Minus NHL, did Atlanta just drop to Triple A of sports towns?

Brewers.

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No NHL team really makes you think that??? Who cares. The spelling bee and women’s college softball get better ratings.

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Milwaukee still had the Brewers in MLB last time I looked. Easy to overlook in that long list!

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Heck, I live in Florida and didn’t realize that Miami had a NHL team. But then, a lot of people who live in Miami don’t know that they have a MLB team.

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NO. We did not drop to AAA of sports towns. We are just not that in to Hockey. It is the least of the five major sports (If you consider NASCAR a sport?). We are a major college spots area amd have arguably some of the best pro sports teams as a whole in the country. The Braves are always in the hunt, the Hawks did get into the second round of the playoffs, and the Falcons look to be on the verge of a Super Bowl run.
How foolish to even consider that we are not a major sports market just because we don’t have enough yankees to support a hockey team. Show me one team on that list besides Dallas that is in the south and has a thriving major league hockey team. Florida teams do not count, they have a large northern population to draw from.

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Is MLS still not considered a major sport Jeff? Regardless, there is no denying that this is a major setback despite the fact most sports fans in Atlanta showed a disregard for hockey. Your list of cities with less than 4 sports teams speaks volumes about the state of Atlanta pro sports teams and fans today. We’re not in a class with NY or Chicago or God forbid even Phoenix. We’re now on par with Tampa.

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Send us a minor league hockey team and everyone should be happy. Either that or encourage everyone to go see the UGA and Ga. Tech club Hockey teams play. They are actually pretty good.

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Atlanta will always be a minor league backwater as long as the Georgia Bulldogs are included in its teams.

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If the NHL is such a great product, why do they have a revenue sharing contract with NBC to broadcast their games? The last sports organization to have that is the old Arena Football League.

Losing the NHL does not make the greater Atlanta area a AAA town. It makes the NHL a nitch sport that only gets ratings when they play holiday games out side on football and baseball stadiums.

The NHL moved a team from a top ten market to a market that makes them a small market team. They will have problems bringing in free agents just like Calgary and Edmonton. When the Canadian dollar falls the roof will cave in on these teams.

I am glad I stopped going to games after the ASG bought the team. Hockey is a great sport, but the NHL is run worse then baseball.

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YES!!! This is officially a third tier city.

Look out below: soon Atlanta won’t even be the capital of the Southeast, and the provincial idiots here want it that way.

Truly pathetic.

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To be fair– try counting the WNBA and MLS– we are 1 and 1 on that count…

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My guess is that 95% of America doesn’t know which station to turn on for an NHL game, and most of the rest probably didn’t know the ATL even had a team… much less that we lost one. Nobody cares about hockey below the rust belt unless they have nobody else to care for (Nashville anyone?).

I just wish the Atlanta Spirit Group were banished to middle-of-nowhere Canada, too!

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http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/saveourthrashers/signatures

Sign the petition to the NHL Board of Governors to keep the Thrashers in Atlanta.

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A bit late for that, Billsen. Hate to be the one to inform you…

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[...] Post By Google News Click Here For The Entire Article June 1st, 2011 | Category: [...]

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Last I checked we are in the south football is king baseball is our summer sport and basketball is what we watch when neither football or baseball are on. As long as we are not losing any of those three sports I belive most georgians could care less. For crying out loud I think college baseball gets better ratings then then hockey here ever did.

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Interesting list. However, from a Canadian perspective, I have to point out there is one significant sports category which is completely different between the US and Canada – college sports. Up here, university athletics are a niche interest, football being the only one with any regular national TV exposure, while basketball, volleyball, and hockey are noticed only during the national finals. On the other hand, March Madness is a major Canadian TV property, and many people are busy following their favourite US college football team, despite never having attended any US college. meanwhile, you know where college sports ranks in your own interests.

As for your list of covering the four ‘major’ pro sports, the only Canadian city to have a foot in all four camps is Toronto, which has the Blue Jays (MLB), Raptors (NBA), Maple Leafs (NHL), and Argonauts (CFL). As well, the NFL’s Buffalo Bills play one game per season in Toronto, and covetous eyes are being cast south at the possibility of buying the franchise the instant Ralph Wilson dies. (Not all vultures live in Winnipeg.)

One other note – the Raptors, Maple Leafs, and MLS’s FC Toronto are all owned by the same conglomerate, MLSE, which is probably at least as hated as Atlanta Spirit. So far, fan disapproval has been expressed by ugly soccer fan chants and some schmuck throwing a box of waffles on the ice at a Leafs’ game.

Finally, while I am happy to see hockey back in Winnipeg, I wish a way could have been found that did not cost other hockey fans their franchise. RIP Thrashers, gone too soon.

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I wish our supposed Atlanta columnists would quit trying to tear down this city all the time with the “not a good sports city” and junk like that.

The NHL is a second rate league, with a third rate commish. The NHL doesn’t deserve Atlanta. Not the other way around. And if we’re going to take away points for losing a meaningless NHL team, the city and surrounding state should get points for the HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of people we put into various college stadiums across the south every football weekend. If you include college football in the mix, that puts maybe only Dallas ahead of Atlanta.

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How can Houston be a smaller media market when it has 500K more residents than Atlanta?

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Keep the NHL in Canada & the northern half of the U.S. The NHL should get out of Florida, Arizona & Texas. Give Alaska, Seattle, Utah & Indy a team.

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I love Atlanta, and I have no problems with college football being king here. I’m solidly in the majority.

Local flavor, you can’t escape it. Not every place needs to be the Exact Same™, with four major sports.

A Falcon Super Bowl victory is really the only thing truly lacking in this town.

