said Charlie Clarke. “It seems like the writing is on the wall, but you look at other situations like in Sacramento with the [NBA’s] Kings. The fan base thought it was over. and something happened to keep the team.
“There is no reason now not to go. I know it’s a bit of a tease, but I’m holding out that .001 percent chance.”
Others see it as an opportunity to walk down memory lane.
“I’ll be going to the event, but I’m treating it at it as if I’m going to a funeral,” said Brett Lang, who described himself as a season-ticket holder since Day One. “I will go sit in the seats that my friends, family, and I enjoyed for the 11 seasons, quietly reflect on the good times, and say farewell just like a funeral.”
For one Thrashers fan, the chances of losing the team were enough to make him change his plans to attend the season- ticket event. Darren Schuster had planned to attend as a show of support.
“When I think about how much I put into this team and how much I got back, it’s pathetic,” Schuster said. “You can’t blame the fans. When the team was spending money and winning, the fans showed up.”
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was informed of the fan gathering on his weekly call-in radio show, broadcast Thursday night on satellite radio and the Internet, by a Thrashers fan.
“It will be interesting to see how many people show up at the rally on Saturday,” Bettman said.
The caller also told Bettman that the Thrashers drew impressive crowds in their first five seasons and attributed recent attendance problems to ownership that has not put a competitive team on the ice.
“I understand that there may be dissatisfaction there, but demonstrating your dissatisfaction by not going to games is an interesting strategy,” Bettman said. “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.”
Bettman vigorously denied that a deal is done to move the Thrashers. “I can tell you that with certainty,” he said. But he did not rule out the possibility and telegraphed what likely will be the NHL’s position if relocation occurs: that no qualified buyer was willing to own and operate the team in Atlanta.
“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,’” Bettman 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.”
The Thrashers’ owners have been seeking a buyer or investors for two years, and have said since February that they face a “sense of urgency” to shed the team’s operating losses, one way or another. The owners have contended in court documents that the team has lost $130 million since 2005.
“The key to this may be, in the final analysis, whether or not somebody wants to own the team in Atlanta,” Bettman said. “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 … if we have to,” Bettman said.
Making a deal to sell, let alone relocate, a team is a complex process involving the buyer, the seller and the NHL, each represented by groups of lawyers and financial advisors.
Atlanta Spirit and True North would have to complete a purchase-and-sale agreement. True North and the NHL would have to complete an “undertaking” agreement, spelling out the buyer’s commitments to the league. The parties would have to agree on how much of the money paid by True North would go to the NHL, rather than to the Spirit, as a relocation fee.
It is believed True North would pay as much as $170 million for the team, with $60 million going to the NHL and $110 million to the Spirit.
Ultimately, the NHL Board of Governors, which consists of one representative from each team, would have to vote to ratify a sale and relocation. A 75-percent vote is required to approve a new owner, and a majority vote is required to approve a relocation.
Here’s an indication of the complexities involved: When the Atlanta Spirit bought the Hawks and Thrashers in 2004, each member of the then-new ownership group had to sign his name 372 times on documents that filled six binders, each about six inches thick.
*** Thanks to all the fans who responded to my request and those I talked to but couldn’t fit into the story. I appreciate your help and your passion.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
553 comments Add your comment
G52PIM228
May 22nd, 2011
11:42 am
can i use my foodstamps to buy Yotes tickets? anyone?
G52PIM228
May 22nd, 2011
11:45 am
where’d all u dumb MF Peggers go anyway? Glendale rocks! Weinerpeg sucks!
G52PIM228
May 22nd, 2011
11:46 am
no mommy……I don’t ewant that one today. I want to take the cute little red pill today, OK?
G52PIM228
May 22nd, 2011
11:49 am
that pill makes me feel funny mommy…..I gonna be the Prez one day. Yes, me! lalalalalalalalal…..wwwwweeeeeeeeeeee….lallaalaaallalallalal…..zzzzzzzzzzzzz
Fart
May 22nd, 2011
11:56 am
I know Boulton isn’t happy either, he has obviously taken less money to stay here where he also has roots in place, like Thor. These players do deserve real owners who want to own a team and run it properly, but it should have happened here, they shouldn’t be stolen by Canada, and for every dim-wit in approval of this relocation, it means your team could be poached one day also..unless Bettman owns them or Mario is a former player. The NHL and the ASG go hand in hand, they are the same. This entire thing is foul, corrupt and unfair to the fans of our team who stuck by the Thrashers until the very end, a team that was designed to lose by indifferent owners in an indifferent NHL. I won’t support anything concerning either business after this and I recomend that others do the same. Don’t give them your money. Do not give the NHL and the ASG money, they screwed us.
