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
Kelly
May 31st, 2011
1:17 pm
Puck like a porn star: considering the Titanic sunk in APRIL, 1912, on its maiden voyage, methinks your math is as bad as your decorum.
Rip Van Winkle
May 31st, 2011
1:18 pm
Never thought this joyous day would come. Hal-a-freakin’-louya! Waddell is FINALLY leaving and Atlanta’s “loss” is Winnipeg’s “gain!”
Kelly
May 31st, 2011
1:18 pm
Rip: sorry, dude. The Thrashers are welcome, but you can keep Waddell.
icedawg
May 31st, 2011
1:20 pm
The Atlanta ownership setup was problematic. Those kinds of partnerships are known to not last all that long.
Mike
May 31st, 2011
1:20 pm
“I would have loved to have went to a game for the novelty of it, but it shows how much I cared that I never went. Hockey sucks. It is only a tad bit better then watching soccer. If we lose the Braves or Falcons, or even the Hawks, I’ll care. Can’t muster up a single bad feeling about them leaving. Canada deserves them more than we do since they seem to be in love with this ridiculous sport. -Wes”
This is why Atlanta is losing a second NHL franchise. All the blame being thrown around is silly. Bettman, ASG, Winnipeg, TN, or whomever else you want to blame, I ask why? It doesn’t matter what they did or did not do, a meaningful majority of Atlanta citizens are indifferent at best towards the NHL. No matter how you market it, you can’t make people like hockey that don’t care about hockey. There’s definitely fans, but unfortunately they’re merely a drop in the bucket.
I’m truly sorry this has happened again, ATL.
jsmtih
May 31st, 2011
1:21 pm
take the hawks and falcons with you please
gopuckoff
May 31st, 2011
1:21 pm
This is happpiest day of my sport life. im so glad hockey is out in atlanta. i hate hockey with a passion and i hate the fact that it take up SC time and bottom scores!!!
ThrasherFan
May 31st, 2011
1:23 pm
Well, that’s the end of it… I see Tim Stapleton is excited about moving. Well I am excited to see him go because none of us spent money to see his a** play.
F you Gearon as well as ASG. Time to burn my 4 jerseys, my kids room full of Thrasher merch and anything NHL related I have.
You’ve lost me NHL… thanks for nothing.
mike in buffalo
May 31st, 2011
1:23 pm
I tend to have a pretty impartial view of this, with the exception that Buffalo is a true-blue hockey town, which Atlanta has never been. I can’t possibly agree that the NHL didn’t give Atlanta a chance. You folks had an 11-year second chance to support a team and you didn’t do it. Gripe all you want about the quality of the ownership or the fact that the team wasn’t very good – the fact remains that when a market is given a major-league franchise, real fans should turn out to see that product. If they don’t turn out, they don’t deserve the franchise. Football towns like Denver and Kansas City sell out even when their teams go 2-14; that’s real commitment and it’s something that’s a foreign concept in Atlanta. Heck, even the Braves didn’t sell out playoff games after post-season baseball became an annual occurrence. Criticize Winnipeg all you want, but those folks will probably scarf up 13,000 season tickets in the next three days; it’s something Atlanta couldn’t dream of doing. Hang your hats on the “smart consumer” peg if you want, but sometimes all it does is prove that people can be “so smart that they’re stupid.” Not enough of Atlanta’s citizens decided to embrace the Thrashers; instead of laying blame on ownership, your “sports fans” need to look in the mirror.
Jeff Schultz
May 31st, 2011
1:24 pm
D. Scott — I have nothing against the people or fans of Winnipeg. But “Canadian outpost” seemed closer to the truth than “booming metropolis” when addressing Winnipeg. And yes, I’ve been there.
M Tuck
May 31st, 2011
1:24 pm
My three friends and I each spend $1000 on Thrashers and $800 on Hawks tickets last year. No more. Boycott the Spirit.
GatorFan
May 31st, 2011
1:24 pm
They are going to sell out their season ticket drive no problem. Look at the prices. You wouldn’t see those prices in Atlanta. www dot driveto13 dot com
Thrashy Thrashy
May 31st, 2011
1:25 pm
Enjoy your hockey team, Winnipeg.
So long, Thrashers.
TruthSeeker
May 31st, 2011
1:25 pm
Support the Falcons. They’re the one franchise in Atlanta with an owner who cares as much as the fans do and is dedicated to bringing this city a championship.
My condolences to Thrashers fans.