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For the folks out there who hate hockey, let it go. There was a portion of Atlanta who loved hockey. There are people from Canada and areas up North that took to the team. One playoff in 11+ years will kill attendence even in the Bostons, Chicagos,etc. If the Thrashers were given an owner like Arthur Blank (remember when the GA Dome had empty upper decks in Football crazy South?) the Thrashers would be a playoff team drawing 18k a game. This city should have 4 teams, when a city like Denver supports four teams, Atlanta would as well. Denver has owners who put out a good product. Atlanta fans just want a good product. ASG, you let us down big time. Maybe a Arthur Blank type will appear and buy the Coyotes and move them to Atlanta? I can wish.

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The NHL got $60 million in relocation fee to move the Thrashers. The NHL needed the money other wise they would have fought HARD to keep the team in Atlanta like the NHL has done with other teams.
This is less about and more about the League.
I remember in “91″ how the whole City was alive with Braves Fever. People were Chopping to each other while driving in Traffic. People were half awake at work after the late games on the left coast. That Spirit lasted for about 5 years them we were so used to going to the Playoffs it became no big deal.

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Considering the NHL is itself a AAA sports league, I don’t think it hurts the city too much. Seriously, what kind of commissioner allows a team to leave a top 10 market, an international city, for a city a fraction of its size? Bettman has got to be the worst commissioner in sports.

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Tru dat, Hayseed

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Is MLS still not considered a major sport?

Absolutelty not!!!! Not even close……WNBA and poker rank higher.

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While it’s never a good thing for a city’s image to lose a pro franchise – and even worse for it to happen twice – this says more about the NHL than it does about Atlanta.

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Jeff, Since you’re kinda anal for hockey, any chance you’ll move to Winnipeg too? Right now, Atlanta’s in the low Class A league when it comes to sports columnists.

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Jeff, Pittsburgh having the Steelers counts for at least 2-3 teams.

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Send us a minor league hockey team and everyone should be happy.

Gwinnett Gladiators only 30 min north of Atlanta.

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Goodbye Thrashers
Sung to Supertramp’s “Goodbye Stranger”

It was around noon yesterday
The Thrashers said they’re gone
The ASG and Bettman do not care
So now they’re moving on

Like a fan without our Blueland
Like a commish without a brain
Atlanta’s without an NHL team
They’ve left for his own gain

Now don’t believe in what the owners say
As the undisputed truth
I believe things didn’t have to be this way
To keep us happy in Duluth

Like a ship without an anchor
Like a slave with a chain
Just the thought of the ASG’s words
Sends a shiver through my veins

And we will go on wearing
Our jerseys all brand new
We’ll remember what could have been
If only we weren’t owned by you

Goodbye Thrashers it’s been nice
Hope you find your paradise
Tried to see the Spirit’s view
Too bad they failed to come through
Goodbye Pavy, Goodbye Kane
Will we ever see you again
Feel much sorrow, feel much shame
Come next year, no more games

Now some they do and some they don’t
And some you just can’t tell
And some they will and some they won’t
With ASG, it’s sure has been hell

You can laugh at our behavior
That’ll never bother me
Unable to find our savior
At Philips,you won’t find me

And we will go on wearing
Our jerseys like brand new
We’ll remember what could have been
If only we weren’t owned by you

Goodbye Thrashers it’s been nice

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…. at trhe end of the day it’s sad about the thrashers.. Many jobs are now lost becuase of it… Shame on Bettman for not even trying to assist an keeping them in ATL. BTW… No one mentions how Don Waddell ran the franchise into the ground, iV’e never seen a GM so unsuccessful and keep his job… I stand corrected… Matt MIllen was in Detroit to long!

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GOOOOOOOOOO….GEORGIA…..BULLDOGS………screw the NHL. Getting back to my roots…college football.

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The NHL is broadcasting games on Versus, for crying out loud. It’s the triple A of sports!

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Jeff, Whats going to happen to Chris V Thrashers beat writer?

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Losing a large media market may hurt the NHL (doubtful). While I hate to see the Thrashers go, the issue is are the teams really competative. ASG has failed to put together a team that is capable of doing just that. At least ATL three remaining teams have put themselves in position to have a chance in their respective sports.

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Come to think of it, the WNBA and MLS actually have games broadcast on ESPN and ABC as opposed to Vs. Calling hockey “Big 4″ is out of date. It goes back to the days before big network TV contracts.

Anyway, I’m sorry to see the Thrashers leave. Not a huge fan, but it was nice knowing they were here. Not going to lose a lot of sleep over it though. Wouldn’t be surprised to see the entire league fold eventually they way things are going.

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Move us back to the top of the heap Atlanta has the National Ultimate frisbee Championship team!

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It DOES matter that Atlanta lost the Thrashers. Having 4 teams is a prestige thing for most cities, but of course in Atlanta there are a lot of people who say good riddance just because they don’t follow hockey. Most of the cities that have all 4 major fanchises are elite cities… then again, I guess it’s fitting that we don’t have 4 teams since ATL is a second-tier city that likes to think of itself as “world class” (as the mayor just referred to ATL in a news interview). Atlanta has has more in common with St. Louis and Tampa-St. Pete than Chicago or Boston.

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If a place on the map cannot allow children to “go outside and play on the frozen pond,” it does not need a hockey team.

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Vs two big pro sports contracts: The NHL and Pro Bull Riding. Says all you need to know about hockey’s stature as a major sport.

