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.
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553 comments Add your comment
Pegger8
May 21st, 2011
9:10 pm
Hahaha, I love it how the pride of Candian’s just annoys the snot out of you Blame. You are just beside yourself digging up facts, searching Wikipedia, etc.. Comical. Seriously, I am sorry to hear you are so bitter wherever it is that you cowardly hide behind your screen. I’m from Winnipeg, I’m Canadian and I am damn proud of it! Hope you soon realize there is nothing you can do to break the people’s spirit in this country, and most places I have traveled in the USA I would say the spirit is just as high, as it should be. Great country. Anyways, cheer up, get out and enjoy life, the glass is half full. It works, try it. Sorry for using you and your hilariously bitter attitude to entertain myself on a relaxing rainy day in Winnipeg. Time to go watch a little basketball, it just arrived in our frozen hellhole a couple of weeks ago.
. Cheers.
PS: You really should put the brakes on the cultural/racial stuff though, its just not funny or cool and all it does is reflect poorly on you, it actually makes me feel a little sorry for you.
Pete Puck
May 21st, 2011
9:11 pm
I don’t blame you, Gethepuckouttaher. But possibly you will acknowledge that this has been a very poorly run franchise?
Getthepuckouttahere
May 21st, 2011
9:14 pm
Peg…don’t let Blame Canada or any other basher of the Great White North bother you. Most of these dolts have never left Atlanta let alone Georgia. The closest they’ve ever come to skating is when they’ve busted their butts in the last ice storm. As a frequent visitor to Montreal, Thunder Bay and Ottawa, I’ve always found Canadians to be some of the most wonderful people I’ve ever met. These people are just bitter they weren’t able to support a team, the second time around and now will have to go back to chewing tobacco, eating grits and going muddin’!
Pete Puck
May 21st, 2011
9:15 pm
Getthepuckouttahere,
The last “e” in your name is important — sorry I inadvertantly left it out in my previous post!
Pete
Getthepuckouttahere
May 21st, 2011
9:21 pm
Poorly run yes…but I look at it like this…once it was established there wasn’t enough support for this team and you starting bleeding green, how motivated could you be to stop a ship that was inevitably going to sink? There’s’ plenty of blame to go around, it just bothers me that everyone here thinks this is all managements fault. Maybe if Bettman had halted this raid on the south, thinking that there was a market for a sport that no one even plays in these states the Thrasher’s wouldn’t even be in this predicament, but they are and now it has to be dealt with. I’m surpirised they lasted this long. I had them gone in ‘09.
Getthepuckouttahere
May 21st, 2011
9:21 pm
Hey Pete, wanna go into the Snowblower business in Marietta?
Dee Flame
May 21st, 2011
9:29 pm
I always thought the Omni crowd chanting “Go Flames Go” sounded much better than the Philips Arena crowd chanting “Lets Go Thrashers” in the Yankee-fan inflection.
Also, I have never liked Philips Arena’s configuration. Stacking the box seats on one side of the arena cuts down the crowd’s energy. Yet another Thrasher screw-up.
Blame Canada
May 21st, 2011
9:31 pm
Of course getthepuckouttahere rags on Atlanta, but he moved out of Mass as fast as you could. Typical.
And F the Sawx
Pete Puck
May 21st, 2011
9:34 pm
Naturally I will pass on your offer to sell snowblowers in Marietta; however, how are snowblower sales going in LA, San Jose, Dallas, Raleigh, Tampa, Nashville and Miami?
Pete Puck
May 21st, 2011
9:35 pm
Getthepuckottahere — I forgot to inquire about snowblower sales in Phoenix
Getthepuckouttahere
May 21st, 2011
9:41 pm
@Blame Canada…I got transferred here by my company. You know how it works, companies here keep hiring northerners to come to Atlanta to do the jobs that you either can’t do or do at a snail’s pace!
Oh, I still own my home there too. Do you own the trailer you’re in?
Dee Flame
May 21st, 2011
9:42 pm
Anders — once again I ask you, who cares? You sound a little high-minded, but I assure you no one else beside yourself is impressed.
Getthepuckouttahere
May 21st, 2011
9:42 pm
@pete, can’t speak for snowblower sales in those other cities, but I can say their teams do get better support than here, two teams in, two teams out. If memory serves, weren’t the Panthers having attendance issues not long ago? I’d assume if they were to continue to avoid playoff contention, they’ll end up in the same boat.
