Icy topic: How much longer will the Thrashers be in Atlanta?
John Anderson and Slava Kozlov are both pictured here. (AJC photo by Jessica McGowan)
Perhaps you’re fascinated by this whole John Anderson/Slava Kozlov back and forth. Or perhaps you have no idea who John Anderson and Slava Kozlov are.
I submit that more Atlantans fall under the latter heading. I submit more folks around here have forgotten the Thrashers even exist.
(For the record: The Thrashers are the Atlanta entry in the National Hockey League. Hockey is played on ice. The players skate and carry implements known as hockey sticks, with which they attempt to move a small rubberized disk known as a puck.)
This leads me to today’s question(s): Given that the Thrashers traded their franchise player a while back and just finished 28th in a 30-team league in attendance, how much longer do you think they’ll be in Atlanta? Will the Spirit, as has long been rumored, sell the team to somebody who’ll then move it to Canada? (See, Canadians like hockey.) Or will these owners bite the bullet and and keep financing a team that has been in operation since 1999 and still hasn’t won a playoff game?
I’ll go first. Just guessing, I’d give the Thrashers one more year in Atlanta. And with that I’ll hang up and listen to your responses. Assuming there are any.
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231 comments Add your comment
Ignernt
April 13th, 2010
2:40 pm
So, MB, how long did it take you to find someone in the office who could tell you who Kozlov was?
Seriously, If Waddell comes back next year the entire city should take it as proof that the ASG doesn’t give a crap what we think… Or maybe Waddell has someone convinced them he knows how to build a winner…
smokemonster
April 13th, 2010
2:41 pm
The GM has a job because failure is an option here.
ChippersLoveChild
April 13th, 2010
2:42 pm
Awesome, way to write your first doom and gloom piece on the Thrash. Couldn’t have had anything when they were still in the playoff hunt a few weeks ago? Oh that’s right you were too busy riding Paul Hewitt’s ass to notice. If you read what your fellow reporters wrote, you would new that Bettman told Schultz he wants to keep the franchise here. Instead of writing a piece about how long they will be around, how about holding the GM and owners accountable for the product they put on the ice? Or would that require too much actually journalism on your part?
ChippersLoveChild
April 13th, 2010
2:43 pm
*Know not new…
Smoothie
April 13th, 2010
2:44 pm
Hockey is a silly sport….grown men gliding around on ice skates and running into each other…once in a while some guy tries a shot through all of the confusion and it luckily goes in…crowd goes nuts. What a “sport”.
And football isn’t silly?? Are you kidding me? I like football, but I reckon our version of football seems rather silly to the other 95% of the world that doesn’t play it. Football is no less silly than hockey in the respect that you have a bunch of grown men running around in pads and helmets trying to grab each other’s balls at the bottom of a fumble scrum when “Burner” Turner breaks a nail and loses control of an oblong-shaped ball that doesn’t bounce straight back up to you when you drop it…what’s up with that??
You people are dumber than the average Atlantan, aren’t you?
Sam
April 13th, 2010
2:47 pm
Aren’t YOU supposed to REPORT on something in your blog? Not ask the readers to do it?
Ask the question?
April 13th, 2010
2:48 pm
Mark Bradley – Your the journalist! Why don’t you confront the Atlanta Spirit about the state of the Thrashers? You, as well as the Thrashers beat writer, should force the issue with the ownership. Press the “Octocluster”(Atlanta Spirit) to address the glaring deficiencies in the hockey side of the house. It’s been well documented that owners are basketball guys. So it’s no surprise that Don Waddell is still employed after the less than stellar record he has produced. The owners have no hockey knowledge at all! So what are they going to do spend more money to bring in a new GM? No they’ll continue to employee Don Waddell because he can run a team on the cheap and BS the fans and media into believing the Thrashers are headed in the “RIGHT DIRECTION”! Please! The ownership group is a joke! They don’t care about hockey and have proven it time after time. They aren’t present at the games unless your talking basketball. Bruce Levinson has alienated the fan base at town hall meetings. This group could care less about the hockey fan. So as long as this group continues to manage the hockey side as currently managed hockey is doomed in Atlanta. And as a born and bred Atlanta native that loves hockey it’s disappointing to say the least.