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To the people that say this city is perceived as the “Braves, Falcons, and college football” outside of the market, you are wrong…. the only thing Atlanta is known for is the Braves. Believe it or not outside of the south most people do not care about college football, so they don’t associate Atlanta with college football because it isn’t on their radar. The Falcons are improving, so with time they too might be part of what Atlanta is known for, but they haven’t done it long enough. Atlanta is only known for the Braves as far as sports go… and yes, this city is AAA for sports, but not because of the Thrashers leaving, but because I can buy a ticket to a playoff game for face value the day of the event and because opposing fans outnumber home fans at certain games.

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College Football is big in the South and the MIDWEST

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Matt Ryan,

“Football” is not the number two sport in the world. Sorry.

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ChippersLoveChild ,

Is it Cricket?

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Atlanta behind Detroit…that’s about as low as you can go! Loserville USA and yes…triple A. How is that posible for an Olympic City?

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Get a clue. Second time ATL crashed and burned on hockey. Is not going to happen—ever.

Hockey = Worst. Sport. Ever.

ATL still ranks as a major sporting town. Braves have won it all before (and been consistent winner in recent past). Football has been to the big show and could be going back REALLY soon. Basketball is two players (maybe one if Teague steps up) away from the next level—and they are not “bad” now…

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ChippersLoveChild:
“Believe it or not outside of the south most people do not care about college football”

May want to recheck your stats, not to mention look at the ratings, and finally look at the $ networks are throwing at conferences from around the country.

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“As to the “hockey is broadcast on Versus” argument…who just bought Versus and negotiated that hefty, long-term hockey tv contract? Yup, NBC.”

Look, I don’t hate hockey and I’m certainly not happy the team left, but just checked the Vs TV ratings. Last available ratings were from 2008, so they may be a bit outdated, but it was < 250,000 viewers a game. Wonder how that compares to an average nationally televised NFL, MLB, or NBA game? Hint: in the millions, not the thousands.

As for the gomers saying they're glad the team left, or that they hate hockey, I'm guessing its mostly wounded pride. It's like not being invited to a party and saying, "I didn't want to go to that damned party anyway."

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I still think Winnipeg sucks and the commisioner is an idiot. He stole a very good franchise and put it in a back-water town because his friend wanted to. He also had strong anti-Atlanta Spirit Group (could you blame him for feeling like that?) and thus he couldn’t wait one more year to pressure the idiots at ASG to sell to a decent Atlanta owner. Atlanta has more money than Winnipeg could ever dream. We could have kept the franchise here if the NHL wanted to. I can’t wait until year 3 at Loseipeg and see the numbers of “fans” drop to 9, 000 a night.

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I would prefer to see more Steeplechase events where you can wine and dine, catch some sun, and look at the beautiful women from Atlanta.

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When you put a NE/Canadian regional sport in a southern town, you had better be at least competitive. The reason the Thrashers didn’t work was not Atlanta, but how they performed.

Put a winner in here, and they will come.

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No, we are not a AAA town town at all. Jeff, you are right. We got hosed. Yesterday’s events have more to say about the NHL than Atlanta. Hockey is a great sport, especially live. High Def TV has made it more palatable to watch on TV, but it suffers when compared to the other 3 as a lot of its appeal is lost in the translation to TV. I would not go so far as to call it a nitch sport because the league has successfully penetrated markets in California and the South, but it is a distant 4th as a major sport and will remain there in my opinion. There are probably 7 or 8 franchises now that are in big trouble financially. It will be very interesting to see what happens in places like Phoenix, Miami and Long Island in the next couple of years. Things are not trending well for the league. I read yesterday that the Washington Capitals lost a ton of money this past season. That is unbelievable. They have the most exiting player in the game, a solid team and played to packed houses every night. That speaks volumes about the NHL. Without big money from TV, the league will always remain unstable and each summer they will always have a couple of franchises on the bubble, so to speak.

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If a sport has important playoff and finals games on the Versus network, then I find it hard to take it seriously as a “Big Four” sport.

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This is a good sports town but the product the absentee/committee owners have put out has been boring and bad. A.S. was simply snake bit by bad advice, lack of money, and poor luck. Liberty Media choses to compete for a wild card rather than first. We need sportsmen as owners not committees or corporations. When the owners appear to take an interest because they are fans rather than its an investment the product will improve and fans will come. The city’s media should also bear some of the blame. In the last several years the Thrasher’s were never a topic on sports talk radio except when they were moving or Kovalchuk was leaving. Radio is important because it can create a buzz and for the Thrashers no one over the airwaves gave the team any time. Any publicity would have helped but instead we get the same tired content. They will say listeners didn’t want to hear about hockey. Maybe; but no one over the radio was interested in the game enough to sell it as the most exciting arena sport out there.
Atlanta has lost a major team but for all the reasons above no one cares. But next fall when Phillips is closed for 41 nights and all those businesses that relied on fans to come eat, sleep, dine and drink lay off employees, the city will realize that an important piece of the economic engine that is downtown is gone.
A sad state of affairs.

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When speaking of relevance, there’s pro football, college football then pro baseball. All the rest are but window dressing. Any city with the two major pro sports has all it needs. (my apologies to all those employed by the Thrashers who are now out of a job).

