While Bettman hides, Thrashers’ slow death near complete
Burning of a Winnipeg Jets banner this weekend likely won't stop move. (AP photo)
So the slow death continues.
Still waiting for commissioner Gary Bettman to show his face in Atlanta so he can reaffirm the NHL’s “covenant with our fans” that he recently spoke so eloquently about.
Our Chris Vivlamore has a new blog posted this morning, stating that the last potential bidder to purchase the Thrashers and keep them in Atlanta is “probably, but not completely” out of the picture.
The team’s sale to a Canadian outfit and move to Winnipeg seems to have been a fait accompli for a while now, notwithstanding the constant denials by Bettman, Thrashers’ ownership and anybody else who’s worried more about their own reputation than what’s wrong or wrong.
The only reason we know the move won’t be completed today is that it’s Victoria Day in Canada and the banks are closed. Alas, Bettman/NHL (relocation fee) and Bruce Levenson/Atlanta Spirit must wait on their millions.
I’ve written a lot on this subject and I’ll have more to share with you if and when this deal is complete in the next few days. But I can’t top what was stated by Thrashers winger Chris Thorburn, who was interviewed by Fox 5’s Buck Lanford. There’s no embedding code for the video but here’s a link to it and the transcript of Thorburn’s comments:
“Just for owners to turn their backs on you, it kind of makes you mad. Obviously we don’t know every aspect of the deal and where they’re coming from because it hasn’t been publicly noted in the paper. But from everything we’ve heard, from rumors that we’ve heard, it’s discouraging just knowing that they’re trying to dump us. That makes a guy mad.”
Chris, I’m sure the fans thank you for speaking out.
By Jeff Schultz
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252 comments Add your comment
Hillbilly Deluxe
May 23rd, 2011
8:57 pm
A tip of the hat to Chris Thorburn for speaking his mind.
OHL
May 23rd, 2011
8:57 pm
If Atlanta is such a prime market, then why did a savvy organization like Turner Broadcasting sell the Thrashers in the first place? Does it have anything to do with the fact that the 2 seasons before they sold it the Thrashers were 28 out of 30 in attendance? Why didn’t more people go to the games before the bad owners bought the team? Why did this team stumble right out of the blocks with poor attendance before mgt even had time to do anything?
G52PIM228
May 23rd, 2011
9:09 pm
“Any NHL team averaging 15,000 fans per game”
The VERY best the team can do is 24th.. TNS.E will be perpetual revenue sharing recipients.. You figure a billionaire not afraid to beg for Manitoba tax money, defiantly will not be afraid to attach to the NHL’s teet..
G52PlM228
May 23rd, 2011
9:10 pm
then again, if the team stayed in asslanta, they’d still be revenue sharing recipients and still lose 20+ million a year
G52PlM228
May 23rd, 2011
9:12 pm
Yotes season tickets start at $10/seat. They will sell like crack in buckhead.
Bert
May 23rd, 2011
9:44 pm
I’m not sure if this fits, but these lyrics came to mind:
“That’s the night that the lights went out in Georgia
That’s the night that they hung an innocent man”
I think the “innocent man” is a metaphor for us, the Atlanta Thrashers Fans. Thanks ASG!
wpgJetsfan
May 23rd, 2011
9:53 pm
G52 will have a mental breakdown when Winnipeg records a profit next season and his WELFARE COYOTES have another season in losses.
goodnight moon
May 23rd, 2011
9:54 pm
G52,
Go to bed. You need more sleep.
thrash 1
May 23rd, 2011
9:58 pm
glavine has millions and is a big hockey fan—why can’t his group buy the thrashers and keep them here? the city should step in with big money to pay some owners to buy the team. Just raise sales taxes to pay whatever it takes.
Rogie
May 23rd, 2011
9:58 pm
In 11 seasons, the owners of this franchise never fielded a team that had much hope of doing much more than making it to the playoffs. It’s hard to expand a core of serious fans when the product that you produce is lousy. Blaming the fans is bush league and cowardly.
farleybear
May 23rd, 2011
10:07 pm
Winnipegger here. I again wanted to re-iterate how good 95% of you folks down in Atlanta are. The cheap-shots about Winnipeg haven’t been too bad and you’ve handled this whole ordeal with class and have shown tremendous amounts integrity. I can totally empathize with how the majority of you feel. It’s painful. I really wish we could have gotten the Coyotes so you could have kept the Thrashers. Chins up, Thrasher fans!
JR
May 23rd, 2011
10:08 pm
the thrashers had one of the lowest attendence of the league’s teams. as was payroll. the owners wanted better attendence before committing to a higher payroll. the fans wanted a more competitive product [higher payroll] before going to games. the fans don’t act in concert so the only way to break the stalemate was for the owners to risk a higher payroll, hopefully increase the caliber of play, and then watch to see if the fans came. i am confident that they would have but the owners never broke the stalemate to see.