Todb
May 22nd, 2011
12:17 pm
Hey MyJokes that is exactly what Jobing arena looked like last game I went to in Gongdale they announced attendance at 12000! Where so they get these attendance figures?
Anders Hedberg
May 22nd, 2011
12:37 pm
Hi Fart,
Agree with everything you said except for a couple of things:
1. Boulton is happy.
2. The players have real owners who happen to want to sell.
3. The team should be moving to Canada
4. The team won’t be poached
5. There is nothing corrupt
6. Fans did not stick with team until the very end.
Winnipeg = Poverty
May 22nd, 2011
12:43 pm
Are Winnipeggers in denial about how much NHL players hate and despise Winnipeg? Each one starts a counterpoint about that any news report is wrong and this player really wants to play in Winnipeg. I guess when you live in a city even other Canadians crap all over its really painful to hear also from foreigners from the U.S. as well.
G52PIM228
May 22nd, 2011
12:51 pm
Are you stupid snow moneys more or less sure you are getting the Thrashers than you were the Coyotes..
G52PIM228
May 22nd, 2011
12:52 pm
“NHL players hate and despise Winnipeg?”
Everybody hates the peg, a L.A. announcer said he would rather be hit by a bus than go outside in loserpeg..
Some honor left
May 22nd, 2011
12:55 pm
What did you guys think of the rally? Not bad – the world not ending made it a bit of a better time. I was hoping to meet the Balkan. We should plan another one soon.
Some honor left
May 22nd, 2011
1:11 pm
REAL SOON like today soon. How about another rally today?
Azrick
May 22nd, 2011
1:11 pm
For what it’s worth, I’m a Coyotes STH and I feel your pain. The ONLY reason we still have our team is, Glendale built the arena for the Coyotes, and the NHL didn’t want to walk away from that commitment. The Thrashers were so crappy on the ice (like the Yotes) it’s a wonder anybody supported that garbage. Waddell is in the same league as Gretzky was down here! You were never given a reason to show up at Thrasher games. Who went to Black Hawk games several years ago when they stunk? 11K fans!
litz
May 22nd, 2011
1:26 pm
“2. The players have real owners who happen to want to sell.”
There is NO way ANYONE even remotely familiar with the situation can refer to ASG as “real owners”
Arthur Blank is a “real owner”. Geoff Molson is a “real owner”
ASG, on the other hand, is a group of clowns who happen to (unfortunately) be merely “owners”.
BomberRiderFan
May 22nd, 2011
1:28 pm
Tick tick tick…. soon…. very soon! Mwah ha ha! Oh and G5, enjoy your team for one more year. They’ll be either in Hamilton, Toronto, Quebec City or Saskatoon next year.
Also, there was NEVER a playoff game that had 8500 people in Winnipeg. Every playoff game was sold out in the 90s. Remember WE invented the whiteout (which everyone else poached), and as Don Cherry proved during the last series with Detroit, we were the loudest playoff building in the NHL (decibel levels near to standing next to a 747 on takeoff).
Todb
May 22nd, 2011
1:36 pm
5000 butts in the seats is why you and soon to be Phoneix are losing your team! 13000 fans paying NHL ticket prices your team would have been profitable!
BomberRiderFan
May 22nd, 2011
1:39 pm
Here ya go G5. Youtube video of game 3 of the 1996 series between Detroit and Winnipeg. Sold out and all in white. We knew the team was leaving, but look at the support… or better yet listen to it.:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWYvRUzMXYk&feature=fvsr
HabsFan in the Peg
May 22nd, 2011
2:06 pm
Hey BlameCanada. Do you know who else made Winnipeg famous?
Try Burton Cummings and the Guess Who!! “American Woman”, “These Eyes”, ‘No Time”, “Laughing”, “Share the Land”, etc.
Do you know who coached the Winnipeg Blue Bombers football team to four Grey Cup championships? Former NFL coach Bud Grant!