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No, Atlanta is not a “Triple A” sports town. The fact is, the NHL needs to get it through their thick heads that they are not meant to compete for entertainment dollars in markets dominated so heavily by college and pro football, basketball or baseball. You can’t push a string, and hopefully Bettman figures this out sooner than later. The reason that the 8th largest media market in the U.S. just lost its NHL franchise to a city of 750,000 and a province with a total population of just over a million simply comes down to passion for the game. Sports fans in Atlanta repeatedly demonstrated that they had no such passion – P.S. nobody is surprised by this. Kids in Canada and some Northern States (Chicago, Boston, Detroit) are raised to understand and appreciate the game from an early age. There is no grass-roots hockey movement in Phoenix, Atlanta and Nashville for obvious climatic reasons. – they don’t get snow and ice for months on end. How could fans there be expected to pay to see a game they have never played as a kid and can’t easily relate to or understand. Fans in Winnipeg, have a deep connection to pro hockey and rue the day they lost their team sixteen years ago. Save for a few ardent supporters, nobody in the southern markets cares about how their team might be doing, if they are aware they have one at all. NHL fans know that with the exception of a statistical outlier (Dallas) or the mainly-snowbird-supported teams of Tampa Bay and Florida, hockey doesn’t work in southern markets, and so be it.The NHL needs to give up on the pipe dream of Southern expansion and locate teams where they have a fighting chance. The league will be stronger for it.

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Look, we lost the Civil War; they burned down our city; we have no real culture or history.

We’re a bunch of phoneys. Even most peoples accents here are affected.

We’re just one cliche after another.

We’re losers. Ain’t nothin’ can be done ’bout it.

Seriously, one championship in 45 years and Seattle gets the title of most miserable sports town?

We can’t even win that! I blame Bobby Cox.

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Won’t miss the Thrashers one bit. Let’s drop on down to Double-A and get rid of the Hawks & Dream too.

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Atlanta has had a bunch of losing teams so the perception is the fans don’t support the teams. In other cities the same thing happens it’s just not focused on as much as it is in Atlanta. New York Yankees had a hard time drawing a crowd in the 80’s. The Mets can’t draw a crowd right now.
The braves have one of the largest stadiums in baseball which is why they rarely sell out. But at the end of the year they typically are in the top half of all teams in attendance. Atlanta fans will support an organization that proves to us that they are as committed to the team as we are. Arthur Blank and Ted Turner fired fans up by spending money on players and hiring the right FO people to make the organization a winner. Since AOL and now Liberty have taken over the Braves the fans still support because they still win but, how many more people do you think would go to games if we had an owner who was front and center wanting to win just as badly as the fans and willing to spend money to do it. I know fans don’t come to see the owner but they’ll feel confident that if things aren’t going the right way at least we have an owner who isn’t afraid to do what’s needed to resolve the issue. Unfortunately the Hawks and Thrashers have never in their existence had an owner who LOVED either one of them enough to do whatever it took to win. Ted Turner loved baseball and just owned the Hawks and Thrashers. The ASG showed from the beginning that they were clueless numbtard douchebags that couldn’t and wouldn’t be able to succeed. They were why the Thrashers failed and will be the reason the Hawks fail unless they find someone who wants to buy them and give the team what it needs a owner who is a fan first.

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how quick can we “lose’ the hawks now… not fast enough……… fact is. hockey is not a universal sport and only appeals to certain folks.. now, Atlanta could get behind a hockey team if they were winners or at least had a regular chance at winning…….. FTR Atlanta’s image is not tarnished, aftewrall they survived the 60s-70s-80s of the losingnest pro teams around

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Really – how many people still care about the Thrashers? They were and are a bad team run by a totally inept bunch. I had to laugh when Mike Gerron (excuse any spelling error)got all choked up during his TV interview. They put a lousy product on the ice for 11 years and they expected people to continue to shell out hard earned money to watch ineptitude. In all these years they never got rid of that doofus, Don Waddell. They can take the team to Winnipeg – a jerk water town that has already lost one NHL team – and good riddance. I wouldn’t care if they won the Stanley Cup next year. I just feel bad for those folks who will be losing their jobs because of the ASG screwups.

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Those who argue that losing a NHL Franchise is no big deal do not understand the economics of professional sports.

Put aside for a moment the literal loss of the franchise. Atlanta, which loves to bill itself as a cosmopolitan, international city, could not find anyone willing to buy the franchise. I know that the former ownership and the NHL tried to paint this as a long-time exhausting effort when in fact the search for ownership could not have begun in earnest until six months ago when the ownership litigation (brought on with nobody to blame other than the ownership) was settled. Still, in six months, no one stepped forward.

Attendance remains a puzzle if you believe that Atlanta is full of transplanted citizens from the north. This is even more puzzling if you ever attended a Thrashers game when they played teams from New York, Philly, Chicago, etc. where thousands of their fans, now residing in Atlanta, turned the Arena into a neutral site at best. These transplanted northerners apparently never bought into the Thrashers as they apparently did not come back unless their former home town team was playing.

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Atlanta is a college football town that happens to have three pro franchises.

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GTT– the answers to that are Columbus, Buffalo, and Pittsburgh. Doesn’t leave much of a market for Cleveland (who lost the Barons in the late 70’s.)

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The NHL now ranks behind MLS.

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Simple Jack:

I agree with your comments about hockey and the Hawks, with 1 caveat. Regarding hockey, that sport won’t come back here in my lifetime and I’m in my mid-30’s. That ship has sailed. As for the Hawks, they ARE 2 players away–unfortunately, those 2 players are Jordan and Shaq circa 1995! :>)

