Thrashers, Atlanta were never given a chance
Thrashers fans tried hard to keep hope, season after season. But the deck was stacked against them. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)
(Updated: 12:30 p.m.)
This is how it ends: With the weasel of a commissioner not stepping foot in the city, with another season passing without a playoff game, with a lying ownership group maintaining it did all it could to save a franchise that in reality it spent most of seven years wrecking.
Atlanta has lost an NHL expansion team to a Canadian outpost for the second time. The Thrashers are going to Winnipeg just like the Flames went to Calgary in 1980. A press conference was held in Winnipeg, while the Thrashers sent out this warm-and-fuzzy news release: “The Atlanta Thrashers announced today that they have entered into an asset purchase agreement with True North Sports and Entertainment …”
This isn’t about the fans or the market or certainly Gary Bettman’s fictional “covenant” with fans, which I believe he left in the same sock drawer with his conscience. It’s about greed and abandonment, plain and simple. It’s about a disingenuous ownership group, which had long lost any semblance of credibility, serving up fans swill and gruel and then wondering why the turnstiles sleep at night.
They’ll tell you they care. They don’t. They’re walking away with a fat check. While you mourn the loss of a franchise, they’re waving goodbye with one middle finger.
The NHL is leaving a city that never really was given a chance. It’s going back to a city that it left 15 years ago and that has grown by about 60,000 people and a couple of doughnut shops since. They will be discussing this decision one day at business schools, right after the sections on Charles Ponzi and Enron.
Atlanta didn’t fail. The franchise failed. But the NHL doesn’t care about that. This is a league that survives on franchise fees and relocation fees. It collected $80 million from Ted Turner for an expansion fee in 1997. (He joked in the Board of Governors meeting that followed that he could’ve saved $70 million by purchasing the Flames from Tom Cousins for $10 million. Nobody laughed.) The league reportedly will collect another $60 million for permission to move the Thrashers to Manitoba.
In five years, when another failing franchise wants to move into Philips Arena, Bettman will be happy to collect another fat relocation fee, and he’ll deliver the same canned, phony speech about how he always believed in this market. The guy has told so many lies, it’s a wonder he’s not an Atlanta Spirit partner. (One postscript: Bettman referred to them as the “Atlantic” Spirit on Tuesday.)
Now living in Calgary.
There are hockey teams in Tampa and San Jose and Raleigh, and I could go on. There’s still one inexplicably in Phoenix, which the NHL is floating for another year, maybe because Bettman plans to retire and open up a pawn shop there one day. Is Atlanta an inferior market to any of those cities? Or does product have something to do with it?
There was no reason to do this now. When the Phoenix-to-Winnipeg deal fell apart, the NHL (which owns the Coyotes) was out $170 million. Bettman panicked. So he crossed out Phoenix and wrote in Atlanta. But why couldn’t he have waited a year to see if another owner for the team
Now living in Winnipeg.
emerged? Winnipeg wasn’t going anywhere. Was Bettman that desperate for the $60 million?
“I have absolutely no doubt that this market can support an NHL team,” said Bob Hartley, a native Canadian, a Stanley Cup winner in Colorado and the only coach to get the Thrashers to the playoffs. “It’s a huge disappointment to see the Atlanta franchise leave before so many other cities in the league. I loved it there. My last two years in Atlanta were as exciting as what I went through in Colorado. We had only two [home] playoffs games but it was a Stanley Cup atmosphere. But Hoss [Marian Hossa] left, Kovy [llya Kovalchuk] left, I was gone. It felt like the organization was drained of its energy.”
First player: Damian Rhodes. First draft pick: Patrik Stefan. First coach: Curt Fraser. First general manager: Don Waddell. That was only the beginning. Eleven seasons: one playoff berth, no wins.
Turner was followed by AOL/Time Warner, a bad marriage that was followed by an even worse one: Atlanta Spirit, LLC. Hossa saw no future here. Kovalchuk, given so many misdirections by part-owner Bruce Levenson in negotiations, wasn’t even sure the team would stay. Both wanted out.
There never was a commitment. There never was hope. There never was a plan — at least not one that worked.