JR
May 23rd, 2011
10:11 pm
it is tempting to say that the winnipegians have been so gracious because they are about to get the thrashers. however, i’ve been there and the people are really gracious.
Winnipeg Jets
May 23rd, 2011
10:12 pm
Darren Ford had an interview scheduled with CTV for Tuesday for when the Press Release was suppose to happen. It has since been rescheduled for Wednesday.
G52PlM228
May 23rd, 2011
10:15 pm
If the coyotes leave Glendale, they may as well shut the league. Because this is the only true sports city. If it can’t make it here, it can’t make it anywhere.
Matt the Brave
May 23rd, 2011
10:20 pm
Jeff, saw you on the Sports weekend show. Do you really think that there might be an NHL team in Atlanta after losing two teams now? (Yes, I’m assuming. I try not to, but oh well.) I think after this cloak and dagger show by the NHL, fans wouldn’t support it no matter how much an owner might put into making it fan-friendly. My guess is that we will see the Gladiators become more important and develop a fan base like the Knights used to have.
That said, I do agree that it would be pretty lucrative to an owner to move here b/c there is already an arena, a large TV market (if they can actually get the ice on the tube), and a chance at a large fan base, per your statements.
G52PlM228
May 23rd, 2011
10:29 pm
In Gongdale, my Yotes lost $36 million last year.
hotrod hockey fan
May 23rd, 2011
10:41 pm
The owners never cared about hockey. The blame starts with Ted Turner for selling it this sorry group. Next the group is sorry and has bee sorry sense day 1. Everyone who loves hockey and is following this crap knows that the Phoenix Coyotes should be moving. Next that sorry Gary Bettman should be “Fired”.
G52PlM228
May 23rd, 2011
10:51 pm
everyone move to the valley !!
we can all support the yotes
thrasherdawg
May 23rd, 2011
11:08 pm
I’ll ask again.
Anyone know how to get in touch with David McDavid?
It would be funny if he showed up after the deal was done but before the NHL vote and said here are my financials.
What are the chances?
thrasherdawg
May 23rd, 2011
11:12 pm
The Thrashers are missing a huge opportunity for the upcoming season.
No NFL, No NBA, Could you imagine the attendance next year with no NFL and no NBA.. Selling the team now…just another dumb business decision from the ASG.
If someone bought this team with the forecast to come with the NFL and NBA…the first season would be huge.
Mikeinvan
May 24th, 2011
2:44 am
Many cities have lost big league teams including mine. Since we lost our NBA Grizzlies to Memphis, many people who were fans of that team have turned their back on the sport completely. There is almost no media coverage of the sport anymore in this market. The frustration lies in the fact that despite years of having an underachieving team, many fans still loved the game and league. Although Vancouvers situation is different than that of Atlanta, the net result is the same. The hockey community is about to lose some loyal fans and that is a shame. I hope that for those of you who want to stay fans of the sport are able to find a way to stay connected. (There’s always room on the Canuck bandwagon. And an added bonus is that Winnipeg will end up in our division so you can watch us stomp on the team that broke your heart.) I wish you all the best and hope that local interest finds a way to keep the Thrashers in ATL.
Cheers
eugene
May 24th, 2011
3:37 am
Ownership does make a huge difference. Everyone looks at the Vancouver Canucks with envy but they don’t know the Canucks were in danger of being relocated to Portland a couple of times. When the Griffiths family overextended themselves by building a new arena and bringing the Vancouver Grizzlies into the market they sold the franchises to John McCaw, a billionaire who thought owning a sports franchise was a toy. He then proceeded to destroy the Grizzlies and the Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks had made it to the Stanley Cup finals and it took only 3 years for McCaw to run it to the ground. Brian Burke saved that franchise when he was hired and got the Canucks back to respectability. During those 3 years, fans coming out to Vancouver games were averaging less than 14,000. Vancouver was lucky that they had a guy like Brian Burke. McCaw’s ownership of the Canucks had him lose money for 10 straight years before the Aquilini family took over. The Thrashers never had a chance. They never had an owner who was passionate about hockey. Look at the St Louis Blues, they were a great organization for years until Bill Laurie ruined the franchise, he had no desire to have a hockey team. His primary goal was to buy an NBA team and move them to St Louis. Atlanta could have been a great market, like the Nashville Predators. That building was electrifying during the playoffs. More electrifying than anything I’ve seen at Air Canada Center, Joe Louis Arena, or Rogers Arena.