As for all of the comments that Georgia is a great college sports town and that makes a great sports town, I just have to laugh–the beloved Dawgs haven’t won a Nat’l Championship since 1980, over 30 years ago, and they are basically a mid-level SEC team behind the likes of Alabama, FLA and LSU, and MAYBE…MAYBE..on par with the next grouping of Auburn and TN, though those 2 schools have won titles more recently (and hey, I like UGA and am an unbiased BIG TEN guy). It just kills me with laughter that GA folks LOVE to tout UGA when so many true college powers (USC, Texas, Nebraska, OSU, and the aforementioned Big 3 of the SEC) have all won much much more. Any way you slice it, other than Seattle (the Sonics in ‘79 and some good Mariners teams in the ’90’s) and SD (no titles), the ATL is THE worst pro sports town–1966 is a long, long time ago, so the ATL has had lots of teams and years to bank more than 1 title, and that title should have been coupled with at least 1 more–this may be sacrilege, but Cox blew ‘91 and ‘96, and any true and knowledgeable sports fan knows that. Liebrandt v. Puckett was bad, but Game 4 of the ‘96 WS will live in ATL sports infamy along with Pearl Harbor (a nod to Roosevelt). Up 2-1 and 6-0 with Bielecki cruising, he changed course. That was mistake #1. Then, he inexplicably put Wohlers in to pitch the 8th when he had pitched the 9th all season long. Wohlers, attempting to preserve himself for 2 not 1 innings, hung the Leyritz slider and the rest is history. Tied 2-2, Smoltz couldn’t get the shell shocked ATL crowd into Game 5 despite a very good pitching performance. These are facts–that 1 extra title would have sealed the Braves legacy. That’s how close the margin of error is, and Cox blew it. Yes, he was solid, and for 162 games and the concept of steadiness, he was “Schottenheimer-esque”. But when the pressure tightened and the games mattered most, Cox made crucial and legacy mistakes.

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Atlanta had a hockey team????

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Has anyone ever known a normal person named Stuart?

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The top team in MLB attendance is Philly for 2011. Back in 2001 when the Phillies were bad they ranked 24th 2002 they ranked 24th 2003 they ranked 14th then they started to compete and attendance went up. When they start losing again you’ll see the attendance drop. Teams win people come. Teams lose people stay home. The Thrashers lost people stayed home.

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definitely dropped with the move of the Thrashers. I’m going to hate not living in an NHL town. I’m planning trips to Nashville already….

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Listen gang, if you did not like hockey, that is fine and you need not respond to this blog. From a business perspective, even if you didn’t like hockey you should be angry that a major sporting team left for a crappy town like Losipeg. There are folks who enjoyed the sport and would have gone to more games and generated income for downtown Atlanta (jerk of a mayor) had the ownership group actually put effort into the club. It was badly managed. ASG is a group of idiots who failed, plain and simple.

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i predict atlanta will have a re-lo’d hockey team here within 5 years. i’d like to see us get an MLS team…could really get behind that.

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Could it be our demographic in Atlanta? Atlanta Spirit sold us down the river. They only wanted the Hawks to begin with. Waddell and company poorly managed the team.. The best talent in the NHL passed through Atlanta on the way to gigs at top teams and Stanley cup glory. Heatley, Kovalchuk, Hossa, Tkachuk, need I say more!

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Go Thrashers!! And take the Hawks with you!!

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No one was going to swoop in and buy the team when the spirit would own the building and the hawks.

Certainly not Arthur Blank. Why would he want 2 bad stadium deals to contend with?

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And take the Hawks with you!!

Sorry you’ll have to wait untill 2028 for that!

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The MLS argument is interesting. That league has evolved from a niche one to a player with its slow, yet steady growth. Teams in major areas are drawing extremely well and with the global appeal of the game could challenge the NHL in a decade or so as the “fourth major”. Especially if the NHL doesn’t contract as it needs to.

The WNBA is laughable. It exists only because David Stern says so. The TV ratings are so low sometimes they’re literally not measurable.

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Screw the NHL. I’d much rather have an MLS team.

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ATL: It doesn’t really matter what Atlanta’s population is. It didn’t support the team and Winnipeg likely will

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Yes Schultz, that’s what I got out of this column. That’s all you lot do (you and that other clown Bradley) is tear down sports in this city. Nothing is ever good enough. No player is ever good enough. No coach is ever good enough. All the time wanting to get someone traded or fired or preach about how Atlanta is now a AAA town or isn’t a good sports town.

Atlanta is a great sports city. And all you outdoors challenged people from up north should be thankful there are places like Atlanta. Where we don’t waste our money going to see bad pro sports. We just go out and play them. Your rosters are full of players from “crappy” sports towns.

The NHL is a second rate league. It’s not even 4th on the list of major sports as I’m pretty sure that both NASCAR and the PGA Tour (when Tiger plays) draw alot more viewers across the country.

So Schultz, why don’t you take the time to write a column about just how second rate the NHL instead of looking to downgrade this great city. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a thousand times worse of a black eye on the NHL than it is for Atlanta now that the Thrashers are gone.

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I am sorry the Thrashers are gone. Hockey is an exciting sport and Atlanta is a great city. The problem is not the fan base or generating interest. The fans I saw at games were engaged and knowledgeable and generally courteous (with the occasional dash of bloodlust). This whole issue is about poor ownership and high cost for the fan. Take a family of 4 to a Thrashers game: cost over $200 for the cheap seats, eating, parking, drinking, souviners. People don’t want to spend that kind of money to watch a team that loses. Second, ownership certainly marketed the team, but the best marketing in sports is winning. This team was a perennial loser and still drew over 13k per game in this last year. Did the Hawks ever do that when losing? They’re still here. The owners of this team couldn’t care less and took the team as a business loss for tax reasons. Fans who enjoy the sport and pay to watch it feel it as a loss. Those on this blog getting bent out of shape about being a 3 tier city, it is a nonsensical idea & the author is a dunce for suggesting it.