Spud Webb
April 13th, 2010
2:54 pm
I believe the thrashers are tied to phillips???? also bettman (the nhl commish) won’t allow the team to leave here.
mark louis
April 13th, 2010
2:54 pm
The bigger question is what the NHL wants. The league stopped the Coyotes from leaving Phoenix because they didn’t see any reason to put another team in Canada. If they wanted to hold on to the Phoenix market, wouldn’t they want to hold on to Atlanta? The NHL took control of the Coyotes, they could do the same with the Thrashers.
drajax
April 13th, 2010
2:54 pm
The city would lose something if the team moved. A town with four professional teams was a mark of being big time, at least with the chamber of commerce. There are enough northern transplants like me who want to see a winning team and who will support a team. But since there’s no tradition here the team has to build one, and that is done by winning.
I don’t believe Waddell is the problem, I think that ownership’s refusal to pay the salaries of the necessary players to win which is the problem. However, I do think Waddell has missed on his coaching choices which is serious because I think this present team could have had a better record if coached properly. Anyone who paid to see the last New Jersey game saw the difference between the teams in the matchups, line changes and overall attitude displayed on ice. A coach is responsible for that.
It would be a shame for hockey if this team moved, not to mention your newspaper, and the downtown area. The team generates revenue for not only Phillips but the restaurants and bars downtown. Your newspaper gets advertising revenue. Plus as a season ticket holder I’ve noticed more and more African American families at the games; although I wouldn’t ever expect to see more than 10% minority in the crowd, the fact that I believe it’s possible says that the ownership is trying to reach out to that part of our community and the selection of Evander Kane will sell more and more tickets while the team’s here.
I’d hope the community would rally around keeping the team here but I won’t hold my breath.
Paddy
April 13th, 2010
2:55 pm
I want the hockey team to do well and stay in Atl. To do that, the ASG must disappear from the Atl sports scene. Even with a good team the Hawks have they are near the bottom of the league in “butts-in-the seats” The ownership battle has taken the fun out of these two franchises. Not to mention all the ASG money. They are broke and we are sad fans, not a good combination to build on!!!
Mark Bradley
April 13th, 2010
2:55 pm
I believe the Thrashers are tied to Philips Arena. But if the arena were to change names …
Gwinnett Fred
April 13th, 2010
2:58 pm
An easier way to say which one Kozlov is in the picture is that he’s the only one with a big white “A” on his uniform.
Kinda missing the obvious, aren’t we??
Bill
April 13th, 2010
2:59 pm
MB, please stop encouraging those losers who post “First!” on these blogs. You come off as a fellow loser when you do.
The Thrashers have not done a good job in Atlanta. Perhaps new ownership and a new city will help this franchise. If the Thrashers leave, the NHL will never come back. My guess is that most Atlantans do not care.
ChippersLoveChild
April 13th, 2010
3:02 pm
So we wait for a response from Mark Bradley on an actual report, maybe a question or two that he has directed at the ASG, and what does he do? He uses ellipsis to tease the readers into thinking the Arena’s name might change… Brilliant… and they wonder why this paper is going in the toilet…
Matt
April 13th, 2010
3:02 pm
Don’t even THINK about blaming the fans for this fiasco. This franchise has got to be the most poorly run NHL team over the last 10 years. It’s frankly amazing that they draw as well as they do considering how badly mis-managed this team has been.
I will continue to support the team and go when I can, but as to season tix, not until Waddell is shown the door. I am not looking forward to the THIRD five year plan in it’s history.
Give the fans something to be excited about and they WILL come. Look at the sellouts for the first (and only) playoff appearance. The fans are just crying out for a reason to attend.
Blueland Fan, Jeff Schultz Hater
April 13th, 2010
3:12 pm
How much long will the Thrashers be in Atlanta?
