Hawks owners want to know what you think of them (sort of)
Hawks owners Ed Peskowitz, Michael Gearon Jr. and Bruce Levenson look like they expect positive results from the survey.
(Update at 1:15 p.m.: The Hawks declined to comment on the survey.)
(Update at 9 a.m. Friday. The poll already has been shut down. Guess they got their answer.)
It seems the Atlanta Spirit’s past of running the Thrashers into the ground, selling them to a group that moved them to Winnipeg and possibly various decisions during their tenure with the Hawks have led them to wonder if that’s one reason fans aren’t going to basketball games.
Thanks to reader and former Thrashers season ticket holder Everett Duke for tipping me off to this: An Atlanta-based marketing research group, Alexander Babbage, sent out a survey via the Philips Arena account on Twitter Thursday morning, reading, “We need your help! Please take a moment to answer a few questions about the Atlanta Hawks.”
The Tweet includes this link to a survey, which is intended to gauge fans’ interest and feelings about the Hawks, the NBA and the ownership group. The survey is about 20 questions. (It goes to “No. 29,” but it’s actually mis-numbered and the last few questions seek personal information.) The survey is titled, “Hawks 2011-2012 Fan Pulse Study.”
The Hawks’ ownership group, led by my close friends (sarcasm) Michael Gearon Jr. and Bruce Levenson, has been trying to distance itself from the Atlanta Spirit brand and the Thrashers. Email addresses were changed from @AtlantaSpirit.com to @Hawks.com and news releases no longer reference Atlanta Spirit.
But there’s apparently enough concern about perceptions of the owners that the survey including the following:
– Question 4: Using a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 means “Not at all interested, I never follow” and 5 means “Very interested, I always follow,” please rate your level of interest in the following. The categories that follows are: sports in general; basketball; NBA lockout news; Hawks front office news; Hawks’ performances; news about Hawks ownership; news about the sale of the Thrashers; non-sporting events at Philips.
– Question 6: Using a scale from 1 to 5, where 1 means “Very negative” and 5 means “Very positive, what impact did the NBA lockout have on your opinion of the following. The categories are: NBA, Hawks overall; Hawks players; Hawks ownership.
There also are two questions gauging interest in the decision by owners to drop ticketing fees on game tickets.
Interesting that the survey avoids the direction question: “On a scale of 1 to 10, what is your opinion of Hawks’ owners?”
The Hawks declined to comment on the survey.
Here’s my view on this: There’s not a huge overlap in fan bases between the Hawks and Thrashers. But I certainly heard from several fans via email, Twitter, Facebook and in person who said the Spirit’s treatment of the Thrashers would affect their decision on whether to spend money on the Hawks or any event in Philips Arena.
Eight months later, I still hear from them.
It’s also safe to assume that even aside from the sale and move of the Thrashers, the reputations of the ownership group has been negative since shortly after their arrival, when fighting and litigation began with then-partner Steve Belkin after the Joe Johnson trade.
To what extent this survey shows that is uncertain. But I’m guessing there’s at least some ripple effect when it comes to Hawks’ attendance.
If you want to check out the survey and vote, here’s the link again: AlexanderBabbage.com/Hawks/Hawks2011pulsestudy.htm.
And as always, you’re more than welcome to vent right here.
By Jeff Schultz
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206 comments Add your comment
Bobby Hull
January 12th, 2012
4:59 pm
As a former Thrasher STH, am proud to say these jerks will never get another dime from me. It hurt to miss Bob Seger last year and the same for Van Halen and Springsteen this year, but I will never sacrifice my principles like these ingrates did.
Joke
January 12th, 2012
5:09 pm
I love the ASG defenders claiming it is all yankees complaining and the ASG has a winning team. Interesting then how the winning team cant put butts in seats unless they are cheering the opponents and why the owners need a survey to figure out why people are staying away. The reality is that atlanta is a melting pot of people from the north as well as from all over the south. It is a huge metropolitan city. I guess only native southerners have the right to give their opinions about atlanta sports but all of atlanta is giving their opinion in staying away.
Foothills
January 12th, 2012
5:10 pm
I thought the owner was a California guy…Is the strike over? Are the Hawks still in Atlanta?