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Losing the Thrashers doesnt make Atlanta a AAA sports town anymore than when the Arena football, women’s soccer, or WNBA teams closed up shop. In Canada, the NHL means something, but in most of the southeast and southwest, it is followed only by transplants (carpetbaggers). We could add a MLS team and it would probably be better supported. When Atlanta youth grow up playing hockey on the region’s frozen ponds, the NHL will survie here and i don’t see that happening anytime soon. I’m one of those people that gave it a shot and attended games the first five years and even have the misfortune of working downtown, but it just didnt hold my attention (winning or losing). Plus I still have no idea where the sport is located on tv. Truth be told, i’d rather attend a GaSt football game at the dome than Thrashers next door. Sorry Blue Land, you won’t be missed by many in Atlanta.

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Do the math! Atlanta Fan priorities are (or something close)
1.College Football (Georgia, Tech, Auburn, FSU, Clemson-all with major fan bases in Atlanta)
2. Falcons
3. Braves
4.College basketball’
5.Hawks
6. Then maybe the NHL!
Add in the economy and there just isn’t enough money, time and interest for fans to support everything. A sport that is not native to the population and with a limited amount of Northern transplants who happen to be Hockey fans–The sport does not have a chance.! I don’t place as much blame on ownership as the sports writers do. NHL would not draw well here if we were contenders for the Stanley Cup every year! Let’s move on!

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NYC doesn’t have pro football!! They play in NJ!!

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The answer to your question is in rewording your question – Atlanta is a major sports town and does not like (or support for long) AAA (ie minor league) teams or sports. Atlanta Force, Flames, Attack, Knights, Chiefs, Glory, Beat, Dream, Thrashers – there is a graveyard of failed sports teams that played minor league sports or leagues and after an initial curiosity were sent on their way to a minor league town where they belong. The NHL is minor league – guys hitting a ball with metal sticks and guys driving cars around in circles ad nauseum draw better than this sport. That’s not sour apples, its the truth.

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Were we in the Triple A of sports towns in 1996 when we had the Olympics and the defending World Series champions but no hockey team?

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I don’t think so. If the Thrashers, or the Flames for that matter, had had competent ownership, they’d still be here.

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Atlanta is a quality Sports town.

It’s the media coverage from the “Sports” section of the AJC thats the REAL disgrace.

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jeff, some might say atlanta became a minor league national and certainly southern sports town when it lost one of its two major nascar races. heh heh

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The NHL is no longer a national product. Solely regional. No loss here.

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HOCKEY IN Atlanta is officially done. No more of that or the Hawks.

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Even WITH the Thrashers, Atlanta can’t be considered a first-class Sports town. Empty seats dominate most of our stadiums during regular seasons, and failure to produce in the playoffs is our legacy. Yes, College Football has tremendous regional appeal here (if that counts), but I would argue that on the local level (Dawgs and Jackets) it rarely lives up to the hype. Bottom line, the Thrashers are gone because of too much apathy on every level.

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Hockey? Do all those folks in Roswell and Alpharetta need somewhere to go? The NHL is on its last legs as a major sport anyway. We’d trade the whole league for a good hitting outfielder for our lame-ass baseball team.

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Damn, Atlanta got big, didn’t it? In population, we’re bigger than Boston, too.

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Many Atlantans will not miss the Thrashers….many Atlantans would not miss the Hawks if they left….both are/were important to a city that makes its living on conventions and major sporting events…..the Metro Chamber of Commerce coined the phrase “Atlanta – the Sports Capital of the World” – this video covers damages to Atlanta’s reputation and civic pride resulting from the loss of a major league team:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldsg14vsGNc&feature=player_embedded

Would should have protected this asset. Sports Capital of the World – what a joke!

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Oh forgot, Send dan uggla to Winnipeg too, HE $UCKS !!!!!

Atlanta IS a good hockey market, with the RIGHT commited owner, Losing Thrashers, makes this town a BIG NOTHING for me, so I am moving my business HQ, to KC, 18 will lose jobs because of asg and gary BUTTMAN !

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Losing Thrashers, makes this town a BIG NOTHING for me, so I am moving my business HQ, to KC,

So since Atlanta is losing its NHL team, you’re moving your business to a city without an NHL team?

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Atlanta will always be AAA as far as sports because Atlanta sports attendees just want to be seen. In no other city will you find so many idiots talking on their cellphones at games than here in Atlanta. It’s like we’ve just discovered cellphones!!!

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Redneck – LOL, you got me there

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So sad to see people dumping on the game of hockey. It is the fastest, toughest, most skilled game out there. Take anything that you like about any other sport and hockey has it, in spades.

Could it be as simple as southerners not understanding the rules of the game and hence, writing it off? That would be sad, but understandable.

It always amazes me that college athletics are so popular in the USA and that hockey is not more fully understood and appreciated. The vast majority of college players will not even get a sniff at the pros whereas the NHL is stocked with the most skilled athletes on the planet. Despite this, you’ll get 50,000 people out to watch a game played largely by (pardon the phrase) nobodys, and the city loses a pro sports franchise, again.

It’s mind-boggling, really.

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at the thrashers rally, even the thrashers mascot didn’t show up. Instead, the atlanta hawks mascot was there for some reason. did the thrashers mascot have a previous commitment?

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atlanta need not apologize for what happened to the thrashers. Ownership put a lousy product on the ice and fans voted with their wallets and stayed home. There is no shame in that. There should be no expectation of attendance without the appropriate commitment from ownership. They didn’t deserve our support.

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“Really” – Its about the game, the team, the atmosphere, players that grew up in our home towns and with traditions so ingrained in the essence of our being. Hockey here is a novelty, certainly not worth the high ticket prices, played by rental players that grew up in eastern europe, russia, and that frozen country north of us, and our dollars go into the pockets of owners from anywhere but here that will leverage a higher return eventually one way or another by moving to another city.