Do you know which famous actress was in Winnipeg last year to film a movie? Milla Jovovich. I was an extra in that movie and I had close contact with her.
Fellow hockey fans, do you know who is from Atlanta? Serial killer Wayne Williams.
Thesawch
May 22nd, 2011
2:14 pm
We had season tickets from 1972 to 1996 and the only time we ever had 8500 at a game was when we had the snow storm when the NJ devils were in town. I had to use my Xcountry skis to get to the arena.
Anders Hedberg
May 22nd, 2011
2:28 pm
Open invite. Come on up to Winnipeg, publicize your trip and I’ll come in from my igloo in Toronto. Bring the wives and we’ll go watch some great games in a great venue. Dress warmly if it is in January or February and you’ll become Manitoba Moose/Jets/Falcons or whatever fans. There are some cool cities to go watch pro sports in North America – New York, Vancouver, San Fran and I am telling you that for hockey, Winnipeg is among them. If I’ve left out Atlanta, just because I have never seen a game there but I have no reason to doubt it is.
Wienerpeg Trolls
May 22nd, 2011
2:36 pm
LOL at the Wienerpeg fans listing the famous people from Wienerpeg. You really don’t have to justify your city to us. I guess it says it all that you feel you have to…..
Ulf Nilsson
May 22nd, 2011
2:37 pm
Anders, Atlanta rocks. Unfortunately, not enough of a fan base to support hockey in this 4 (3?) sport town.
Winnipeg = Poverty
May 22nd, 2011
2:41 pm
@G52PIM228 The L.A. Kings play by play man is NHL broadcast wing hall of famer Bob Miller. I had a C-band Satellite dish system in the 1980’s and 1990’s, so I watched many games from the old Winnipeg arena and Winnipeg was constantly made fun of by broadcasters and media covering the games there. I know how much Bob Miller hated that town, but it wasn’t just him if the broadcast crew didn’t include someone originally from Canada everybody had no problem making fun of Winnipeg. I haven’t heard anybody make fun of Atlanta except a few Canadians trying to put Atlanta down because of attendance not because of it being a miserable city like Winnipeg is.
Ulf Nilsson
May 22nd, 2011
2:44 pm
HabsFan in the Peg – First of all, being a ReHabs Fan isn’t what I would be proud of. Second, I’m from Winnipeg and can tell you that Burton Cummings blows. And like Wienerpeg Trolls, I can agree that you must feel pretty insignificant with Winnipeg if you need to run off these has beens. Yikes!
Hockey is Life
May 22nd, 2011
2:46 pm
Hi Poverty,
Nobody ever makes fun of Georgia and the deep south.
Ulf Nilsson
May 22nd, 2011
2:51 pm
I invite all from Atlanta to start trolling the Winnipeg Free Press to see how ‘wonderful’ the people of Canada are to their U.S. neighbors. Think you’re being shot down here? Just take a look.
Hockey is Life
May 22nd, 2011
2:56 pm
Sadly, I have heard some Georgia jokes over the years and I am from Georgia. Don’t say stupid sh!t like people make fun of you more than us. They make fun of us too, Poverty.
Al13
May 22nd, 2011
3:00 pm
–First of all, Sorry to all the Altanta fans and the crap you are going through. I’m from Wpg and event hough we’re obviously ecstatic to get a hockey team, it sucks to get one this way.
–Second to “winnipeg+poverty”….Please change your handle to something more approriate like
“I’maCluelessIdiot”……..although that is obvious from your comments…so nevermind.
–Third ..to AGT fan…I understand how you feel but to say Bettman isn’t committed to the US is silly. He’s gaga over the US market and the TV contracts he hopes to get. You have to look no farther than Phoenix, where the taxpayers are gettting it “you know where”. The Islanders and other franchises that haven’t drawn flies for some time are also good examples. I guess your owners and their reluctance to go further is the main reason there wasn’t a big push (or any) to save the franchise.
Al13
May 22nd, 2011
3:09 pm
to “Ulf Nillson”….Comments in a paper are from a few dozen people out of almost a million…so don’t go off and make sweeping judgements about Canadians or Winnipeggers . A lot ot those comments are from either local idiots (ya, we have em too) or from frustrated fans that have been enduring this will they/won’t they soap opera for a few years…after 17 years of not having a franchise we lost even though we always supported a very mediocre to very bad franchise.