Blame Canada
May 21st, 2011
9:45 pm
We understand there are no jobs to be had in the north but please take your annoying accent and hit the road back to your homeland.
And as always, F the Sawx
The JETS Left & Aren't Coming Back. Is EVERYONE Up There Really That Stupid?
May 21st, 2011
9:55 pm
Pegger8 claims to know all about hockey and the NHL, rode the bus with his fellow butt pirates….Yeah, yeah….Blah, blah. JAMC
Just Another Misinformed Canadian
“If a team has to rely on long deep playoff runs to come close to breaking even they are in trouble.”
If ignorance were an Olympic sport, you would have just won the Gold Medal! Fully SIXTEEN of 30 NHL teams LOST MONEY during the 2009-2010 season according to Forbes.com….(That’s more than half for you Canadian Trolls.)
You Canadians set your watches according to when the next hockey game is….We get it. Well, kind of anyway. What a SAD existence…..
Getthepuckouttahere
May 21st, 2011
9:57 pm
@blame Canada…Boy, you really don’t get out much do you. There’s plenty of jobs in Mass, I got TRANSFERRED…do you know the difference between transferred and moving to seek employment? Or has it been so long since you’ve worked you don’t know the difference?
Go Bruins!
Go Red Sox!
Former 680 fan
May 21st, 2011
9:59 pm
Does any southern-market team other than Atlanta have a minor league team competing against the NHL?
I doubt the Gwinnett fans could have saved the franchise, but it wouldn’t have hurt to have had a few hundred more at Philips.
Probably the best location for an NHL arena in Atlanta would have been somewhere on the north end of the Perimeter, but I guess we’ll never really know. I wish the Mayor of Atlanta would have done more to save the team….
phxismybitch
May 21st, 2011
10:01 pm
My watch reads 17 hours until next hockey game.
Pete Puck
May 21st, 2011
10:18 pm
I’m going on memory, but the AHL Knights had a pretty good run in the early to mid-90’s, and I think some of their ownership group were interested in developing an arena in Alpharetta and going after an NHL franchise. Ultimately they were squawshed by Ted Turner. Although my facts could be wrong about the Knight’s history, I still have a gut feeling the NHL was viable in Atlanta — which is not to claim Atlanta would have ever become a Boston or Detroit type of market — but neither is our baseball market as strong Boston’s. Turner Field, in my view, is not the best possible location for the Braves, but Major League Baseball can withstand a slightly less than optimal location for its venue. The NHL, on the other hand, could not. The best possible venue location was essential, and only a winning team could have overcome the handicap of playing downtown. Even a marginal winning record might have been enough. But we got the perfect storm of poor venue location, poor ownershiop-management group, and pathetic product on the ice.
Former 680 fan
May 21st, 2011
10:24 pm
Very best case scenario: True North moves the Thrashers to Winnipeg, ASG fails to unload the Hawks and Philips and suffers mightily, Kincaid relocates to a station outside of the Atlanta market, and an AHL franchise expands into Atlanta using the name “Flames”. That’s the best we can hope for at this point.
G52PlM228
May 21st, 2011
10:42 pm
ATL has the worst sports fans PERIOD
G52PIM228
May 21st, 2011
10:50 pm
Loserpeg has the WORST impressionists..
Thrashers fans rally, buy tickets as Winnipeg sale talks continue | Atlanta Local Me.me
May 21st, 2011
10:50 pm
[...] talks to finalize a sale between True North Sports and Entertainment and the Atlanta Spirit Group continue on for the [...]
G52PIM228
May 21st, 2011
10:53 pm
Did TNSE get the province cash they were begging for, so they can close the deal..
G52PIM228
May 21st, 2011
11:07 pm
I love beastiality. Just read my posts if you don’t believe me. I especially like it when I’m the bitch.
Pegger8
May 21st, 2011
11:11 pm
Soooo The JETS left… are you just quoting me or what exactly was your point? No rebuttal? How boring. Since you know everything (note sarcasm) maybe you can answer my question then. The Winnipeg haters (jealous to be sure) keep claiming how the players will want to be traded, won’t be able to sign UFA’s etc because of the frozen hellhole we live in. Can you please tell me the prominent UFA’s the Thrashers signed in their history. Just one will do? And the only real superstar they ever really had turned down a $100 million dollar deal? Why would you think that would be? Curious to hear your response, or are you just going to quote me again? Merci. Yawn.