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I have a very important announcement to make: FISH FRY…<>

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Just received my new Sports Illustrated in the mail. Big full page ad for the Hawks. I am not making this up. Could it be that ASG is actually investing in their other sports property.

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Right Jeff, unlike Charlotte, Jacksonville, Tampa Bay, New Orleans, Nashville, Raleigh, Houston, Oklahoma, Phoenix, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc….

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Breaking News

Newly formed ownership group in Atlanta to get MLS soccer franchise!!! Reported name of the team will be

The Atlanta Lawn ferries

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I’d rather lose the NHL than lose one of the other leagues. I’d even go so far as to say that a Sprint Cup race is more important than the NHL.

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Jeff Schultz, you’re darned right Atlanta just became a AAA sports town. It’s inconceivable that the Atlanta Spirit, LLC, whisked this team away, preventing local, interested buyers, from any access to the revenues from Philips Arena. Had the Hawks, Thrashers, and Philips Arena been packaged together, I’m sure a local buyer would have emerged. Instead, the Spirit rightly sized up the situation, that Commissioner Bettman would take the $60 million relocation fee, to help prop up the struggling Phoenix Coyotes organization.

I guess, in the end, the Spirit Group laughed last. They didn’t much care for hockey fans, and the feeling was mutual. They just didn’t understand the dynamics of running an NHL franchise. Or they didn’t care. Or both. Bygones. Atlanta just became much LESS of a city, without pro hockey at the NHL level.

Jeff, Atlantans can think of themselves and their city on a part with New York if they want to, but we just took a backwards step in that comparison.

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No, we are not AAA. Shedding an ASG-owned franchise is a positive first step toward an ultimate healing. One down, one to go.

MLS Soccer??? Dixie Speedway will likely outdraw them.

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And Jacksonville has an NFL team, why?

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Hey we get a MLS team here they be own bye The ASG group by belkin n friends and in 6 years Move to winnipeg there also….If the Phoenix coyotes moved here please no let ASG own it….

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There just isn’t a market in the Southeastern U.S. for Hockey. It’s sad for all of the fans and to the people behind the scenes who will lose their jobs as a result of this move. To keep things in perspective as far as the Atlanta sports market–there are “hometown” players on all of the 3 remaining professional sports francises. Were there any Georgia boys on the Thrashers squad? Probably not is my guess since most NHL players are Canadian or Eastern European. Atlanta is good for what it is which is professional & collegiate football, hoops, and baseball. Good Riddence Thrashers, a.k.a. Jets.

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[...] • Is Atlanta a Triple-A sports town without the Thrashers? [AJC] [...]

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With an arena that will hold 18,000 for Hockey all we need to do is start over again with new owners willing to pay for an expansion team here and the name is already ours so we can use the Thrashers. This time will have people who know what they are doing. Hey it can’t hurt.

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@dawgfan123 – Well, at least you can SEE New York from the Meadowlands. Foxboro, one the other hand, is closer to Providence than to Boston. The old Boston Patriots had to be re-branded as the New England Patriots to get more people to identify with them (this would never be necessary for the Red Sox or Celtics, of course). Same reason there are NFL franchises called Tennessee, Carolina, Arizona, and Minnesota; MLB clubs called Colorado, Arizona, Florida, Texas, and Minnesota; and NBA franchises called Indiana, Minnesota, Utah, and Golden State.

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Go BRAVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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I remember going to see the Thrashers a few times during the playoff year…we were in first place and playing pretty well with a couple of exciting names on the roster…and the stands were still half empty. Hockey is a great sport (especially in person), but this is and always will be the city of college football (it’s no accident that the college football HOF is coming here), Falcons and Braves…and I am ok with that…and hey, if ASG sells the Hawks (or at least signs Dwight Howard), you can add them to the list. I will miss the Thrashers, but I alway thought that they would be much more fun to follow if they put 11 guys on the ice….and moved the game from the ice to a 100 yard field…and used an oddly shaped ball rather than a puck…and were the Falcons…

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@Mark in ATL, valid point, problem is: ownership didn’t nothing to rectify that situation. Part of the plan should have been for Thrashers’ ownership to take an active role in advocating rink construction across the state. That was never done. Dallas did it (and tell me that Dallas is a cold weather, non-football town) and the results speak for themselves: their team stayed. Tampa Bay has weathered some storms and their franchise is stable.

Making a pro sports team, but esp. hockey, takes WORK beyond just selling the tickets and fielding the team!

re: the AAA question, maybe it’s something more like “not quite AAA, not quite top of the line.” Atlanta occupies a weird middle space, it’s not really like most cities in the U.S.

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Saying Atlanta is a better College Sports town rather than a ProSports town just make Atlanta look like a provincial minor league type of city on the world stage.

Dat just ain’t raight . . .

Go Falcons , Go Braves, Go Hawks(minus ASG)

Who cares about the football feeder teams of Dawgs, Tigers and YellowJacket bugs. Oh, my!!