We have the utmost respect for what Atlanta fans are going through and are sorry it’s going down this way.
Pegger8
May 22nd, 2011
3:15 pm
Hahaha, Poverty, you still bitter and jealous of Winnipeg? Everybody loves to shoot you down when you are on top, as always very flattering. Again sorry to hear you are so bitter, and that you hate yourself and your life so much. Maybe a trip to the Peg will cheer you up, as always things are great here! Keep it coming, not that we need the ego boost, but it gives us a chuckle when those below us consume themselves with hating us cause they want to be us! Cheers! No worries Atlantans (tonians? haha) and Arizonans we know these classless deadbeats represent a tiny minority of your population. Amazing how brave people get when they can hide their identity and sit in their moms basement. Great entertainment though!
Al13
May 22nd, 2011
3:17 pm
uh “Thrasher Tim”…Exactly what attendance numbers are you referring to??? Winnipegs average attendance was 13,000 in a bad 15,0000 seat arena, in a bad economy with a bad team..and was consistent over it’s 17 year history. The ONLY time it was bad was the last year when the city new the team was leaving the year before and there was a backlash.
Your bitterness is understandable….your facts are not.
HabsFan in the Peg
May 22nd, 2011
3:28 pm
Ulfie, whose side are you on? When did YOU last ‘play’ in Winnipeg? Pot, meet the kettle.
The ReHabs have nothing to be proud of? Excuse me, but it isn’t the Rangers who’ve won 24 Stanley Cup championships!
Burton Cummings may have an ego, but Randy Bachman is just the opposite and you can’t take their accomplishments away from them.
Besides, am I not allowed to stand up for my city? Someone has to stand up and counter the ignoramuses on here. Of course, there’s usually no helping bitter losers like Blame Canada.
Wimps_ca
May 22nd, 2011
3:37 pm
I was a season ticket holder of the Jets from 72 to 96 and when The Jets left it ripped my heart out, so I know the pain. I wish that Wpg. and Quebec City got expansion franchises instead of it coming to this.
The WHA Le Nordique and Jets was thrilling hockey, unbelieveable speed.
As to Winnipeg trolls, GROW UP, Atlanta and Phoenix are wonderful cities, both deserve better than what they’ve gotten.
Gretkzy is the greatest hockey player in history, but was clueless in the front office, Atlanta never had ownership that was serious.
Go blog somewhere else
May 22nd, 2011
3:44 pm
I like the taunting of the people in Phoenix, citing Saskatoon as a possible destination for a team. That would be like putting a team in Sioux Falls, SD (they are literally the same size). If that’s where the NHL is headed, it’ll be out of business by the end of this decade. At least Winnipeg is the size of Columbia, SC. If the NHL needs to go to metro areas that size to attract fans, it’s doomed to failure as a business and doesn’t deserve to be considered in the same league as the NFL, MLB and NBA.
As for “HabsFan” referring to “ignoramuses” from other places, your compatriots have been throwing around terms like “urban population,” etc. I wouldn’t be lecturing anyone on open-mindedness coming from where you’re at.
OHL
May 22nd, 2011
3:53 pm
Go blog somewhere else, what exactly is your definition of “open-mindedness”? Does that mean being politically correct and ignoring facts? Because if it does then who would want to be “open-minded” by that definition? Please speak on the matter of factual information, does Atlanta or Winnipeg have a larger urban population? Does that play a role in which types of sports team may or may not be popular? Please, just the facts.
Some honor left
May 22nd, 2011
3:58 pm
I’m going to make a sandwich.
OHL
May 22nd, 2011
4:01 pm
Sports is a business and the best business models are those that are realistic, not those that are politically correct. I’ve interacted with too many reasonable people on this blog to think that some people in Atlanta can’t be realists. Are those of you who are reasonable and realists upset if I make a logical conclusion based on one market versus another having more or less of an “urban population”? I can’t for a second think that people in Atlanta are that worried about being politically correct instead of smart and realistic. Sorry but to be referred to as “ignoramuses” because I used the term “urban population” just floors me.
Getthepuckouttahere
May 22nd, 2011
4:03 pm
@ Alan R….are you going to sit there and say the announcemnt by Herman Cain was what kept the fans away? Are you serious? Looking at the photo, those who attended certainly don’t resemble the Republican Party, maybe the Trailer Park party. How about this: the reason no one showed up in 90 degree weather was because no matter what fans did it’s too little too late. Supporting a team when it’s on death’s doorstep is hardly going to sway the NHL let alone any investor to keep the team here.