Paddy
January 12th, 2012
5:12 pm
I feel sorry for that new resturant that is moving into the arena and now must partner with the ASG. Wow, did they not do their homework on the ASG? That new place is doomed!!!!!!!!!!! Thats like doing a joint venture with St. Louis Browns or the Washington Senetors!
Gwinnett Fred
January 12th, 2012
5:14 pm
Well, if the owners really want to start some goodwill, then the injury to Horford is a blessing in disguise.
You want fans to jump on board and have some faith – then go spend some money and get a capable FA center in here – otherwise all you are saying is this season is already down the tubes and the fans will respond accordingly!
litz
January 12th, 2012
5:17 pm
All I have to say about this (and it’s great to see some of the old Thrashers blog crowd chiming in) is …
for $16 I can sit 7 rows off the glass and watch 1st place ECHL hockey.
It’s not the NHL, but it’s hockey. And the ownership is genuinely interested in their fans.
What a breath of fresh air, compared to the A$G era w/the Thrashers (and I was a STH for all 11 years).
I get weekly Hawks emails with ticket offers.
The “DEL” key works perfectly fine for processing those emails.
The day A$G, or whatever name they choose to go by, is no longer affiliated with, associated with, or in any way connected with, Philips Arena, will be the next time I set foot on the property.
Dawg A
January 12th, 2012
5:20 pm
Worse owners in all major sports! If they really cared about us( I am a Hawks season ticket holder) then they would sale or even give the team away! They are in way above their heads!
Caz
January 12th, 2012
5:23 pm
I know myself – and several friends of mine – who love the Hawks but will never give another dime to A$G because of how they handled the Thrashers. Until the Hawks have a new owner (note the singular) I will not go to Philips Arena.
Zombie Steve
January 12th, 2012
5:34 pm
The Octotards need to be tarred, feathered, and run out of Atlanta.
Puck Like A Porn Star
January 12th, 2012
5:37 pm
I personally introduced 10 people to hockey and made them all Thrashers fans, and I would regularly take 5 friends to Hawks games, especially in the playoffs. (I literally became a Thrashers fan overnight myself.) It feels abnormal to boycott a pro team or (formerly) world-class sports/concerts venue in my hometown, but these traitors convinced me to do so.
I’ll never spend another dollar in Philips Arena or on the Hawks, which is easy because ASG is ruining that franchise too.
PS: imagine how much money ASG would have pocketed on the Thrashers during the NBA lockout. There were nights when many of us had literally nothing to do (and, YES, many of us DO live downtown and in the surrounding neighborhoods), and that was the perfect time to market the hell out of a hockey team. Too bad those losers and their pal Bettman gave up on a top 10 media market with tons of potential.
Here’s to 365 days of an empty, lifeless Philips Arena! Congrats, ASG, you’ve earned it.
THRASH: Still The Best Mascot in Sports
January 12th, 2012
5:45 pm
Stop calling the Hawks “the most successful team in Atlanta.” More teams qualify for the NBA postseason than in any other professional sport that Atlanta still has, and the Hawks have never been to a conference title game in Atlanta. And “winning a game” in the playoffs is one thing in the NFL, where you only get one game per round. “Taking the Bulls to 7 games” just means you took long to lose. And when half of the NBA gets into the playoffs anyway, I’m not impressed. At least Arthur Blank has earned our respect, and the Braves brought us our only title, despite the current terrible ownership.
Hearing Hawks fans and ASG play the “playoff wins” card makes the whole city look stupid, and satisfied with failure.
Who do you trust to do more in the offseason, Arthur Blank or the Michael Gearon? Think about that.
THRASH: Still The Best Mascot in Sports
January 12th, 2012
5:48 pm
Stop calling the Hawks “the most successful team in Atlanta.” More teams qualify for the NBA postseason than in any other professional sport that Atlanta still has, and the Hawks have never been to a conference title game in Atlanta. And “winning a game” in the playoffs is one thing in the NFL, where you only get one game per round. “Taking the Bulls to 7 games” just means you took long to lose. And when half of the NBA gets into the playoffs anyway, I’m not impressed. At least Arthur Blank has earned our respect, and the Braves brought us our only title, despite the current terrible ownership.
Hearing Hawks fans and ASG play the “playoff wins” card makes the whole city look stupid, and satisfied with failure.
Who do you trust to do more in the off-season, Arthur Blank or the Michael Gearon? Think about that.