Jeff Schultz
May 31st, 2011
1:25 pm
Thanks all for the comments and feedback, not just today but over the past few weeks. I think the reaction to some of the columns I’ve written illustrates the passion that exists among Atlanta hockey fans. Unfortunately, you seldom were given a product on the ice for you to express that passion. I’ll try to get back to some of your questions now.
Jeff Schultz
May 31st, 2011
1:26 pm
Edward — The Hawks and Arena operating rights are for sale, that’s clear. But I’m pretty sure Michael Gearon would stick around as a part owner if that opportunity was availability. He’s still a Hawks’ fan.
Homer Simpson
May 31st, 2011
1:28 pm
Sounding a little bitter Mr. Schultz; relating the move to Winnipeg with Enron and Ponzi. Well, you southern yokels can go back to watching hillbilly NASCAR on the B&W TV in your trailers. Canadians have not forgotten 1992 with the disrespect Atlanta showed to Toronto and all of Canada with the Canadian flag being upside down. BTW, need I remind you which team won the 92 WS.
Reverie
May 31st, 2011
1:29 pm
Bring back the Knights, the only hockey franchise to ever care about the city of Atlanta. Funny thing is, it was the only hockey franchise the fans ever really loved. I could not care less about the Thrashers (pretty stupid name, don’t you think) leaving. What I do care about is that for the second time in a row the Atlanta fans are being blamed for really bad franchise management. Cousins needs money and the next thing you know the Flames, a money-making team are jetting off to Calgary. Speaking of Jets, Winnipeg couldn’t hold a team financially and now they are back for more. Like you said, this is why the NHL is a second-rate sport, run by a third-rate leader while Atlanta’s first rate fans are left to stew. The next time the NHL comes to call, tell them to keep moving.
Jeff Schultz
May 31st, 2011
1:29 pm
Litz — “I just wonder … fly on the wall, and all that … what the reaction will be (and who will they sue) next year when the NBA is locked out and Philips is dark 82 nights … with no income at all.”
… Anybody want to invite 20,000 people to their wedding or Bar Mitzvah?
VOLinATL
May 31st, 2011
1:29 pm
I had season tickets from day one but, due to the ineptitude of the ownership, it was down to a Flex Plan last season. I imagine there were a lot us us in the same boat. And, even though I knoew this day was coming, this still has really hit me in the gut. I enjoyed going to the games (even if the team stunk, for the most part). I do not careone whit for the NBA, so it is going to make for a long winter around here.
BJOHNDAWG
May 31st, 2011
1:29 pm
The atlanta spirit group( such an improper name by the way) has done this town a huge disservice by even existing. The NHL and Beehead with his …it could not be helped. Yeah right $60 million in your damn pocket could not be helped. Again NHL and Beehead another disservice to this town.
I am done with the Hawks and Phillips Arena until some other organization owns and has the right to both. There is my disservice to the Atlanta Spirit Group.
Big Bear
May 31st, 2011
1:29 pm
You guys need to take a step back, out of the local situation in Atlanta, and see what has been going on in the NHL for the last twenty years. This is not just an Atlanta issue. This is a League-wide issue, where the NHL has been going into too damned many of the wrong damned places for too damned long.
This League has been bending over backwards to put itself into southern US markets, typically in places where no one knows a blue line from a blue bird, all on the premise of “expanding the footprint of the game”. Winnipeg and Quebec both lost their teams in order to feed the sun-belt expansion that was supposedly going to save the League, with all of that corporate gold and all of those TV eyeballs that were supposedly waiting. And, um, gee, how did it actually turn out?
Shaky franchises, empty seats, gong-show ownership and money disappearing down black holes…not just in Atlanta, but in Phoenix, Nashville, Tampa, Florida, and on and on it goes.
Sorry that the 200 of you in Atlanta who care are losing your team, but this has been coming for a long, long time. I don’t think that success in Winnipeg is in any way guaranteed, either, but the economics of pro hockey simply do not work in many US cities and have not worked in a very, very long time.
Jeff Schultz
May 31st, 2011
1:30 pm
Delta House — Niedermayer . . . .! Dead! (Not Scott, the movie one.)
JOE
May 31st, 2011
1:30 pm
WHAT IS HOCKEY??? WE HAD HOCKEY IN ATL???
Reverie
May 31st, 2011
1:31 pm
Mike-In-Buffalo obviously cannot read. The Flames made money. The only reason the Thrashers did not was really, really bad management. Buffalo survives by being just about the only game in town.