TheAntiMe
May 24th, 2011
4:52 am
I know that you guys are not here to be homers and that’s how it should be. I think you do get that right. Having said that, I would just like to thank you, Jeff, for being as thoroughly disgusted as I am with the deplorable way that this situation has been handled by anyone who has a say in what actually happens.
Although I have come to loathe and despise the ASG to the point of being glad that they are out the door in any way, shape, or form (obviously, Hawks notwithstanding for now) but I will truly miss having an NHL team to root for.
just facts
May 24th, 2011
6:46 am
as far as the Kincade rant, it is truly a case of “consider the source”. there is a reason why his big time ESPN show airs at 6am on Sunday morning. if he didn’t ride the coat tails of a UGA football legend then he wouldn’t have a job at 680.
jerry
May 24th, 2011
8:16 am
Hmmmm….wonder what effect it had on attendence that to see the Thrashers, one had to venture into a jungle, full of dangerous animals.
SIberian Express
May 24th, 2011
8:53 am
What NHL players wouldn’t want to play in the the North American equivalent to Siberia? I know the Canadian fans love their hockey, but it would be hell for the players and their families to live there from October to April, or even longer if (God forbid) they mananged to make the playoffs and actually win a playoff game.
Regarding Kincaid, he is on the ASG payroll to run his mouth during the Thrasher games….what else would you expect from him?
Reid Adair
May 24th, 2011
9:48 am
Chris Thorburn and his teammates should get their hockey sticks and pay a visit to the offices of Atlanta Spirit Group.
Scott Stevens
May 24th, 2011
10:04 am
I’m from the north and have been a huge hockey fan all of my life. Management of the Thrashers has been pathetic – but, good for me, as I’m a Devils fan. I go to one Thrashers game a year – against the Devils. I refuse to take my teenage daughters (who like hockey) to an arena where skimpily-clad 20-somethings skate around shoveling up ice chips. Maybe that appeals to the target audience, but not me. Also, the Thrashers product has sucked for awhile. I’m not going to drop $150+ to see them get their butts kicked by some other mediocre team. I’ll save the money and go somewhere real hockey is played (I could name 20 other cities). At the end of the day, it needs to be a business decision – no fans, no revenue, no team, regardless of the reason fans don’t go.
Carpetbagger
May 24th, 2011
10:07 am
If the Hawks were leaving, the ghettos would erupt and burn the city down and make Sherman’s doings look like a small campfire.The mayor of Atlanta would be screaming and the team would not move… even though it was in a beyond a pitiful state of affairs several years ago. Attendance then was a joke… but they started winning. Atlanta is called the “Black Mecca” for many reasons, and hockey is not one of them.
ANONYMOUS
May 24th, 2011
10:41 am
Just called the Thrashers office and leave a message each day for the executive of your choice. No Nastiness…no cursing…something like “Have you no shame?”
Today’s owner:
Leave a message for Rutherford Seydel
Wed-levenson
Thursday-Dominque Wilkins and Beau turner (both don’t have a lot invested)
Friday-Father and Son-Gearon
G52PlM228
May 24th, 2011
11:29 am
most of the players are looking forward to playing in front of a packed house in winnipeg. Thorburn will have to go it alone.
kovy
May 24th, 2011
11:34 am
too bad chris and the boys didn’t get mad a couple of years ago and win a few more games and make the playoffs
G52PlM228
May 24th, 2011
11:36 am
he should move to coyote town… the best sports city on the planet !!
G52PIM228
May 24th, 2011
12:18 pm
It’s Tuesday, I’m lookin’ around, the Thrashers are still in Atlanta..
Surprise Surprise.. Go have another party on Portage to celebrate..
Atlanta Hicks
May 24th, 2011
12:38 pm
Hey G52PlM228: coulnd’t have said better – Mayberry, I’m still laughing……
sobaka:
Canada owns the NHL, nobody has to ask us – The NHL is ours not yours – most of the players are Canadian as well, so we don’t need your permission to have our own league in our cities – Your the ones that need permission and your losers- your lucky you had hockey in a half empty building, TWICE> Love how you make stuff up like the government having to support ownership. Sorry, you can say all the lies you want, doesn’t make it true.
Its the city of Atlanta that has lost 2 franchises = you know nothing of Winnipeg or Manitoba, just an ignorant Atlanta hick that cries because he wants a franchise but doesn\t support it = why should the ASG keep losing millions because you idiots don’t support NHL hockey. Typical American, full of hate, why don’t launch a nuke at us – or just bring the 200 Atlanta Thashers fans and bring your automatic weapons, I mean, every American owns one of those don’t you/they? HICKS
G52PlM228
May 24th, 2011
12:38 pm
hope the announcement comes soon
sobaka
May 24th, 2011
1:03 pm
Atlnta Hicks: Atlanta lost 2 franchises, but Winnipeg and Quebec City did not any franchise, correct? Now I’ve got my history straight. But then what were all those excuses about Winnipeg fans and Quebec fans not supporting their teams prior to the “alleged” moves in 1995 and 1996? Of were those teams supposedly moved because they had such good support?