Hopefully, longer than the AJC or the Grade-A Jerk & Liberal Sissy Jeff Schultz who has singlehandedly done more the trash hockey in this town than anyone would believe.
Falconsforlife
April 13th, 2010
3:12 pm
Why would you even write this Mark? Obviously the franchise is in a bit of trouble, but in a town full of fair weather fans you need more than 1 season of fair weather to fill the seats. Attendance would not be an issue with a decent owner/front office.
Everyone rags on Atlanta as a bad sports town, but outside of the Braves the other 3 franchises have never had much success outside of a few years here and there. Success breeds passion, when you don’t have success you can’t have a large passionate fan base. It’s very simple. ASG has to go. Someone local needs to buy the team (Arthur Blank? A boy can dream right…) and needs to install a solid front office. It will all change if that happens.
The Caps had awful attendance until they drafted Ovechkin. Ovy’s buzz coupled with WINNING got the city behind that franchise very very quickly. And don’t even think about saying Kovy is on the same level as Ovy. He isn’t even close.
Steve Budnik
April 13th, 2010
3:17 pm
Could not agree more regarding Don Waddell comments. He must “have something” on ownership to survive as long as he has. He must go, for starters. Secondly, ownership has no clue. Get one owner committed to running an NHL franchise. Lastly, if you “lead the league’ in goals allowed every year (or come very close) you will never be a playoff team in this league. Somewhere, someone exists who can teach defense to these guys.
Gwinnett Fred
April 13th, 2010
3:18 pm
The sad thing, is that if they leave this time – they will probably never return.
Never in the history of the NHL since the “original 6″ has a city lost a franchise TWICE and have it ever return. In fact, Atlanta is one of only four cities (Minneapolis, Phoenix & Denver) to ever get it back after losing a franchise once.
I have to rely on the hope that the ownership fiasco will get done with in another year, giving the reshaped ownership probably one more year to make or break the existance of NHL hockey in the ATL forever.
hey yo
April 13th, 2010
3:23 pm
I want the Knights back!
tebowtears
April 13th, 2010
3:26 pm
The NHL in general over-expanded too much and got big for their britches.
Chains
April 13th, 2010
3:27 pm
management doesn’t know when to hold em…and when to fold em…… can’t keep Hossa, Kovy….but hang on to Kari Let-em-in for 4 years too long. Heatley was another sad story of bad leadership on a young team…..How long will Waddel be allowed to stand on the necks of the hockey fans in this town…….Till they go the way of the Flames, and the Knights…HISTORY……We need a solid GM…..
thebighairybeast
April 13th, 2010
3:30 pm
There are alot of good reasons the Thrashers are always in the relocation rumors. However the support has been there when the team has done well. What most non hockey intrested people dont realize is the ineptitude that the hockey fans have been submitted to the last 11 years. The AS is nothing but a bunch of wealthy men too poor to own a franchise individually and really treat the Thrashers as an after thought. Don Waddell is an amatuer pettifogger who thinks he knows the game but whos track recorder shows he is clueless when it comes to running a franchise.
The one thing in the Thrashers favor that will keep them in Atlanta for the near future is that Atlanta in the fifth largest media market in the country. Bettman, the NHL Commissioner, knows that and isnt about to let a team leave Atlanta yet. And though no rose himself he does have some inkling of what a mess the ownership group in Atlanta is.
So no I dont think they will be moving in the next five year.
Smoothie
April 13th, 2010
3:44 pm
Word o’ the day: Pettifogger!
Bill O’ Reilly would be proud.
MB – did you see that, someone used a big word. You might want to look it up. Oh wait, I did you a favor: “someone who raises annoying petty objections” is a pettifogger!
Stop being one and do your freakin’ job AS A JOURNALIST!!
smokemonster
April 13th, 2010
3:45 pm
Smokey likes the twins in the picture.
Will
April 13th, 2010
3:49 pm
Mark:
I am afraid you are right – most likely one more year and they will be sold and gone.
If Don Waddel is retained at GM, the season ticket base will be negatively affected.
I am old enough to have gone through this with the Flames (completely different but same result) and enjoy NHL hockey.