Where do you people come up with this crap??? What a dope!
Getthepuckouttahere
May 22nd, 2011
4:11 pm
@Winnipeg=Poverty….Winnipeg sucks, but Atlanta is great? Did you happen to catch any headlines yesterday, (not that they’re much different than any other day) infant shot, 4 people shot in Grant park, all before lunch. How many people got killed and shot in Winnipeg yesterday? Not a day goes by where there’s not a drive-by, cop shot, shootings in the ‘hood…great frickin town you have there! Or as we say in Boston…wicked pissah!
G52PIM228
May 22nd, 2011
4:21 pm
Loserpeg is a temporary stop on the way to Q.C.
G52PIM228
May 22nd, 2011
4:22 pm
http://www.sbnation.com/nhl/2010/12/8/1536097/nhl-relocation-winnipeg-quebec-city
Jimmy
May 22nd, 2011
4:31 pm
My wife & I really enjoyed when the Tampa Bay Lightning & the Atlanta Thrashers played. Being Lightning fans, we’ll no longer be able to do this
Unfortunately, it all boils down to $$ MONEY $$, and there is no damn loyalty when it comes to $$$. From a Tampa Bay Lightning fan- “Kiss my @$$, NHL, for what you’re doing to the Thrasher fans….SHAME ON YOU”.
Pegger8
May 22nd, 2011
4:34 pm
And the “legendary” Bob Miller would rather be hit by a bus than be out in Winnipeg in January/February? What a revelation! For some of those days in Jan/Feb we wouldn’t want to go out either, its frickin cold! Hahaha. A dude from LA doesn’t want to go outside in a Canadian winter. Wow, who’d have thunk it. C’mon you can do better than cold weather jokes can’t you. I’ve got another newsflash, Bob Miller doesn’t want to walk the streets of South Central LA after dark ANYTIME of year. Keep spewing out the hard-hitting facts, I’m quite enjoying them. Yeah its cold here for a couple months. Hockey is a winter sport, if it wasn’t cold the ice for our kids to play on wouldn’t freeze and we (and parts of the US, Europe) couldn’t supply this league with the talent. Any other obvious points?
Jimmy's Canadian Cousin
May 22nd, 2011
4:37 pm
Sure you can Jimmy. Tampa Bay will be moved to Thunder Bay in a few years. Thunder Bay is a reasonable drive from Winnipeg. We’ll catch a few games when you’re up here visiting.
Pegger8
May 22nd, 2011
4:38 pm
More links to editorial pieces huh G? Sorry but I’m above sending links of articles and videos that support my case (but can send many). I can articulate my thoughts for myself. That is sooooo lame. You are starting to bore me again. Too bad.
Jimmy's Canadian Cousin
May 22nd, 2011
4:38 pm
Sure you can, Jimbo. When Tampa Bay is relocated to Thunder Bay, we’ll catch some games against Winnipeg. It’s all good Jimmy.
Getthepuckouttahere
May 22nd, 2011
4:39 pm
Pegger…Miller wouldn’t want to walk around most of the streets of Atlanta after dark either. Anyone trying to portray this city as some type of Shangrila is way off the mark. Unless they’re from the local trailer park…to those dolts they’re living high on the hog as it is. Believe me when I tell you, the crime rate here per capita is nothing to be bragging about.
G52PIM228
May 22nd, 2011
4:43 pm
Example 2. http://www.sbnation.com/nhl/2010/12/8/1536097/nhl-relocation-winnipeg-quebec-city
G52PIM228
May 22nd, 2011
4:50 pm
It will be FUNNY when the BoG vote AGAINST TNSE and force ASG to operate the team for another season while the league lines up a purchaser..
I’m gonna laugh and laugh at you stupid loserpeg trolls, especially my little impersonator..
Section 203 in jobing.com arena
May 22nd, 2011
4:52 pm
G52 is one of our resident morons on AZCentral.com. Why anyone would be openly rooting for someone else to lose their team so that we can keep ours is completely beyond me. A majority of us here support you and hope the best for a long Thrasher future in the ATL. Good luck and fight hard!