@GT
January 12th, 2012
5:54 pm
Before the Thrashers left, there were 4 black players on our team alone, and there are NHL players from Tennessee, and even Georgia. That’s the point of growing the sport.
There was a time when basketball was strictly a New England sport. Having an NBA champion in Los Angeles probably sounded as odd has having NHL champions in Raleigh, Tampa Bay, and Anaheim, but all of those cities have NHL titles within the last 10 years.
Enough of the “hockey can’t survive in the South” nonsense. Teams that win can and do survive anywhere.
rutherford seydel is fat and stupid
January 12th, 2012
6:08 pm
Just filled out the survey. Man, they are going to get blasted. I would love to be a fly on the wall when they review the results.
229 Bravesfan
January 12th, 2012
6:10 pm
They have money, but they don’t have common sense to hire a GM with common sense.
Rick S
January 12th, 2012
6:20 pm
Unless the Hawks would be able to have serious business oriented owners that would do the things necessary to help make the Hawks a championship team I would recommend disolving the team or moving it to another city and starting over with new ownership and a new franchise. The current ownership group is obviously inept and not interested in bringing a NBA championship to Atlanta.
Thrashers Belle
January 12th, 2012
6:49 pm
If Bruce Levenson and Michael Gearon, Jr. are both wearing Hawks jerseys on the day they arrive together in Hell, who of those two loverboys will be wearing the “6″ and who will be wearing the “9?”
Thrashers Belle
January 12th, 2012
6:52 pm
Frankly, Hell is NOT HOT ENOUGH for the Atlanta Spirit Group members.
Those ASG dirtbags are no longer welcome here in my city.
For All Time:
Go, Thrashers!
icy nards
January 12th, 2012
7:05 pm
Bravo, Thrashers Belle.
GTech Win
January 12th, 2012
7:31 pm
i hate them with all my soul and well being im a Georgia Tech season ticket holder and i hate them more than the Georgia Bulldogs, they dont even deserve a spot in h.e.l.l
Hockeyfan
January 12th, 2012
7:47 pm
Thanks Jeff. I loved taking that survey
ASG HATER
January 12th, 2012
7:54 pm
@ATLien: I have to laugh at your comment about all the yankee hockey fans ruining sports in Atlanta. My wife is the biggest hockey fan I know and shes from Mobile Alabama. Last time I checked, that was farther south than Atlanta so don’t even go there with all that crap about the North or South. You’re obviously a moron.
As for the way ASG deceived and Betrayed hockey fans: well they will reap what they have sown.
G State owns ATL
January 12th, 2012
8:02 pm
On the radio broadcast for the Georgia State basketball game just now, the reporter said that the “bad news” is that Al Horford will be out for 3-4 months with a pectoral injury. The “worse news” is that the Hawks are still owned by the same people! The Panthers are 11-4, so I’ve already found a replacement for my downtown basketball fix. I’ll follow the Hawks too, when ASG is good and gone.
GstateBBall
January 12th, 2012
8:12 pm
On the radio broadcast of the Georgia State basketball game just now, the reporter said that the “bad news” for the Hawks is that Al Horford will be out for 3-4 months. He said the “worse news” is that the Hawks are still owned by the same people!
The Panthers are 11-4, so I’ve found the replacement for my downtown basketball fix. I’ll check for the Hawks too, when ASG is good and gone.
Atl Flames Fan
January 12th, 2012
8:20 pm
I was offered free tickets to a Georiga Tech basketball game.
Turned them down. I will not step foot in Philips Arena as long as those POS’s are still around.
Let's Be Honest
January 12th, 2012
8:33 pm
You suck. Please go. End of survey.
Hillbilly D
January 12th, 2012
8:33 pm
ASG has to take a survey to find out that people don’t like them? They’ve got less on the ball than I thought.
Phi K
January 12th, 2012
9:02 pm
I can’t believe the ASG doesn’t know what everyone thinks. This just goes to show how out of touch they are. Deal with it and sell your interest in everything. No one is going into Phillips until you sell!!!!!
Zombie Steve
January 12th, 2012
9:27 pm
I’m a born and raised Georgian with a passion for the sport of ice hockey; been playing for nearly 4 years. There are many more people here like me. There is a bonafide grassroots hockey scene in Atlanta and it was growing by leaps and bounds until these tools ruined everything.