Although I cannot afford season tickets, I do spend close to a thousand a year on single game tickets for our four member family. We enjoy seeing any of the “original eight” and/or other Canadian teams play the Thrashers.
Unlike in 1980, when the Thrashers leave, at least we drive to Raleigh/Nashville/Tampa a couple of times a year to continue watching NHL hockey and can go to Gwinnett for a pretty entertaining brand of hockey.
cheshire
April 13th, 2010
3:58 pm
I just hope this doesn’t become another ridiculous knock on Atlanta fans if the team does move. The fact of the matter is that the fans in this town have had to put up with more $#!^ from their pro teams than most any city out there (Cleveland and Seattle being the exceptions), and yet Atlanta fans get knocked for not supporting their teams enough.
I grew up here and have supported all my teams, but year in and year out, i’m either having to deal with a team that was a joke coming out of the gate, or that got my hopes up and just choked when it mattered. It’s been horrible.
The Thrashers are no exception. Fans shouldn’t have to put up with a team that goes ELEVEN YEARS (it’s amazing to even have to type that) without a single playoff victory. I am a Thrashers fan, but at some point this team has to give me a reason to come out and support it and actually (gasp!) make me think it cares about it’s fans.
If the Thrashers move, the NHL needs to realize it wasn’t a failure of hockey in Atlanta… it was a failure of a franchise to produce anything that ever had a chance of succeeding.
nola ATL fan
April 13th, 2010
4:02 pm
MB – nice way to recycle that picture. I know I have seen you use it before, just can’t remember which Blog. The caption should have read, “lady in green shirt and Thrashers”
Iceman
April 13th, 2010
4:04 pm
Mark..find out who the lady in the green is. Tell her I said “How you doing?”
LAC
April 13th, 2010
4:06 pm
Raised in Charlotte lived here now 41 years. A diehard Hockey fan dating back to the Charlotte Checkers of the EHL. Then The Flames and up until three years ago The Thrashers.
I could give a $hit about hawks and why ANYONE would watch soccer, gee I’d rather watch my grass grow than that CRAP and nascar, I see enough cars on the Interstates everyday, who cares about that worthless so called sport and georgia football, I’d rather drink cow pee than read or watch or hear ANYTHING about that place.
Hockey is THE perfect game, fast, tough and skilled. I get sick of those out there who slam hockey because it is on ice and other stupid comments. I’d love to see some georgia football players make FOOLS of themselves on the rink !!!!!
I quit going because of ONE person LIAR don waddell. The man is a liar from start to finish, he has NO clue as to running a lemonade stand, let alone an NHL team. He is a CAREER LOSER
and HE and HE alone is why I will not attend until he is FIRED period.
Too bad when the blew up The OMNI, we had a chance to build the new arena outside downtown, but they chose they same damn place, it IS awful to drive to a game I admit, but when they rid waddell from the team I WILL return, but not until then…. as for stupid soccer as
The Nature Boy would say… “Keep on dreamin” !
LAC
April 13th, 2010
4:10 pm
Oh lastly, did you read in AJC where waddell said THIS…
“We are still trying to figure it out.” After ten years and he is still failing at GM 101 with THAT
comment… Then you know the franchise is in BIG BIG BIG Trouble… Go To Hell waddell !
Always a hockey fan
April 13th, 2010
4:12 pm
Took my kids to a game last year. At the end of “kiss cam” when they showed fans of the other team, the guy gives the camera “double birds”. I would think they would take it off the jumbo screen immediately, but no – they kept it on for an unbelievable amount of time. I could care less for my own personal sake, but try explaining that to a group of kids. What really floored me was the lack of ANY response when I complained via email. So I decided to complain via phone. The exact response I got was “what do you want us to do?” When I said an apology would be nice I was hung up on. Really fan friendly!
Cliff Fletcher
April 13th, 2010
4:13 pm
Once again, another Mark Bradley article that is worthy of toilet paper. You and Schultz are idiots.
The house was close to full until this ownership group took over.
They don’t care and have an idiot for a GM.