Jeff Schultz
May 31st, 2011
1:32 pm
Tincup9 — I think each team was asked to chip in $2 million for Coyotes 2 years ago. Not sure about since then.
Atlantan
May 31st, 2011
1:33 pm
No different than a Planet Hollywood closing down – if the product and management stink……
Certainly the folks in Winnipeg won’t pay $$$$ to go watch mediocrity either. Their good luck is new ownership.
bitter "OLE" School dooley(aka vince)
May 31st, 2011
1:33 pm
send the AJC’s new Recruiting guy packing along with dead birds—-worst recruiting coverage ever!!
——————————I vote for chip towers——-
Jeff (not Schultz)
May 31st, 2011
1:33 pm
Please, somebody smarter than me help me with this…. can ANYBODY find out and post on here some ways to contact the ASG guys and some people in the NHL office (not just Bettman, I am sure his email filters out 95 percent of what he gets). Somebody get me some phone numbers and email addresses for some NHL staff and some ASG people so that we Thrashers fans can raise hell with them and let them know JUST what we feel and where they can go.
R.I.P., Thrashers… you guys played your hearts out for the last few years for uncommitted owners and an effing idiot for a general manager. Thanks for your efforts on the ice. And thank you to the hard-core Thrashers fans that made the few and far between meaningful games a LOT of fun to attend.
I will miss the Thrashers and NHL hockey terribly… we can only pray that in the next 6 to 8 years, the NHL and its NEW commissioner awards another team to Atlanta… one whose owners are not a bunch of mentally deficient baboons.
Jeff Schultz
May 31st, 2011
1:34 pm
DawginLex — (on registration) Not my call. I monitor comments as much as possible but if something is over the line, let me know: jschultz@ajc.com. But I believe your issue was taken care of.
Darren G
May 31st, 2011
1:34 pm
OK Atlanta fans you didn’t get a good product on the ice and the owners of the team didn’t know what they were doing BUT no one stepped up to buy the team after looking for a new owner for 6 years. Not only that, this was your second try with an NHL team. How chances do you guys want until you stop and realize maybe hockey in Atlanta just isn’t the greatest idea.
Lee
May 31st, 2011
1:34 pm
Very well written. There is a saying on leadership that goes…”everything rises and falls on leadership.” The Atlanta Spirit killed the Thrashers, what a horrible display. Wonder if Winnipeg will keep Don Waddell?
Winnipeg = Poverty
May 31st, 2011
1:34 pm
I love these Canuckleheads who believe that no place where ice can’t form naturally should have a team. I guess the Vancouver Canucks should have been moved years ago because all it does there is rain, not to mention for many years you could shoot a cannon off in the old Vancouver Pacific Coliseum and not hit anyone for Canuck home games.
Slapshot
May 31st, 2011
1:34 pm
The only reason that the Atlanta Spirit didn’t move to sell the Hawks is that the price of an NBA team right now is $0.
Bettman gave up on Atlanta because he knew that the franchise was so wrecked from the inside that it could not be saved.
The Trashers didn’t have a real chance from the moment Ted sold the team. He uniquely understood that at heart Atlanta is a college sports town; that pro sports are an acquired taste around here. He build and marketed his teams accordingly.
Sadly, today is just going to reinforce the rest of the sporting world’s view that Atlanta isn’t a good sports market and will make it easier to add the Hawks to the list of potential contraction franchises on the NBA list.
Thrashers Suck
May 31st, 2011
1:34 pm
good now the ASG can focus more attention to the Hawks instead of these losers, buh bye
Big Bear
May 31st, 2011
1:36 pm
Reverie, you obviously don’t live anywhere near Buffalo. The Sabres survive because partially because they sit on the border with Canada and a huge chunk of their audience comes from southern Ontario. Buffalo also survives because people in southern Ontario and western New York actually grow up playing hockey, and so live and breathe the game. Western NY is one of the few regions of the US where hockey actually has a home-grown following. Seriously–how many of y’all down in Georgia have ever put on skates, or ever will?
Go Jets Go!!!
May 31st, 2011
1:36 pm
What a fantastic decision!!! Finally hockey is returning to where the sport belongs!!! This Canadian “outpost” will be sold out every game and the team will be embraced by Winnipeg and the rest of Manitoba where the love for the game lives. Hopefully the NHL has figured out that having a team in Atlanta is a waste and not bother to return there.
Jeff Schultz
May 31st, 2011
1:36 pm
Tommy — Funny. It seems like one-third of NHL teams always are in trouble, does it?
St. Clarkston
May 31st, 2011
1:36 pm
Bye.