Those who proclaim hockey has no place in the south are actually the ignorant ones…
Mr. ATL
January 12th, 2012
9:29 pm
Loved the Flames and waited 20 years for the NHL to come back to town. Waddell, Heatley, Spirit, etc….Could it possibly have gone worse? I’ll never understand how Miami, Tampa, Dallas, Raleigh, DC, St. Louis and Nashville have survived (not to mention Phoenix), yet Atlanta,lost its second (and last) franchise. This truly sucks. But thanks to the Atlanta Spirit Group for being such a great group of guys.
Mr. ATL
January 12th, 2012
9:32 pm
@Thrasher Belle: I agree, totally and completely, forever.
Southern Hockey Fan
January 12th, 2012
10:02 pm
I remember the opening night when the Southeast Conference championship banner was raised to the rafters in Philips. Michael Gearon, Jr addressed the crowd and said the ASG was going to do whatever it took to bring the Stanley Cup to Atlanta!! Man, Philips exploded when he said that!! But, apparently he was referring to the 2008 all-star game when the Stanley Cup was on display at Philips. Because the ASG did nothing in regards to the Thrashers, except sell them!
ASG can rot as fas as I’m concerned.
Section 119
January 12th, 2012
10:45 pm
Southern Hockey Fan, it was actually R. Seydell, not Gearon, that made the Stanley Cup comment on SE Division banner night in Oct ‘07. No matter, just another of countless ASG lies to the fans. They should be run out of town for what they did to the Thrashers.
Hockey LUVR
January 12th, 2012
11:50 pm
I am really enjoying all the “burn ASG at the stake” type of comments. I wish there was a “like” button for each and every one of them.
Ed
January 13th, 2012
1:16 am
This ownership group is the absolute pits. Sure they spent money giving Joe Johnson one of the most ridiculous contracts ever. It has killed any chance of the Hawks improving because they are strapped now. And to hear anyone that is thankful and satisfied with making it to the second round is just a casual fan. We would have been much better off with Belkin who would have killed the JJ trade or at least we wouldn’t have given up so much. Phoenix couldn’t afford him so we just made it easy on them and bailed them out. They have also made poor decisions with management and the coaches. Giving Drew the job was a cheap copout and we will never go far until we get a solid owner that hires competent people to run the team and gets out of the way.
ATL. SPORTS FAN
January 13th, 2012
4:58 am
Brad, do you really not understand why the vast majority of people commenting hate ASG so much? It’s because ASG are dishonest. they lied about wanting to build a winning team in the Thrashers, and then sold them the first chance they could. They’ve mis-managed everything they control, and they are ruining professional sports in Atlanta. They kept teflon Don as GM of the Thrashers in its entirety. Philips arena is falling apart: there are roof leaks, the tv wall of shame, broken, low def screens, including the jumbo tron. They’ve mis managed the Hawks for so long that even win they win, people don’t want to see them. they have to overpay anyone wanting to play here, and the overwhelming majority of players avoid this franchise like the plague. Hell, they don’t even like each other; that’s why they were in a lawsuit for so many years (suing each other).
Ilya Kovalchuk
January 13th, 2012
5:03 am
Now do you understand? I didn’t want to leave the great fans of Atlanta, but had to get away from these… um how do you say, idiots, morons, clowns, crooks. Yes, that’s it; they are crooks. I am very sorry for you that they stole your team away from you, the fans. I will miss you all.
Ilya
Duke of Flatbush
January 13th, 2012
5:29 am
What I have to say about the Spirit clowns cannot be printed here.
That goes for your clown buddy Mayor Kasim Reed too. You are both responsible for no hockey in Atlanta-neither the Spirit nor the city will get a dime of my money until you are both out of town.
realist
January 13th, 2012
6:13 am
The survey barely mentioned the ownership, but JS uses it, as usual, to further his personal vendetta against the owners. The fans care about the real issues that affect the team, not JS’s personal hurt just because the owners choose not to speak to him. The fans are the ones who lose here. We need a real reporter covering the Atlanta, not a childish clown who makes silly insults as his basic form of “journalism.” The AJC is more embarrassing than any of our teams.
Whatever
January 13th, 2012
10:20 am
If I’m not mistaken, ASG has been trying to sell the team and the Arena. It’s not their fault no one wants to buy a sports franchise in a city with such horrible fans. Piss off the fans and they’ll spew hate about you for the rest of their days. ASG knows what Thrashers fans think about them…no one else really pays them any attention.