Oh, was your point, to point out that about half the league loses money every year? Thanks for the hard-hitting investigative reporting genius, but there is a huge difference between losing a couple mill, and $20-$40 mill that some are losing. I know those are numbers past 100 and you may have some difficulty but lets just say its A LOT of grease. Maybe you should leave the hockey to Canadians, the upper mid-west, and the northeast. Go find a board on a topic you actually know something about. Spittoons perhaps?
Zombie Steve
May 21st, 2011
11:15 pm
Caught word tonight from someone within the Thrasher organization that there IS a legitimate 3rd group in the mix that have submitted terms to buy the team and keep it in Atl. This is why the.deal with true north has been stalled.
Big Wally
May 21st, 2011
11:26 pm
Hey nitwit Pegger8. It was well documented that one of the reasons the Kovy left, was because the owners would not guarantee him that the team would not be relocated to a hellhole…..like say,,,Winnipeg. Just a thought for you ponder in your igloo tonight. Maybe the Thrashers never signed a big free agent, because of our crappy owners. Also, maybe free agents did not want to sign here, because they knew the shaky owners might sell and relocate the team to say a crappy place….like Winnipeg.
Pegger8
May 21st, 2011
11:33 pm
Ah, just as I thought, lame excuses. Thanks for confirming exactly what I thought Big Wally. 5-10 years ago free agents were scared to sign because they might have to live in an igloo eventually? Are the fans ever to blame??? I’ve never heard so many excuses in my life. Its Winnipeg’s fault now that your team stunk and you couldn’t sign players? Winnipeg is also the reason nobody showed up to games, Winnipeg is to blame for your poor air quality, etc.. My apologies to the real fans in ATL, I know there are a few.
Pegger8
May 21st, 2011
11:36 pm
Settle down Zombie Steve, sorry to say this deal is done, and has been for a lot longer than you realize. No need to try and sell hope to the real hockey fans in Atl when there is none. And I really sincerely feel bad for those fans.
Big Wally
May 21st, 2011
11:37 pm
I heard the hangup was because they found out True North was negotiating in furs and pelts. ASG has someone trying to figure out what that means in dollars.
Big Wally
May 21st, 2011
11:38 pm
So why did hockey fail in Winnipeg in the 90’s there pegger? Horrible ownership. oh wait a minute that falls under the category of lame excuses? got another one.
Big Wally
May 21st, 2011
11:44 pm
I don’t blame Winnipeg for wanting another team. Heck I already miss the Thrashers and they haven’t left yet. I can’t stand the gloating and rubbing our faces in it, that the low class winnie fans(see Pegger8) have on here.
Keep Hockey in Atlanta
May 21st, 2011
11:45 pm
Ya know I wish no ill will on our neighbors to the north. I wish there was a win-win scenario for both Atlanta and Winnipeg. Too bad Bettman wouldn’t come out and say Winnipeg and Quebec will be awarded expansion franchises.
Keep Hockey in Atlanta
May 21st, 2011
11:48 pm
“Settle down Zombie Steve, sorry to say this deal is done, and has been for a lot longer than you realize”
Wouldn’t that be grounds for a lawsuit if the ASG had no interest in finding a way to keep the team here? Also wouldn’t that be grounds for making any deal null and void considering all options were not expended to keep Atlanta in Atlanta?
OHL
May 21st, 2011
11:49 pm
To all those bashing Winnipeg – Calgary is located just as north as Winnipeg is, they too have less than 1 million people (far less than your 5.3 million), and they probably don’t have as much to offer that you would consider worthy. BUT, every year since the lockout they rank tops in NHL attendance, one year #5, one year #7 every other year #6 and 2 offseasons ago they attracted the #1 free agent in Jay Bouwmeester. They won a Cup in ‘89. I think they have done quite well in the league since leaving Atlanta even though by your standards you could describe them as pitifully as you describe Winnipeg. Stop the Canada bashing, the Flames are successful in their cold city with a tiny population and nothing to do.