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Atlanta is a great sports town. What people dont realize about sports is that some of it is just pure plain luck. I would say that 98% of it is skill, but there is also the luck factor that factors in to the equation. Some things can be corrected and other things cannot be corrected. Ok in looking at the NBA finals and the current matchup between Dirk vs. LaBron AND D-Wade. Some folks think the Heat are guaranteed a title but they are not. If the Mavs play anywere close to how they played against the Lakers in the earlier round when they shot 70% from the field, and 90% from 3-point land, there is no defense that would be able to stop it. The Mavericks bench scored over 80 points on one game outscoring the Lakers entire team 89-82. Ive never seen that happen in professional basketball in any single game. Also in that game Jason Terry shot 9-10 beyond the 3-point line and Peja Stojakovich was 6-6 behind the circle. those two combined for 15-16 at the 3-point line. THAT IS SHOOTING LIGHTS OUT. If the Mavs can do that for four straight games against the Heat, the Heat will cool down and get eliminated. I just dont know if the Mavs can dial it in and focus on scoring the basketball at will like they did in the Laker series. Also, the Mavs cant allow the Heat to go up 2-0 or else the series will be over. How about Shaquille O’Neal announcing his retirement after game 1 of the finals so that SHAQS CAREER WILL OVERSHADOW THE FINALS. Shaq is such a selfish dog that he couldnt wait two more weeks after the finals to announce his retirement. He had to announce it now so that he would grab the spotlight and take it away from the Mavs and Heat. I’m glad shaq will be gone from the game because his IQ has always been about a -197.

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Even if Atlanta has dropped to the triple A of sports, I want to post this blog to show everyone the titles that the Atlanta sports franchises COULD HAVE and SHOULD have won. It wont make anyone feel any better, but it will just show WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN had these teams not blown it:
1980-Atlanta Falcons-BEST TEAM IN THE NFL ACCORDING TO RANDY WHITE
1988-Atlanta Hawks–POTENTIAL CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD (lost game 7 by 1)
1991-Atlanta Braves–potential world champions (lost to minnesota)
1996-Atlanta Braves–back-to-back world champions (led the yanks 2-0)
1998-Atlanta Falcons-Beat Minnesota in NFC Title game
2010-Atlanta Braves–potential World champions (lost to SF in playoff)
2008-Atlanta Thrashers-lost in playoffs after deep run
2011-Atlanta Hawks–came within 2 wins of Eastern Conference Finals

All of the above atlanta teams SHOULD HAVE WON WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS. They choked in the playoffs and lost to inferior teams. Had they all won, people would be feeling different about these teams and the city that they live in.

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I can kinda agree with hotnocket. Over 96% of Winnipeg’s “metro” population is contained within the city proper, not so for Atlanta (F*#@* everybody lives in Gwinnett!). Until the transit gets up to code here and the state actually copes with the idea of a real CITY being a good thing, it’s always gonna lag here.

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Anonymous: YOU ARE WRONG, ONCE AGAIN. Ok, I got my year wrong about the Thrashers and their deep run, but there was one year that the Thrashers were in the playoffs that they came one series short of the conference finals. Whatever year that was, the Thrashers DOMINATED the best teams in the league. That alone tells me that they were capable of winning a stanley cup that year. That was the only point I was trying to prove. Also, if it was the year that Heatley and Kovulchuk were both on the squad, then that was a potential stanley cup championship year. I am right on the money as I always am.

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I’m sorry but despite its huge population, Atlanta is just not a sports town, unless you are talkin’ NASCAR or the Dawgs. Just look at the facts, Over the past decade, despite population growth, the Thrashers have been in the bottom three for attendance. That is with ticket prices in the bottom half of the league. The Hawks have been the WORST supported franchise in the NBA over the past decade and that is with prices 20% below the league average. Even the braves, who have won 4 pennants and a wild card in the last decade are a middle of the pack team in terms of attendance, and that is despite the second cheapest tickets in the league. Face it, Atlanta doesn’t give its sports teams a fair chance!!!

You can make fun of winnipeg as much as you want, but, they will have sold out ALL of the available season tickets come Saturday for the next 4 years (I might add those tickets are the 5th highest cost in the league). Not bad for a town with a couple of doughnut shops Eh???

GO JETS GO!!!

(Maybe you can get the Coyotes when they leave next year)

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After all the time the Thrashers spent in town, the only one I could name was Danny Heatley–and that was because of the driving tragedy, not really hockey. On the other hand, I still remember Ray Comeau and Tom Lysiak from the old Atlanta Flames, not to mention their unforgettable coach, “Boom-Boom Geoffrion.”. Those guys went out of their way to make an impact on the community. I always felt like the Thrashers just sort of skated through town as if they were changing planes at Hartsfield.

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Braves haven’t done much in over a decade. Falcons fans still routinely walk out at half-time. Hawks will always be an also-ran at best. Regardless of what ‘ur pappy told ya, NASCAR is NOT a sport. Soccer? Did someone actually say Soccer? This isn’t the rest of the world, it’s the US, so Soccer is not a major league sport here. College football…my favorite. Most of the fans didn’t even graduate high school, much less go to the school for the team they seem so rabidly to root for. To answer the question, was Atlanta ever a contender for a sports town? Obviously not…

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I was born in San Diego, California and I grew up in Deep South Texas, never more than 30 miles frm the Mexican border. I have no northern ties. I love hockey. Just sayin.

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how many seats does phillips arena have since they do concerts and circus since most hockey places have maybe 15000 seats?? Also why isn’t the mayor, governor or Waddell taking Nhl to court for overridding their own bylaws. I thought the team should be here another year if you go by the NHL RULES.

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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!

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Fyi – i’m an Atlanta native & i’ve about had it with you ignorant UGA football fans. Curbside diploma??? It amazes me that 75% of the people that respond to any blog have UGA or dawg somewhere in their name. Do you have jobs??? You’re about as smart as my left nut, and that’s saying a lot.

For you UGA Grads, that comment doesn’t pertain to you

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The question was asked, “What will you remember about the Trashers?” My answer to that is that the Thrashers were lucky enough to have two of potentially the greatest talented players in NFL history! Illya Kovulchuk and Danny Heatley. Had those two played together for at least a decade, the Thrashers would have EASILY WON MULTIPLE STANLEY CUPS! That is what I will miss about the Thrashers.

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