Dwayne
January 13th, 2012
12:09 pm
Case in point…..Even Dwight Howard won’t play for the A** Clowns.
just SHOOT me
January 13th, 2012
12:41 pm
The only enjoyment I have pertaining to the Atlanta Spirit Group was taking the survey. In short: I will not spend another dollar supporting a franchise that doesn’t care one bit about us – the fans. I love the Hawks. I’ve lived here and attending many, many games dating back to the Moses Malone days. Unfortunately, the franchise has just gone downhill so much over time I cannot support it until the ASG gets the hell out of dodge.
Michael Cunningham for President!
Former Season Ticket Holder
January 13th, 2012
4:08 pm
We gave up our 2 seats last year after all this incompetence, higher prices, morons working at Phillips, etc. I will not go back until a new ownership group is in place with a commitment to win.
Duke of Flatbush
January 14th, 2012
8:25 am
ASG should have gone to WinniPIG with the Thrashers.
.
Sherry Taylor
January 14th, 2012
10:56 am
Atlanta is not one of the best sports towns in the country, however, the Braves have continued to make it through in spite of low attendance (can you say non-existent during the really lousy years) because of ownership. Ted Turner and his love for the sport and his team got them through those really bad years. The Thrashers were not so lucky and now neither are the Hawks. Being a ‘fan’ of a sport doesn’t mean you are going to be a good owner or manager or anybody in the front office and unfortunately for Thrasher fans especially that is what the ASG has turned out to be, fans who don’t have a clue as to what they are doing. They should have remained fans who sat in their ‘big corporate box’ and enjoyed the games, then perhaps, Hawks fans would be watching a team managed and owned by some one who knows the game and knows how to own and manage. And, we Thrashers fans would still be piling into the arena two or three times a week watching a winning team managed and owned by people who weren’t clueless clowns (and that is the nicest thing I’ve ever called the ASG). We wouldn’t have endured 11 seasons of Don Waddell’s inept attempts at putting a mediocre team on the ice doing the best he could with the money they would give him. No would we have spent 11 years investing emotionally and financially in a team that would over night be yanked out from under us. Ownership is everything. If there had been even ONE Arthur Blank type on the ASG we might be in a different place now, but there wasn’t. Ownership. It always comes back to ownership. And, we (Atlanta) has/had lousy ones in Phillips Arena.
Duke of Flatbush
January 14th, 2012
2:08 pm
Atlanta would be a better sports town if all the team owners would give a damn about putting a competitive product on the field or in the arena. Some of the posters here should stop telling us we are bad fans because we don’t support inferior product. That’s what ASG puts out there, an inferior average at best product never worthy of winning.
Stop blaming the fans for having the sense to refuse to pay for garbage.
Duke of Flatbush
January 14th, 2012
2:10 pm
As for a vendetta, Jeff Schultz is just telling the truth here as he usually does.
Some folks have an issue with hearing the truth.
Jeff Schultz
January 14th, 2012
3:19 pm
Realist —
“The survey barely mentioned the ownership, but JS uses it, as usual, to further his personal vendetta against the owners.”
<<< Huh? Tell me about my vendetta. This should be good.
” The fans care about the real issues that affect the team, not JS’s personal hurt just because the owners choose not to speak to him.”
<<< Oh yes. I’m crushed that Levenson and Gearon don’t take my calls. Fact is, I can’t remember last time I phoned either. But tell me: What issues have I written about that don’t affect the team or the fans?
“The fans are the ones who lose here. We need a real reporter covering the Atlanta, not a childish clown who makes silly insults as his basic form of “journalism.” The AJC is more embarrassing than any of our teams.”
<<< I’m willing to go in as partners if you would like to commission a poll: Who is more embarrassing me/AJC or the Atlanta Spirit. Just say when.
Jeff Schultz
January 14th, 2012
3:20 pm
Mr. Obvious
“realist = Michael Gearon’s Blog Alias”
<<< Haha. The thought crossed my mind. But I’m not so deluded to think there are zero fans of ownership. Just not a lot.
Jeff Schultz
January 14th, 2012
3:22 pm
Duke of Flatbush — No issues. Everybody has different opinions on things and I’m cool with that. It’s what makes things interesting.