Getthepuckouttahere
May 21st, 2011
11:49 pm
Pegger…excuses, excuses is the Georgian way! These people blame everything on everyone else, NEVER is someone here at fault for anything…pass the buck. The fact remains, they didn’t support the team, if they did they wouldn’t even be crying on this thread. They can all say what they want about Canada, Winnipeg, even the Red Sox and Massachusetts, but when they all get up tomorrow there still be one franchise moving, and no franchise anymore in Atlanta. Remember Pegger, the ONLY one to blame here is management…management should have picked up every dime this team was losing, even the $20 million they lost in the one season they made it to the playoffs. Who was on that team? Hossa -Gone, Kovie – GONE! You had talent, they won it still wasn’t enough. So as you see, they were given a team that produced yet we have whiners here saying if they had a team that won they would’ve been supported, so that doesn’t hold water. Wake up Atlanta and for once assume some responsibility, actually once out of two team you’ve lost to date…it’s everyone else’s fault – unfrickinbelievable!!!
Pegger8
May 21st, 2011
11:50 pm
No Wally, Shenkarow was a good owner. Nobody wanted to buy the team and build a building. While the old arena had character it was not a money generator, and Shenkarow only got a portion of the limited revenues, the rest went to Winnipeg Enterprises who owned the building and surrounding area. That couple with a weak dollar, and no cost control meant Winnipeg could no longer support the team. Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa, Quebec and Montreal were all struggling at this time because of the dollar but they had new buildings built or in the works. Winnipeg didn’t so the team moved. Call em excuses if you want but that’s the story. Our dollar is stronger than the US dollar and we have a new building that the hockey team owners own, and you are about to find out that with those two corrections pro hockey is going to work in the heartland of hockey. I mean really, what team loses a pro franchise in the same league/sport, twice in 30 years? Sorry to say in Winnipeg we are not gonna sit here and act like victims, nobody stepped up in poor economic times with the dough to build an arena and buy the team, and the gov’t was not gonna bail them out as they shouldn’t have to.
G52PlM228
May 21st, 2011
11:50 pm
stop talking stupid, they can sell to whoever they want to
G52PlM228
May 21st, 2011
11:52 pm
ATL doesn’t deserve a team. Thanks for propping up the coyotes tho
G52PIM228
May 21st, 2011
11:56 pm
You have to consider loserpeg a HUGE step backwards for the league..
Pegger8
May 21st, 2011
11:56 pm
And Wally, trust me I feel for the real hockey fans in ATL, and as much as I love hockey I wish there was another way we could get a team (I have said this many times in posts). I’m having some fun with the ignorant fans coming on here bashing a place they have never been, people they have never seen, etc. And I truly understand your pain, and why you are name calling etc, I felt that pain when the Jets left. I would even go so far to say you would be a real fan, because at least you keep it about hockey.
G52PlM228
May 21st, 2011
11:57 pm
to the porch monkey saying there a no jobs up north
here is something for you
ATL unemplyment 10%
WPG unemployment 5.5%
G52PlM228
May 21st, 2011
11:58 pm
I reconsider my loserpeg statement now
Getthepuckouttahere
May 21st, 2011
11:58 pm
Pegger, all this is falling on deaf ears. While we’re speaking facts, the masses will return with their childish rhetoric.
I wish the new franchise in Winnipeg nothing but the best of luck. It’s good for Winnipeg, it’s good for the players and in the end it’s good for the league.
G52PIM228
May 21st, 2011
11:59 pm
Another small town money losing Canadian market, the BoG can NOT be happy about adding another sink hole with a full building to the league.. Canadian small markets are HOPELESS, a full building and still losing money is a dead end situation..
G52PlM228
May 21st, 2011
11:59 pm
don’t forget to vote for the yotes players for the next all star game
G52PIM228
May 22nd, 2011
12:00 am
Edmonton and Calgary sell out every game, why don’t they charge enough for tickets to make money, same goes for Ottawa, they are near capacity..
G52PIM228
May 22nd, 2011
12:01 am
Phoenix loses money because nobody goes to the games, the Canadian small markets lose money with full buildings because they are INCAPABLE of supporting big league sports..
G52PlM228
May 22nd, 2011
12:01 am
seems I was wrong, the canadian teams are making money.