Any team in any town would have trouble if it were ran like this one.
Innocent Bystander
April 13th, 2010
4:17 pm
As much as the Canadians enjoy their hockey like we enjoy our baseball and football, they would still be the same team for awhile, meaning they would have the same players and arguably, the same marginal results. Even Canadians won’t want to watch this team, at least not right off the bat.
UGA_2001
April 13th, 2010
4:25 pm
They aren’t a bad team, they just need to put it all together. Blame the ownership and general manager. They are the only constants in all of this. Players and coaches have come and gone.
The Thrash have a very loyal core group of fans. It would be a shame to let them down by moving. The ownership needs to get their stuff together and commit to winning. The city will support if them if they do.
Gwinnett Fred
April 13th, 2010
4:32 pm
I think MB has left the blog – too many people nailing him with negative stuff (not that it should be anything new to him!)
Theron Sapp
April 13th, 2010
4:35 pm
Mark, you can write what you wish (and you do a fine job at it), but some of these people have a point — this topic cries out for a little reporting. The Philips lease question comes up regularly in AJC blogs, and I cannot remember the newspaper actually explaining the facts, at least not in some time. Meanwhile, I think a Canadian paper recently reported that the no-move provisions, whatever they may be, expire soon, which could release the team to move.
Any chance of the AJC telling us what the facts are?
JC
April 13th, 2010
4:45 pm
It’s all about ticket prices. It’s $ 90 to sit in the best section. Sure, it’s a great view, but it’s also an absurd amount to pay. Lower prices and you’ll fill up those floor seats.
T. Patrick Soolan
April 13th, 2010
4:48 pm
A couple of months back, when the Thrash were better-than-average, Raleigh’s tam was floundering on bottom. I made a bet with a guy who owed me a chunk, double or nothing, that Carolina would make the playoffs and the Thrash would not. I lost that by a hair. I made another bet with another friend 100 bucks – straight up – that Carolina would finish ahead of the Thrash at season’s end. Lost that, too, by just a hair. Am I against the Thrashers? Hell no, but my heart and wallet are two different entities and I never bet with my heart, although in this case I would have lost both ways.
What is it to say that Nashville and Carolina both, cities and areas with less than 1/3 the metro Atlanta’s population, can out-draw and, in both areas, not only out-draw, but out play and have better teams.
Is this the fault of the ownership? GM? Coach?, Location (uh, who in his right mind would go downtown Atlanta for anything)?, or a combination of all four? I vote this way: Location #1 (very bad); Ownership (obviously a misnomer)#2, the GM, #3 and John Anderson, well, you can guess that one.
the Flames were a better team but attendance, driven by a poor location at that time (Omni) left.
Call it what you want, but I, for one, wouldn’t go to a sports game anywhere within 10 miles radius of the Capitol, not unless I had an AK-47, two machetes and razor-knives in my pockets – all of which would not do me any good if I got confronted by some gang members or other undesirables!
TPS
Alpharetta
Dejay
April 13th, 2010
5:12 pm
This is bad comedy, folks. The only reason the Flames are in Calgary is because the owner (Tom Cousins) nearly went bankrupt in the late-70’s when his real estate investments bottomed out; NOT because of poor attendance (the Hawks didn’t reach their numbers until Nique and the gang got it cooking in the late-80’s). If Ted Turner had taken Cousins seriously and made a bid before Scalbania did, the Flames would’ve won that ‘89 Stanley Cup in Atlanta, just like he kept the Braves and Hawks from moving during the same time period by buying them and putting their games on TBS. That’s a fact; he’s said it himself.
The sole reason why hockey hasn’t taken off like the second go-around is simple; THEY DON’T WIN and by keeping Waddell around as long as they have, they give the impression to everyone that THEY DON’T CARE. It’s as simple as that.
I would question one’s sanity if he/she decides to continue spending hard-earned $$$ in an economy like this on a product that not only fails to produce year after year but keeps the person solely responsible around to drive them further into the ground. Even Pete Babcock looks like a genius compared to Waddell and it took nearly a decade for the Hawks to get out of the mess he and Kasten left behind.