BTW: I read a lot of reasons why Expos fans didn’t show up in Montreal. Were their reasons valid, but those of hockey fans in Atlanta invalid? And the percentage of empty seats for Blue Jays home games are more than those for Phoenix and Atlanta hockey teams. I hope you don’t like baseball, because I have a strong feeling that Canadian baseball fans will soon feel like Atlanta’s hockey fans. What goes around comes around.
G52PlM228
May 24th, 2011
1:11 pm
move them all to Glendale !!
we can support 2 MLB teams and 2 hockey teams easy
G52PIM228
May 24th, 2011
1:34 pm
An AZCentral poster indicated it was EASY to tell me apart from my impostor because my impostor is poorly educated..
OHL
May 24th, 2011
1:43 pm
sobaka,
I can’t dispute the Expos. That team had some great talent over the years and should have been supported better. So it’s the fans fault that the Expos left, I will not argue that.
Your Blue Jays remark is not accurate. In 2006, 07, and 08 the Jays were in the top 20 in attendance for 3 years in a row. The Thrashers never cracked the top 20 once. Also, there are cities that have open arms for NHL teams (Canadian cities not to mention Kansas City) that create demand for relocation. The NFL always has Los Angeles. The NBA even considers a 3rd team in the LA area. But where is a baseball team going to go? There’s no demand. So I think of the 4 team sports, MLB is one that will have no upcoming relocation. There was serious demand for DC to do it but even the Nationals had a hard time moving (see the games in Puerto Rico).
Jerry Landfill
May 24th, 2011
1:45 pm
Time for a new league.
G52PlM228
May 24th, 2011
2:00 pm
until MLB gets a salary cap, attendance will suffer. either that or MLB expands the playoffs by 6 more teams
KitRanger
May 24th, 2011
2:38 pm
I don’t think anyone here actually knows why the Jets had to leave originally. Our dollar was in horrible shape. It was around the .70 mark, sometimes even less yet we had to pay player salaries in US dollars. Put another way, to buy the Thrashers at those prices, it would cost 250 mil canadian for a 170mil US sale. THAT was the reason for the Jets leaving, not the lack of support. ATL had 200 people show up for a rally with a few million in the city, WPG had over 100,000 show up to a rally to try and save the Jets. They raised millions of dollars, the economics just didn’t work.
The economics have now flipped, where running a hockey team in canada is like printing money. The Leafs have been one of the worst teams in hockey since the lockout, yet they bring in the most money in the entire league (with MTL right behind them). They are worth over a billion dollars. Hockey in Canada works, there is no denying that. The only thing that hurts us is a weaker dollar but the salary cap and revenue sharing has done a lot to help (and now the parity in the dollar). In 2008, when the dollar was around 85 cents, the 6 canadian teams made up for 31% of NHL gate revenue.
G52PIM228
May 24th, 2011
3:14 pm
“until MLB gets a salary cap, attendance will suffer. either that or MLB expands the playoffs by 6 more teams”
The likelihood of readers staying oblivious to the difference in style is minimal..
G52PIM228
May 24th, 2011
3:19 pm
It has been suggested SEVERAL times that English is more than likely my stalker’s second language..
G52PlM228
May 24th, 2011
3:37 pm
any other suggestions ?
G52PlM228
May 24th, 2011
3:39 pm
I’ve discussed this possibility with myself on numerous occasions and have decided that I may have more than one personality
G52PIM228
May 24th, 2011
3:48 pm
If I have motivated you to improve upon your daily mutilation of the English language, it would be just one more accomplishment i have than you..
southoftheborder
May 24th, 2011
4:42 pm
Sobaka – Hamilton a fading rust belt city? Perhaps you have heard of Research in Motion? Or Open Text? Or any number of tech companies that have sprouted up in the Hamilton/Kitchener/Waterloo area the past 15 years. As for comparing Ballsillie to Trump. Yeah Ballsillie is Co-CEO of a public company. Its fairly easy to verify what he is worth.
What the NHL is learning is that franchises can’t do well in markets where they are the 4th pro-team and behind multiple college programs. You can’t build your business model where the a team has to always win in order to draw. Half the teams don’t make the playoffs and rebuilds take 3-4 years in hockey. With the lack of TV contract you need to be a consistent draw at the gate in order to build a franchise.
That being said – Arizona should lose the team before Atlanta does since AZ has proven it can’t draw even if the team wins.