A city just lost a franchise. While you mourn, they laugh. It’s nothing less than shameful.
By Jeff Schultz
♦
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1,115 comments Add your comment
Bettman the Moron
June 5th, 2011
9:23 pm
Smallest NHL market with smallest NHL arena. Nothing more then a holding tank for Bettman the Moron until he can get the team back to a major city.
Bettman the Moron = Bitter lonely man
June 5th, 2011
9:31 pm
Bettman the Moron
June 5th, 2011
9:50 pm
I’m sure Gary Bettman is a bitter, lonely man. He just took his league one step further back to the stone age. You want to be a 21st century league, then do everything you can to succeed in the major cities. You want to be a small, fringe league, then abandon major markets for arctic hamlets like Winnipeg.
BomberRiderFan
June 5th, 2011
10:49 pm
BTM: The bottom line here is money. And it’s not just Bettman running the show (and yes he is a TOTAL moron). He’s under pressure from the BOG who have powerful owners in Toronto, Montreal, Chicago, Detroit and the other money makers who are tired of giving their revenues to the welfare cases in Phoenix and Atlanta (Columbus and or Florida will probably be next). They want a place that will make money. The TV market towns in the U.S. are Chicago, Minnesota, New York/New Jersey. Detroit and all the Pennsylvania and California teams. The other cities with NHL teams have meaningless ratings, and would never have their teams featured on NBC anyway since that would turn off the viewers in the hockey cities. Even if they break even in the next 6 years in Winnipeg they have saved $130 million that Atlanta would have lost. That covers any revenue (if any) they would have lost in tv revenues in Atlanta (who are never on NBC anyway). By the way, Winnipeg is a major city. You don’t need to be overcrowded and packed together with a few million other people to be a major city.
BomberRiderFan
June 5th, 2011
10:56 pm
And as for the comments on “wait till the product stinks and the interest will cool off” comments. In 1979 Winnipeg had 20 wins. In 1980 they had 9 yes grand total of 9 wins. They were still averaging 13 500 per game in a time when league averages were 12 500 (they were out drawing cities like Pittsburgh and Boston and were on par with Detroit for attendance). We don’t care what kind of team we get as long as we have a team….. and after 15 years everyone has chosen another NHL team as their favourite and now they get to see them live (Can’t wait for Winnipeg vs. the Habs). And back to TV ratings…. CBC and TSN expect to gain about half a million new viewers next year with the NHL moving to Winnipeg. I doubt 500 000 people in Atlanta ever watched the NHL on TV.
Canadian Great Moments
June 5th, 2011
11:08 pm
This is for you Bettman/Moron and Wpg/Pvrty and all of the other Canada haters that live on this blog:
Some Great Moments in Canadian Sports:
#10 Vancouver winning the 2011 Stanley Cup
#9 Wayne Gretzky setting the single season goals scored record
#8 Winning Olympic hockey gold over USA in Vancouver, BC
#7 Montreal Canadiens winning the most Stanley Cups by a franchise – several moments really
#6 Inventing the game of basketball
#5 Winning Olympic hockey gold over USA in Salt Lake City, USA
#4 Atlanta Flames moving to Calgary
#3 Atlanta Thrashers moving to Winnipeg and then selling out season tickets in 17 minutes with a waiting list capped at 8,000
#2 Canadian Donovan Bailey winning Olympic 100 m Gold in Atlanta in 1996.
#1 The Toronto Blue Jays defeating the Atlanta Braves in 1992 to win the first of 2 World Series.
Is there maybe some jealousy behind the hate you guys seem to have for Canada?
Bettman the Moron = Bitter lonely man
June 5th, 2011
11:12 pm
Bettman the Moron
Your bitter misinformed and misdirected rants never fail to bring a smile to my face.
Please don’t ever stop
Realist
June 5th, 2011
11:36 pm
To all of you crackers who are p—-ing and moaning about the Thrashers leaving – where were you when they were trying to sell tickets? Down in the basement playing on Maw’s PC?
If you and all these great masses of corporate sponsors had been filling the joint at league average prices, this team wouldn’t be moving up there.
There had to be some reason they were losing $25M a year, and sure as I Am sitting here, I think those losses just might have a lot to do with the refusal of any local group to buy the team.