Hockey will only succeed here if the Notorious A.S.G. finally decides to cut ties with the Teflon Don and bring in someone who has a clue how to build a NHL-level franchise, not an AHL one.
I’m not the biggest hockey fan on the planet but the tragedy of it all will be if the Thrashers move to Canada, only for the ‘light bulb’ in their heads to suddenly pop on, fire Waddell, bring in competent players, and start winning. The Flames never got out of the first round here but the instant they left, they started playing for Stanley Cups. The Nordiques were horrible in Quebec but what happened when they arrived in Denver? The same thing that happened to the Whalers after leaving Hartford for Raleigh. I was here to watch Calgary celebrate a Cup in our places while we were left to watch Rick Mahler try to get outs with his 74-MPH heater; that’s a reality I DON’T wish to live through again.
Guyman33
April 13th, 2010
5:12 pm
Bradley,
Go on youtube.com and search atlanta flames fights. Look at the crowd in the videos, why can’t we get like that. As a day 1 STH, I hope they don’t leave. It hurt when the Flames left.
Hillbilly Deluxe
April 13th, 2010
5:19 pm
Losing causes attendence problems; winning solves those problems. If they would start winning, or at least show they are serious about becoming a winner, they could draw well enough to stay. On their current course, I would give them 2 years.
Twoambers
April 13th, 2010
5:23 pm
We could write for days about this, but if the Islanders can move, don’t think for a second that we can’t. Phoenix was gone until the league stepped in. Is Nashville really a good idea? Well, Atlanta isn’t either.
The economy has created so many issues, though, that contraction seems like a better answer. Where would we move to that would make sense? It seems that stability or closure would work more for the NHL than moving would. And not just for us.
Would the NHL really be better off if the Islanders left New York for Kansas City? Better than building the Lighthouse project and staying on Long Island?
Some of these teams should be folded, or moved back up north. People say that if these teams won, fans would show up, and everything would be OK. But it’s a sports league. Half of your teams by definition have to be bad. That’s when you have to have people that care about the sport for it to maintain itself through the bad seasons. We just don’t have that here.
As much as I love hockey, and I went to my first Flames game in 1975, it just doesn’t belong here. And the NHL would be much better off if this team didn’t exist at all.
dean
April 13th, 2010
5:30 pm
When the Flames left ATL, so did my enthusiasm for hockey. I have never watched another game and don’t miss it one iota.
MrHughes
April 13th, 2010
5:45 pm
@Gwinnett Fred
All of those teams are not original franchises…
The Colorado Avalanche are the Old Quebeq Nordiques
The Dallas Stars are the old Minnesota North Stars
The Phoenix Coyotes are the old Winnipeg Jets
The Thrashers and the Wild are expansion teams.
Kory
April 13th, 2010
6:02 pm
I have lived in Atlanta all my, have been a baseball and football fan forever, but I have always enjoyed hockey. It is a great fast paced physical game, and if people in Atlanta gave it a real chance, they would love the games. I do agree, however, that no one wants to come see a losing team. We had a hard enough time getting people to Braves games we were winning the division every year. Until the Thrashers ownership changes, this team is doomed. I would love to see this team get things rolling. I can’t wait to buy playoff tickets to a Thrashers game….eventually.
Robert
April 13th, 2010
6:09 pm
Wow when was the last time you covered the Atlanta Thrashers.
Mr. Obvious
April 13th, 2010
6:15 pm
If the Thrashers sign Michael Vick, we can count on ONE particular group coming to Philips Arena to sell out all home games for no apparent reason that is hockey-related.
Remember the so-called Football “Fans” who packed the Dome for that felon?
Imagine a multi-year waiting list for Thrashers tickets and “Freaknik Revisited” at every game.
Vick can save the Thrashers!
BubbaDaPuckman
April 13th, 2010
6:31 pm
Who cares? Who’s the hottie in Green behind “Coach”…10 minutes with her would be better than anything the Thrashers have offered since “Bringing Hockey back to ATL”…