David
May 31st, 2011
1:37 pm
I do not believe why this group of Atlanta Spirit bought this team in the first place. A handful of business people who knew nothing about owning a team, and there is even more bad news they own the Atlanta Hawks, too. Watch out Hawks, you may be next move to another terrible city like Winnipeg, too. Maybe, Buffalo or Pittsburgh.
TheAntiMe
May 31st, 2011
1:37 pm
Someone should arrange a trip to the zoo for Gary Bettman and all of the ASG owners and have them all accidentally get locked in the lion cages at feeding time. Then again, I hope that doesn’t happen. It would be a shame for all of those poor lions to be required to have their stomachs pumped for eating something so putrid and vile.
bitter corporate pro teams
May 31st, 2011
1:37 pm
as long as money matters more than fan loyalty————a fan is just a —–looser—–
collateral damage———in the wall street easy money scams—————–yaaaaw
——————-stick with collage ball—————-yaaaaaaaaaaw
Jeff Schultz
May 31st, 2011
1:38 pm
Demand Accountability — I can’t allow posting of addresses and phone numbers here.
Alex Hankewicz
May 31st, 2011
1:38 pm
As a Canadian and living in Montreal probably the greatest hockey city on earth,I really feel for the Atlanta Hockey fans. Just wher best in MLB pulled the Expos out of Montreal for Washington this is just like when poor ownership in 1994 pulled out star players in the aftermath of Basebal players strike. More then the financial investment fans make is the investment of the heart from watching games on TV playing street hockey ,buying the teams jersey and listenting to games on radio.
Atlanta is a good city but the fault lies not with the fans but the crappy ownership.
Jeff Schultz
May 31st, 2011
1:40 pm
Chc4 — More the reason to wait one year to see if another buyer emerges. League could’ve prevented the move. Bylaws give Bettman that hammer and he chose not to use it.
Hutch
May 31st, 2011
1:42 pm
This article sucks!
You basically trash the City of Winnipeg as second rate, and you still don’t understand why the team is going there.
When Winnipeg lost the Jets, the canadian dollar was worth 40% less than it is now. The Canadian dollar is worth more than the U.S dollar, I’m going to have to assume you did not know this.
Winnipeg will pack the Arena for a team that you drew a few thousand for.
Winnipeg does not care that this team made the playoffs once in 10 years. They will support it.
Face it, you lost teams twice not because of Bettman, but because the game did not sell there.
You even mention in your article worse hockey cities like Raleigh, Phoenix and Tampa.
Don’t be surprised when Phoenix & at least one of the Florida teams wind up in Quebec City and Hamilton (or Toronto as a second team).
The game is not meant for southeners. You can not go play it outdoors in the winter and fall in love with it.
It’s not your fault, it’s just the way it is.
I do feel bad for the fans of the Thrashers and the game of hockey though.
But I end again by saying this article sucked and still misses the whole point of the franchise move.
R. Stroz
May 31st, 2011
1:43 pm
FIRE WADDELL
This will finally happen, eleven years too late.
Southernhockeyfan
May 31st, 2011
1:43 pm
I am at a lost for words, I have loved hockey since attending my first game as a four year old back in 1969 when living in St, Louis. The Blues played the Bruins. In 1980 I moved to Atlanta about the same time the Flames announced they were living town . When the Thrashers came to town I was like a kid in a candy store. It was like Christmas. I used to go to games with a good friend. Two years ago, just two weeks after going to our last game together he died of a massive heart attack at 47. The Thrashers helped keep his memory alive. He loved them as much as I did. I wish I could call him to vent my frustration. Thanks Atlanta Spirit, you have broken a lot of hearts today.
Big Bear
May 31st, 2011
1:44 pm
Note for Jeff Schultz: yes, one-third of NHL teams are always in trouble, and that’s largely because the League has overexpanded in order to go into US markets where no one cares (see my previous post about Bettman’s “Project Sun Belt”).
Most pro sports leagues are actually a bit too big, in my opinion (remember when MLB had its contraction plans on the drawing board a few years ago? those plans will resurface again soon, I guarantee it). But the NHL for some reason pretends that it has a national profile in the US, and it just doesn’t.
Face it, hockey, you are not football. You do not have any kind of cultural imprint, outside of a few very specific areas. You are a niche regional sport, and most Americans treat you accordingly.
Southernhockeyfan
May 31st, 2011
1:44 pm
Typo-should say leaving town. Sorry, but fingers aren’t working so well today.