As for your whining about money in Winipeg, I think having the 17th richest man in the world (not just Cobb County) might indicate that there just may be some coin there too.
I just hate seeing ignorant redneck crackers who have never been out of state spew the kind of c— that I am seing here. You are discrediting the South.
Allan Hewitson
June 6th, 2011
12:18 pm
Thoughtful, heart-felt article. But face reality. There were no other offers. Winnipeg sold out ev ery seat in its arena for five years in four days, Thousands played hockey in the street to celebrate. 200 showed up to “protest” the sale. Reality is Bettman is a shallow, greedy commissioner, under-served by brains, interest in the game — he is only interested in his own million dollar plus salary. The NHL is a joke, outside of Canada – especially in the land of Nascar and football. Hockey is a northern game and while Bob Hartley knows the came, he could not sell its finer points or sell its intricacies to Atlanta. Winnipeg is turn the Threshers into a competitive, playoff team…don’t imagine for a moment Big Buff doesn’t know it’s cold outside in Winnipeg in winter but warm welcmoes await all the players in the fans hearts. Welcome back — Atlanta’s loss with owners out to get rich and screw the game…
Les Habitants
June 6th, 2011
4:06 pm
thrashersdawg,
“…no credit check required. Sounds like buying a house several years ago, and we all know how that turned out.”
Really? You could buy a house in Atlanta without credit check? I never knew it was so easy. Lucky you. In the ‘foreign country’, not only credit check is required, down payment is 20%. I guess that what makes Atlanta’s economy fluorish.
Les Habitants
June 6th, 2011
4:19 pm
Canadian Great Moments,
Corrections. #5 and #8 should read, “Winning Olympic hockey golds over USA…” Remember that Canada beat USA in both male and female finals in both Olympics.
Additions. Canada won the most gold medals in Winter Olympic Games ever in Vancouver 2010. The game of gridiron football was invented in Canada.
Realist
June 6th, 2011
11:32 pm
Habs
Not exactly -the first game of gridiron football was, I believe, played between McGill and Harvard. Last time I checked, Harvard was in the US.
Butros
June 7th, 2011
12:43 am
Realist – I think you are right. Some say that the two schools met for a football (ie soccer) match and the McGill team showed the Harvard guys a game they had played in Montreal that involved picking up the ball. I think the first real game was played at Harvard between these two schools but there would be debate about who really invented the game. There is no question though that the Canadians have been playing gridiron football as an organized game for longer than we Americans – the Grey Cup (Canada’s CFL Trophy) has been awarded for 100+ years to the Canadian Football Champions.
Les Habitants
June 7th, 2011
11:57 am
Realist,
I may be wrong, but the historical information I have is that McGill actually brought the game of gridiron football to the United States by playing Harvard in Cambridge. Thus, McGill had already been playing the game when they introduced it to Harvard.
And so the histroy goes that it was the reason why American football field is 100-yard long while Canadian is 110. Harvard did not have big enough field for 110-yard and 12 players.
LordStanley
June 7th, 2011
2:12 pm
I hate the fact that the Thrashers are gone, but I will maintain as long as I live that had not been for an incredible ATLANTA CURSE coupled with an incredible amount of BAD LUCK, the Atlanta Thrashers, in my opinion, would have won at least FOUR STANLEY CUPS. I am sure and positive that would have happened had Danny Heatley and his friend not gotten into their car accident killing Snyder, then the fans of Atlanta wouldnt have run Heatley out of town because Heatley would have stayed if he werent being bashed incessently 24/7/365. Had the car accident never occurred, then as Illya Kovulchuk developed into a SUPERSTAR maybe after his second season, you would have seen potentially the SECOND HIGHEST SCORING LINE OF KOVULCHUK–HEATLEY, SECOND ONLY TO Jari KURRI AND WAYNE GRETSGY. Future Hall of famers Heatley and Kovulchuk would have teamed up to give us a scoring line that strikes and scores as fast as lightning. That would have been something else to behold and Im sure the Thrashers would have won the cups to prove just how special it was. Oh well, all we can do now is dream about it–WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN!