Amid Thrashers talk, we ask: Is Atlanta a lousy sports city?

Bettman is living in a world where he makes a ton of money, so _he_ never has bad seats, and Maple Leafs fans show up for every game no matter how bad the team is because there are no useful alternatives.

Does it make them better fans? Yes. Does it make them smart consumers and businessmen? Not even close. Unfortunately, Atlanta is a business-oriented city, so we have smart consumers and businessmen, not fans.

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Do you get paid extra every time you have a colon in the headline? Just wondering.

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No, it is a fine sports city.

Braves set the NL all-time mark for attendance in 1992-3, drew 3M years efore the Yankees, have averaged over 2.5M over the past 10 years despite average teams and a poor economy, and local tv and radio ratings are typically among the highest in MLB.

Falcons, despite their history, gain strong and vocal support when competitive and have TV local TV ratings comparable to NY, Miami, SF, and other non-rust belst cities.

Probably not the best NBA town, yet, but just signing a star center could change that.

Super Bowls, World Series, Final Fours, All Star Games, PGA, and BIG TIME College Football.

Atlanta is a superior sports city with a lot of history – it is a shame the AJC takes shots when the Braves do not sell out a Sunday night or Tuesday afternoon playoff game. Many cities’ papers sports writers actually encourage and promote their fan bases.

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I agree. Just because we like college football and other fans around the country argue we aren’t good fans in baseball, nfl football, etc is stupid. We can point to the northeast and other northern cities who have half full small football stadiums on a Saturday and say the same thing, but we dont. We don’t care about what they do, but for some reason folks point fingers at the south. We are good fans and passionate fans in all sports. If we don’t fill Turner Field or the Dome every game, oh well. It doesn’t mean we don’t support our teams. They probably make more money off of me in shopping trip to the mall when I buy sports gear than any fan going to a game. When I lived in SW Georgia and Oregon, I couldn’t go to games because I was so far away- does that make me a bad fan? No. You can’t base a fan base attendance alone.

I’m tired of hearing this arguement. We are about lose the Thrashers, but I recall a few northern and Canadian teams losing teams ten years or more ago too. Sometimes cities don’t lose teams because of the fan base, it’s because of other things like lousy corporate ownership.

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have I been banned? Oh well.

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[...] Story brought to you by Atlanta GA Sports – Bing News [...]

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mark, one championship since 1966 among 4 major league sports franchises says it all. it is not the fan that wins championships but players and owners. fandom does tend to get stronger and weaker according to the ability of the team to compete no matter where you are. even the chi town black hawks had a down time until they won again as did the bulls during their twin towers era. the new jersey hockey franchise is similarly under supported even though it is in one of the greatest populated areas of the world. not sure why the fans, some of who just got here from another city, should have to be responsible for the mediocrity of the product.

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The thing that erks me about Atlanta sports, is the transient nature of fans from all over the place who obviously feel like Atlanta is a better place to live, with better opportunities than wherever they are from, but constantly talk down on us like we are a pathetic place and existence.

I don’t thin you should be allowed to talk bad about a sports team or their fan base as long as you are choosing to live amongst them.

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1 Championship in over 40 years of professional sports in Atlanta…

I believe the more telling and appropriate question should be:

Why have Atlanta sports teams historically had such lousy management?

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Mark, Can you ask Clark Howard if he can drive me to Nashville in his Hybrid to a Predators game next season?

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Todd Galucki-Great Point!

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Funny Mark!

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Mark…………..No, any thoughtful person will close their walet to a mismanaged team. But we are fans. We will gladly spend our $ on a team that is well run and the players make an honest effort. The ASG has not fooled the buying public as both you and Jeff have pointed out over the last couple years. Being “slick’ may work with 8 yr olds. It does not work with adults using their hard earned cash.

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[...] Amid Thrashers talk, we ask: Is Atlanta a lousy sports city?Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog)Word of the pending sale has spawned yet another round of Atlanta-is-a-lousy-sports-town boilerplate harrumphing, and again I pause to ask: Are we a lousy sports town? The Thrashers were 28th among 30 NHL teams in attendance last season. …Thrashers fans rally, buy tickets as Winnipeg sale talks continueYahoo! Sports (blog)Thrashers fans rally during Select-A-Seat event, burn Winnipeg Jets bannermsnbc.comAtlanta in midst of another hockey death watchUSA TodayWinnipeg Free Press -FOXSports.com -Globe and Mailall 1,593 news articles » [...]

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No matter what the sport, uncaring owners = uncompetitive team. The one thing the Atlanta Thrashers are Number One in for consecutive years is having the Worst Owners Ever. Which results in nothing but WOE.

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Atlanta may be a mediocre pro sports city, but they’re hardly lousy. Phoenix and LA are AWFUL pro sports cities–so what if Atlanta lost two NHL franchises? LA lost two NFL franchises!!!!

As long as out-of-state owners buy teams, as long as owners mismanage their products, etc., teams have moved and will continue to move. But let’s not pretend like this is something unique to Atlanta.

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I am quite sure Atlanta is a great sports town, but just not for hockey. No doubt, you have some excellent fans there, there simply are not enough of you to make hockey viable there. When only 250 people showed up yesterday to the Thrasher rally, this speaks volumes. In a city of 6 million people you get only 250, yet in 1995, Winnipeg, a city of jut 750,000, got 35-40,000 to one rally alone. Do you see the difference?

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I was unaware that there were 32 MLB teams. Who are the two new ones?

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Yes, we are a lousy sports city, but that is due to all the unwanted, rude yankee transplants currently squatting here.

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You put a mediocre product out there you get a sorry result……Nobody in South gives a ding dong about some guys skating around on the ice trying to hit a puck……Go Away Thrashers – we don’t want not do we need you……and we don’t need another NHL franchise.

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Todd G I pretty much agree with that. But, I believe those other places that do demand accountability have had a lot more time, emotion, and money invested in their teams (just like the South’s college football teams). One of the saddest things about the Thrashers situation is that they have only had 11 years to build that interest and accountability. They have always been and still are a young franchise. Original 6 markets have had generations to get through the growing pains. The greatest crime in all of this is the ASG, NHL, and Commissioner not giving hockey and the still very young team a chance to succeed and grow just like those other “traditional” markets have had over numerous decades and not just the 1 that the Thrashers had. I believe that not only did the team never put together a good product that people believed in, the people believed that they were young and would eventually get there. As a result, they were not as demanding.

I know numerous people in the South East who are not huge hockey fans but are interested in and enjoy the game. They are the casual fans who the NHL has been trying to reach and grow the game. Right now, they have no clue what is going on with this behind the scenes fraud that is taking place with the Thrashers. They are not the only ones. I guarantee you there are huge hockey fans in big market NHL cities that are going to wake up the morning after the Atlanta Thrashers move to the Peg and go WTF!? By then, to the relief of ASG and NHL, it will be too late to demand anything. Kiss the growth of the game goodbye.

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Yes Atlanta is a lousy city, not just a lousy sports city. You people could learn quite a bit from how we do things out here in Arizona

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No.

Atlanta is prudent sports city EXCEPT for college football.

Greatest college football town in the land.

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The ones who don’t want hockey in Atlanta are either ignorant Southerners who don’t want anything from the North in the South or ignorant Canadians who don’t want “their game” south of any state that does not boarder their country. Lots of ignorance in the South and Canada. It appears to be the one thing the two places have in common.

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Atlanta sports suffer from Atlanta heritage. The best place for Atlanta’s stadiums and arenas would be in North Atlanta, not on the south side of the city. Most of the wealth in Atlanta is concentrated in Cobb and North Fulton, but crony Atlanta politicians insist on having our venues in the south part of downtown. Nobody really wants to touch the issue for fear of being branded a racist. Atlanta would be a great sports town if it weren’t for our tacit subsidization of race-driven city politics.

The AJC is the other problem. Towns that consistently win championships demand success, and it starts with the local newspaper. But our town rag is more interested in playing nice. Right now, Mark Bradley and the rest of the half-breed Atlanta sports writers should publish the name of every Liberty Executive everyday until they invest in our baseball team. Shame them. But Cox just won’t let it happen, so we are stuck with mediocrity.

And despite all these barriers, our four major sports teams all went to the playoffs last year. Atlanta sports are fine, but its owners in baseball, basketball, and hockey need to go! Lead the charge AJC!

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Indifference to sports is arguably a healthy sign.

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The difference between college and pro sports’ fans in Atlanta has a lot to do with pride IMO.

Folks are proud of their schools. There’s very little civic pride in Atlanta – probably because there’s no such thing as an Atlanta identity like you find in many of the great pro sports cities (Philly, Chicago, Boston, New York, et al). All of our intown hoods have neighborhood pride, but that generally results in more divisiveness than unity – and that’s not even including the ITP vs OTP divide.

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lousy teams, lousy sports town, perfect match……….

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Atlanta has failed me.

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Not really lousy…maybe indifferent…one championship (1995 World Series) in about 155 professional sports team seasons (Hawks, Thrashers, Flames, Falcons, Braves) is PATHETIC…one could argue, based on your attendance numbers, that Atlanta fans are lousy in the sense that too many fans attend and pay for mediocrity.

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Put Mike Vick in as GM of the thrashers for a year!

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As a regular listener of SiriusXM’s NHL Home Ice channel, some of their on-air guys complain about how expensive it is to see a Maple Leafs game because a significant chunk of the tickets are owned by corporations in the GTA and what tickets are available to the general public are typically the more expensive ones. We’re talking about an NHL team whose season ticket waiting list is somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-20 years based on the source you find online. This is part of the reason why a lot of folks in Ontario go to Buffalo games and why people like Jim Balsille want a second team in either the GTA or in Southern Ontario.

For the most part, corporate support for teams here seem to be on a downward trend. Since Philips Arena opened, the club section has been renamed multiple times, the official airline of the Hawks and Thrashers has gone from Delta to Midwest to Frontier (only because Midwest was merged into Frontier by their corporate parent). Delta even dropped their sponsorship of the Falcons and allowed AirTran to become the “official airline” of the Falcons (although Delta still flies the Falcons to away games).

One of the reasons why Philips even paid for the naming rights is so they could increase their brand awareness in North America. Meanwhile, the only times I ever saw Philips commercials seemed to be during Thrashers games.

People in other cities have trash talked about the Braves not selling out playoff games; the folks in Atlanta got spoiled in the 1990s by all of the playoff appearances and after a while, it became so routine that folks quit going.

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If we had a decent or as my Dad would have put it half-a$$sed transit system I think that would help……alot. Imagine if you could go to Turner Field without having to drive to it!!! If you get on Marta in Kennesaw at Town Center Mall and ride it to the ballpark. Instead I can count on an at least an hours drive both ways. The drive ruins the fun going and leaving. And with gas as high as it is you add that as almost a surcharge.

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People stopped going to the Braves playoff games because most fans lost faith in Bobby Cox’s ability to motivate his team for the post season.

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If you buy tickets and don’t go, the owners still win. Yes you won’t pay the outrageous concession prices but the owners don’t care as you won’t com close to spending on food and drinks as much as you did for tickets in most cases. So if you buy tickets, you’re telling the owners they’re doing a good job. Most people who go to games and root for the home team are from there. So they can easily follow the game on TVand/or radio if they wanted to.

Just remember this: Pirates fans bought a bunch of tickets a few years ago and didn’t go in and requested others didn’t go in. Everyone laughed at them because the owner(s) already got their money.

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Matt from MN…..you may not have been so harsh about Ted Turner if you knew it was on or about 1989 that he started taking his librium (sp). After that, his thought processes were more clear and the Braves under his leadership started to do us proud. Not everything is as it seems MN!

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I’ve lived for years in NY, Chicago, LA, and now Shanghai, but still religiously follow the Atlanta Falcons, Hawks, and Braves. That should say something about the faithfulness of native Atlantans to these historically mediocre teams. (Or maybe just about my own stupidity).

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I think real fans got tired of the tomahawk chop

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Mark, fantastic article. Makes me want football to start ASAP!

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Yes Atlanta is a lousy sports city the teams don’t have good ownerships other than the Falcons. Arthur Blank is the best sports owner Atlanta has the rest of them seem cheap and and seem to don’t care. Plus Atlanta is a transplant city so even if you go to a sports game in Atlanta you gonna see alot of people rooting for the other team cause they are fans of those teams being from those cities but they now live in Atlanta. I remember going to the Cubs vs. Braves playoffs game in Atlanta in 2003 and it seem like it was more Cubs fans than Braves fans at the game it felt like I was at Wrigley Field.

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We are a very homosexual and negro city,so we do not support our teams.

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Sherry Taylor…..though it is hard to be on the same side as Bettman. He is doing what he needs to do in this situation. Stick it to the ASG. All the NHL team owners hate this slimey group. Their reputations are not the best to begin with. But saddled with the ASG, everyone comes out a loser. If the ASG are not the worse set of owners of all time in any sport, I can’t think of whom can be metioned in the same sentence. Pal Pot didn’t owner a sports franchise , did he?

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I dont think this is an Atlanta thing as much as it is a Southern thing. College sports (especially football) have dominated the South for a century in the same way Pro sports have dominated elsewhere. I think Falcon and Hawks fans are good in general. If the team is any good, they support it. The Braves turned things around with their run under Cox. They do pretty well attendance wise. The problem with the Thrashers is they just never got off the ground right. They were close but not quite, so after the newness of the team wore off, there has been very little for fans to rally around. Hockey isnt exactly popular down here either. Any NHL team that resides in the South had better be good or the fans wont latch onto it.

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Atlanta is not much different than any other town. They support a winner, but they did not support the Braves as much as they should have. Don’t get me wrong, they do support the Braves, but I would not call them a passionate fan base. Making the playoffs does spoil fans. The Braves did not sell out their games as the consecutive playoff streak went on. They wouldn’t get excited until maybe the NLCS. It happens in other towns too. The fail should go to Atlanta Spirit marketing. They did nothing to make Thrashers games THE place to be. In Dallas, they established an exclusive club with entertainment after the game. It made people want to go, even if they weren’t into hockey as much as a true fan would be. I love hockey, so I went often. The Spirit did little to nothing to attract new fans. A commitment to winning would have helped too. Watching Heatley, Kovy, Kari and Hossa all leave did not do much to make fans feel good about this team.

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I think the biggest issue limiting passion for the local pro sports franchises is that Atlanta is a city of transplants, with half the population living here less than 20 years. With the ability to follow the team you grew up with ( from whatever city you came from) via the internet, cable tv and satellite tv, those old ties are more significant than they would have been a generation ago. Of course if the local teams won more some of those old ties would be severed far more easily.

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Mark: Your faithful Booster has a question: How do you mean that Atlanta is a good college sports team? Are you talking about UGA fans only? Reason I ask is because GT hardly every sells out a game unless its UGA or Clemson. At these games that are sold out many are visiting team fans.

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I think there has traditionally been a very large segment of the population that is more inclined toward college sports, football especially, but that does not explain the entire issue.

There are lots of degree holders in Atlanta who did not graduate from an SEC or ACC school. Fir example, what about those who graduated from HBCU’s or smaller division schools. They love their football too, but their teams may not be as accessible.

When our pro teams gives fans teams that they can embrace and that win, then they show up for games. At one time, the Hawks were the toast of the town. They played hard and represented the city well. Then they hit a ceiling and interest went on the decline for a long time. Now the Hawks are a talented team, but they are not fully embraced for a number of reasons, but mostly because they do not play hard all of the time.

The Falcons do play hard all the time, but they have deficiencies still. The fans have confidence, at this point, that ownership and team management understand what needs to be addressed, and will take action. Time will tell if this group can deliver, and if they don’t, it will not matter where you put a new stadium because the fans will not embrace a perennially mediocre team.

The Braves suffer from ownership issues, as well as poor city planning. I hope at some point, those in charge will extend rail to the stadium. Had they done so in the first place, we would see more fans at Turner Field. The Braves also suffer from a poor PR image with a large segment of fans. It started with the naming of the new stadium, and it continues today. Atlanta is no longer the city is was in the 70’s,80’s, or 90’s for that matter. The key for the Braves is acquiring talent and reaching out to all of the team’s fans. I know this is controversial, especially in the Atlanta blogosphere, put there is a perceived hostility by too many who would otherwise pay to see the team.

The Braves are also hurt by the legacy of Channel 17. Fans are use to being able to sit at home and watch long before there was an ESPN, or Fox Sports South.

Atlanta is a great sports opportunity for smart owners who have a desire to win that is reflected on the field of play.

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With Atlanta teams history of one and done coupled with the fact Atlantan’s actually have lifes unlike those pathetic miserable northern fans it is understandable why Atl fans are apathetic.

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atlanta–one of the 3 worst sports cities in the u.s. including miami and LA.

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I’d buy the college football argument more readily if Georgia Tech sold out its games.

How can a city be a good sports city if its population is a fan of teams elsewhere in the country?

That’s like saying the United Nations is a great country.

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Atlanta fans are GREAT sports fans…..of local college AND local pro sports teams!

The issue here is….why go to the games?

Does the Dome or Philips have any real place to tailgate? Out side of CNN Center, the area that surrounds these facilities is one of the worst in the nation. Why do you think that the Dome is ranked as one of the worst game day experiences in the NFL?

Turner Field….and Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium before that….name one place where you want to go in that area outside of the stadium?

I grew up in Minnesota at a time when the Twins and Vikings played at Met Stadium and the North Stars were at the Met Center. Both of these facilities were sub-standard….but the atmosphere and passion was decided outside of the facilities BEFORE and AFTER the games….tailgating, the Thunderbird Hotel, etc….

The reason for Atlanta being labeled a poor sports town is that fans have no reason…other than the game…to go. Add to the fact that the the infrastructure in and around these facilities is poor at best…which makes it a pain to get to and get home.

So why does Atlanta have poor locations and poor infrastructure? The poor management of by the leaders of the City of Atlanta…and a total lack of planning and support by Metro Atlanta and State of Georgia leaders to professional sports facilities.

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atlanta sports are fine, especially the fans.

put braves in a different part of town. get us a real owner that spends.

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[...] of Hawks fans, but football is still what it is all about in the South. … Original post: Amid Thrashers talk, we ask: Is Atlanta a lousy sports city … Share [...]

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Atlanta is a GREAT sports town once you understand it.

Atlanta loves an event. We want to go to the office the next day and say I was “at the game when”. Think back to the Mike Vick years. Even when we were 8-8 or 7-9 it was fun to go because we never knew what highlight we would see. We loved the Dominique years down at the Omni because we had a true superstar who could go head to head with Jordan and Bird. You could say that his trade to the Clippers almost killed the Hawks. The Braves always have great attendance when they are scratching and clawing to come back wins.

The common thread is we love teams that have an identity. The Braves workman like style means there’s nothing to latch on to. The Hawks Joe Johnson Iso Offense is boring and keeps us wondering what would happen if we’d gotten Chris Paul to lob alley-oops to Josh. The Falcons got an identity when we got an owner and regime that are constantly on tv, radio and internet telling us whats going on. They made themselves our team by being a part of us. The Thrashers never made headway because we weren’t even sure who they were. They didn’t play with a style. They wanted us to Belive in Blueland but what does that mean? Defend the Dome is definitely a better because it makes us, the fans, feel like we are a part of helping the team.

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Eleven seasons for the Thrashers and they never won a playoff game.

The Thrashers were run so poorly they were beginning to enter Georgia Bulldogs territory.

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What about MARTA? Does that count as public transportation?

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Atlanta is a good sports city. They just cheer for the out-of-state teams.

Go to any sports bar in Atlanta. Regardless of the sport, you will hear more fans cheering for the out-of-state team. Even the Nationals.

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Let’s be honest. Part of the attendance issues have ‘everything’ to do with the insistance of all sports franchises being downtown. The Braves draw pretty well, but what is left on the table, simply because a family in the burbs has to factor traffic into the city and out. Not to mention dealing with a higher crime rate.

No different for the Hawks and Thrashers and to a lesser degree the Falcons. Multiple routes out from Phillips and the Dome. Easy to get turned around and then your driving up a street where the windows go up and the doors are locked.

Add to it that over 50% of the people who live in Atlanta are from somewhere else. While their kids may become local fans (if their parents will let them), the adults tend to stick with the team they grew up with.

In baseball and hockey, African Americans have little or no interest. We have the largest African American Middle Class in the World and no one bothers to even try to market either team to these folks. We have more African American millionaires than any other city in the country. What % of ownership does this segment of our population have ‘ownership’ in any of the sports franchises? In other words, either market to different cultures, or move the teams right in the middle of a high density of ‘white folks’ and watch your numbers go up.

Add to it, that we have been cursed with poor ownership, with the exception of the Turner with the Braves and Blank with the Falcons. (I know Turner owned the Thrashers and perhaps the Hawks – but face it – he did not have the same commitment there).

The truth is the truth..

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What a stupid article. You can check the attendance and see they were in the bottom half over the past 4 years. So there are 15 other teams with similar attendance #’s. It has to do with horrible owners and mgmt. No one wants to give money to scum.

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Bettman is a deuchebag for making comments like that in this economy. I am thoroughly surprised there hasn’t been more outrage over those comments.

“You should pay for bad product even though unemployment in 10% and gass is $4 a gallon…”

He can take the NHL and shove it up his a** – this decision is personal to him (he hates the ASG like we do, but we still get punished)
and quite frankly I find it to be unscrupulous business that the leages is strucutured to make money for a team relocating.

Way to build a fan base on an already shaky product there bud…. what a moron…

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The quadra-annual “Atlanta sucks as a sports city” column is early this time. What is so hard
to understand? College football is king!! The Braves are a nice distraction between recruiting
and fall practice. Hockey? Never played it…never knew anyone who played it.

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If the stadium/fields were up in the north half of the metro area, they would average 50% more in attendance. So many folks with decent living in the north half that just don’t want to drive in to downtown. The traffic most especially. To watch a 3 hour game live, you spend 7 or 8 hours travelling and sitting in traffic. Oh, joy.

It might be improvement if the stadiums were on the southern side of 285, but I would think the north side (Cobb, Gwinnett, N. Fulton) would be the ideal place to pull in the most likely fans to attend more efficiently.

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In addition, few people near the stadiums/arenas can afford to park near the game, much less, buy tickets, so why have the facilities next to 100,000 people who never go? It just makes no sense at all to me.

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…and all that hits the main point. That Atlanta isn’t population dense enough. We are a spread out, sprawling, multiple suburbia, multiple city, city. Philadelphia and many northern cities are very densely populated within a 20 mile radius of downtown, but Atlanta is just not ideally/efficiently populated to support, daily, sports teams with poorly (centrally) located facilities. It just isn’t. Like others have said though, none of the teams have experienced any real continuance of success, save for the Braves in the 90s and early 00s. The rest have been consistently mediocre or just flat terrible. A consistently good basketball team or hockey team, would see its attendance spike.

Having too many options (college, pro, varying sports and entertainment), means we can save our middling entertainment funds for a more enjoyable event. And we do. It would take years of winning seasons to overcome the stigma of travelling, parking and walking around the downtown facilities though.

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I second the post of Cesare Maniago. That is what I was trying to say, only much better. I agree 100%.

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I used to be the biggest sports fan in Atlanta. I have a box full of ticket stubs. I have spent 1000’s of dollars on local teams. I had directv so i could watch everything.

Then I just became fed up. The greed of the owners and players have ruined sports for me. Luxury suites are now more important than the average fans. The cost of tickets have skyrocketed. Spoiled players are pampered and out of touch. Commercials have become a major distraction interfering with the action. The cost of sports programing on tv became a rip off.

For me the fun has been completely drained and replaced with greed. The sport is gone.

I have stopped going to games. Stopped watching on tv, in fact I canceled my directv account.

I thought I would miss it all and go back like an addicted crack addict, but guess what? I don’t miss it one bit, and have a big wad of money in my pocket to spend on other things.

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Bottom line is that professional sports has become way too corporate. Going to a Braves game now is really not that different from going to Six Flags. The game itself has become secondary to all the stuff going on around the ball park. The other thing is, the owners reap all of this money from television and the way it is now, most every game is on TV. So, why would I want to get in the car, pay almost $4 a gallon to sit in traffic going 85 or 75 south to get to Turner or Philips. I can stay right here in my house, with my affordable food and beverages, and watch the game just fine. Maybe someday games will be played in huge warehouse sized facilities with no fans. It’ll just be shown on television and heard on radio. It’s ok with me.

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[...] See original here: Amid Thrashers talk, we ask: Is Atlanta a lousy sports city? – Atlanta Journal Constitution (b… [...]

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ASG runs the team into the ground for years and then people wonder about fan support? What do you expect? If you want people to spend money, they have to be given a reason to spend it. If the team had been run well from day one, there’d have been multiple playoff appearances and we wouldn’t even be having this discussion. If hockey dies in Atlanta, it’s because the ASG killed it.

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The closest thing we have to the Chicago Cubs (or the Toronto Maple Leafs) here are the Georgia Bulldogs.

The fools come out in support regardless of how bad the teams are.

Leadership knows it, so they run the programs on a shoestring and pocket more profit than anyone else.

Blindly support your team and they will take advantage of you.

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The Blackhawks couldn’t draw 5000 a couple years before they won the cup. The difference is the team ownership saw the problem and reacted. The ASG promoted the guy who screwed this team up.

And Falafal, in 10 or so years when the Jets or whatever you call our team aren’t making a profit because of that tiny arena, which at 100% full is only 83% of Philips (and you won’t be at 100% capacity once the honeymoon is over), they’ll move again to another larger city with more capacity or be contracted. You were at 13K or so when the Jets left and even less with the Moose. With the cost of big league tickets, any uptick won’t last too long. Rabid fans only go when they can afford the tix.

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In short, yes, Atlanta is a lousy sports city. I say that as a native of Atlanta that happens to be a huge fan of the Braves and the Hawks. I lived in Chicago and learned first hand what a true “sports city” means. The entire city embraces their professional teams in a way in which I had never seen being from Atlanta. When the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup, the entire city was literally partying all night long in the streets. The parades for the Blackhawks and the White Sox in 2005 were unreal. To top all of it off, Wrigley Field sells out almost every game and the city is still considered a Bears city because of the tremendous support. Atlanta simply does not stack up to the Chicagos, Bostons, or New Yorks. The proof is in the numbers and the passion. I hate to say it, but it’s true…

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The 1st Place Cleveland Indians drew a whopping 25,000 today against interleague rival Cincinnatti on a perfect day.

Relocate the Indians!

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80-84 Braves attendance wasn’t to bad. Once Turner stopped playing Jerry Jones and rehired Bobby Cox the franchise was able to rebound. It wasnt like he was watching the NASDAQ as the owner of this franchise as some owners have done with this franchise.

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Historically, with a few exceptions, Atlanta has been a city with lousy OWNERS… If you don’t remember Rankin Smith for example, you won’t get my point.

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Atlanta isn’t a lousy sports city, but the NHL is a joke of a professional league that can’t even get ESPN, a network that carries women’s college softball, to carry its games. And the Thrashers have been a horrible franchise, from the dysfunctional ownership group to the inept management and coaching to lousy draft picks and trades to the sorry product on the ice.

And the clueless boob Gary Bettman thinks people should have been lined up to pay $50-$100+ per ticket plus parking and concessions after watching 10 years of this terrible product with no improvement in sight.

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I would say it is not a top sports city due to a transient population of fans. I’m born and raised in north Georgia, but I’ve also lived in Chicago, Oakland and other parts of the SF Bay area, and the greater Boston, New York and Philadelphia metro areas.

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Atlanta may not be the best PRO sports city around, but when it comes to supporting sports in general, there aren’t many better. When you consider attendance at pro, college, high school, and other amateur sporting events, a large percentage of metro-Atlanta’s population attends some type of athletic event nearly every week.

During a large portion of hockey season, I can chose to go to a Thrashers game or I can go watch the Hawks, Falcons, or Braves. I can also pick from UGA and GA Tech football, basketball, or baseball, join several thousand people at one of several high school football games, watch future pro players on a high school or AAU basketball court, check out the next Jason Heyward or Brian McCann on the high school or travel ball baseball field. All of those choices don’t even consider the thousands of soccer games, tennis matches, golf tournaments, etc. that are going on almost every week in the Atlanta area.

I enjoy going to Thrashers games, but with all of the other choices available, the NHL will never be my first priority.

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Agree ATLRav…many more Atlantans/Georgians/Southernors actually play/played organized and competitive football, baseball and basketball than in other cities. We know when a good team or players when we see them and are probaby a little more skeptical and certainly more skeptical than “fans” in another market.. Rust belt fans are cheering for a jersey – but having spent a lot of time in the midwest I can tell you there is not much else to root for.

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Lousy Sportswriters city.

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Steve.B………You may be ” A potentially happy Fan”, but you sure can’t spell (loose, luckey).

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When I travel to cities in the Southeast, most of the people in the sports bars are cheering for the Braves.

When I am in the Atlanta area, most of the people in the sports bars are cheering for the Braves’ opponent.

Weird.

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I can’t even speak that some dumbass asks if Atlanta is not a great sport city? Really c’mon… Sports fans are all great man, whether cheering for football, hockey or baseball… But any city needs a winner now and then, a contender and if that doesn’t happen and there’s no marquee (sic?) Player to at least pay to see it makes a superfan go a little sour… You folks in Atlanta have lots to cheer for… I can’t believe the article even asks the question…

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I haven’t been to as many other cities to watch sporting events as some of you. But back in the mid 90s, I did a consulting gig in Pittsburgh and was able to take in both a Phillies game and Steelers/Eagles pre-season game in the old Three Rivers Stadium in the same week. What I saw and heard forever changed my perspective of Atlanta PROFESSIONAL sports teams.

I kid you not, but when we entered the stadium and began walking around the outer concourse looking for our entry portal, there were CHAMPIONSHIP BANNERS hanging everywhere. And I do mean everywhere. In fact, it almost looked like they had so many of them that they didn’t even have room to hang them all. It was truly stunning!

These weren’t banners like the jokes hanging in Philips Arena (A Banner for hosting the NHL All-Star game? REALLY now….) These were Hall of Fame banners and Div Champs, Conf Champs, LEAGUE Champs over the long history of Pittsburgh pro teams and players.

Now I was born in GA and have lived here 98% of my life and consider myself a die-hard Atlanta sports fan…But this made me stop and think —- Just WHO do we have in the history of Atlanta professional sports that’s in ANY Hall of Fame? Where are OUR championship seasons in this city? If we started hanging banners for anything except the Braves 14 straight Div championships (which many diminish the importance of because they were only followed by one World Championship), how far around an arena or stadium would they hang?

As Mark has pointed out before, two of the local college teams (UGA & GA TECH) have won more National Championships (2) than all of the pro teams combined in this city since pro sports arrived here in 1966. That’s the definition of Loserville.

So the question “Is Atlanta a bad sports city” has at least 2 answers. If you’re talking about the frauds of professional franchises that have worn the Atlanta name, then the answer is undoubtedly YES. In fact, the word “bad” is rather kind when considering there has only been one pro sports championship here in what’s now a combined 151 seasons of play. Several other more derogatory, yet more accurate, terms come to mind….

If the question “Is Atlanta a bad sports city” refers to FANS, then how can the answer be anything other than NO? No other city in this country can claim to have been teased year in and year out by one pro club or another only to ultimately have our dreams dashed, hopes killed and our hearts ripped straight out of our chests more times than us…..Yet we still come back next year, pay our money and get our tickets for the ride again.

We’ve all seen the movie before and we know how it ends. We get dissed for leaving the Falcons playoff game in the 3rd QTR. Trust me, I was there and there was no miracle finish on the horizon for the Falcons that night. We get dissed for leaving this year’s 6th game of the Hawks/Bulls series in the middle of the 4th. I wasn’t at that one….But we all knew how it was going to end anyway.

The Thrashers on-ice product was pretty much the consistently worst product in the history of the NHL for a period exceeding a full decade. When viewed from that perspective, it’s somewhat amazing that the avg home attendance was even above 5,000 per game, much less the actual 13,500 that it was last season. While some of us eventually get fed up and vote with our wallets, there are many more who pick up the slack.

We support our pro teams, even when we get very little in return from them. That’s a pretty RARE quality and it defines us as anything BUT so-called fair-weather fans. We don’t have the dozens of banners hanging proudly like some cities…..But the fact that we haven’t completely run our pro teams out of town, telling them not to return until they get their sh!t together, means we can and should feel proud of ourselves despite how the rest of the country or world may view us.

If the Falcons, Hawks and Braves all won championships within a 2-3 year period, can you imagine how absolutely apesh!t the fans of this city would become? It would be like we were told at the Steelers game: “You don’t just go and buy Steelers season tickets…..You have to inherit them.”

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Watching from outside, I feel very badly for Thrasher fans. You’ve had some excellent talent over the years, but the ownership battle and weak team management may be doing you in. The economy has not helped either. I hate to read the comments of the many die-hard Thrash fans who have spent considerable money backing their fandom, put a lot of emotion into their support, and may have their team taken away.

I was in Winnipeg for a couple of their last games in 1996, and I felt the same for those fans. But I’d rather the Thrashers stayed home, because I think with Rick Dudley as GM, they will improve considerably next year and on-going, giving the fans a playoff team. Had this broken Spirit group brought in a Stanley Cup-winning GM like Neil Smith when they had the chance a few years ago and let him do what needed to be done, we might not be talking about this at all right now. And if David McDavid had gotten the Philips teams and arena, this wouldn’t be happening either.

Sports are the only business where they blame the customers when the product is bad. The world gives us plenty of bad news every day, and who can blame the paying public for not paying to be let down on a nightly basis. Bettman, I guess. And at these staggering prices in every sport, a lot of people are deciding between games and necessities.

I really hope that somehow at the last minute, the Thrashers can be saved for Atlanta.

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Paddy,

You are wrong. I was educated at Harvard and I would be glad to tell the weak Atlanta sports writers that Cox corporate edits everything they write.

Atlanta is a great sports town:

- best golfer in history (Bobby Jones)
- 3 time heavyweight champion (Evander Holyfield)
- 1995 World Series Champs
- 1990 National Football Champs

We would have a lot more if the owners of our professional teams had gonads… but they don’t. The other missing ingredient is a newspaper with some soul, some moxy.

Paddy… Bend over.

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Lazy writing Mark. This subject has been beaten to death. I expect better from a writer at the AJC.

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going to philips or the dome, but when you come out of the parking lot’s on Hank Aaron DRive at the Ted, I want to make a left on Fulton and IMMEDIATELY go right onto 75 north, but the APD in their infinite stupidity, make you go up to the capitol and around downtown 2 miles later. That’s just retarded.

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@Coach Grohbo: It makes perfect sense. Most people from that town in South Carolina probably are from there, where that person in Atlanta is probably from NY.

Also, TBS helped a LOT to garner Braves support across the nation, and especially in the South East. There were no teams down here up until the Marlins came around, so the Braves may not have been “America’s Team” as claimed, but they definitely were the Southeast’s team.

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Another point, the Atlanta metro area is greatly inflated in size as compared to other places. The “Metro Atlanta” area is now larger than the state of Massachusetts. (8,376 sq miles.) So when it’s said Atlanta has so many people, the vast majority of those people live quite a drive away from the Turner Field / Phillips Arena area. (eg, Gainesville? Cartersville? All included. 60 and 40 mile drives away.)

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I used to think it was lackadaisical but later found out that lousy was a better word for it based on the contributions of Atlanta natives. I actually ran a study some time back on public area transport systems MARTA+CCT and found out that most people are fans but when asked why they dont attend games its always some excuse.Examples;- The falcons don’t have a contending D, Mike vick isnt a true quarterback, Joe Johnson isnt a superstar like wade/kobe. Spirit doesn’t organize the events well. the thrashers are inconsistent…etc.If this was Cleveland then theres reason for gripe but when you look at the number of playoff teams in college and the pro’s then you realize that theres a problem somewhere.

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I pretty much agree with Mark’s take. People around here follow college football with the passion that people in Boston follow the Red Sox, Chicago follow the Cubs, Green Bay follow the Packers, etc. I’m sure that there are basketball teams playing in England and Spain that don’t draw well. But the soccer/football stands are filled all over because that’s their sport. FWIW, Atlanta Motor Speedway usually packs the house when NASCAR comes this way.

Two other factors affect in-house attendance. First, distance. In all seriousness, how many of you live anywhere near any of the pro sports complexes? I live about 90 minutes away. I have never lived closer than a half hour. The region’s population is spread out much more than some of the other big cities, and our mass transit doesn’t really connect everybody. Bring MARTA rails up through Gwinnett and Cobb or put one of the teams closer, maybe like Doraville, and you would probably see better attendance.

The other issue is television. This even affects UGA games for me. Why should I spend so much money to get tickets to most any game around here when I can watch almost anything in HD on my LED-LCD TV? Unless you make way more money than I do, you can’t affort seats that give you that kind of view for UGA or Falcons games.

Most recently I have seen the Atlanta Silverbacks, Gwinnett Braves and Gwinnett Gladiators. The talent may not be world-class, but you can still see competitive sports for MUCH cheaper than the big leagues.

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Mr. Bradley,
I think you do a credible analysis for a topic that, in the Big Picture, is fairly far down the list on things that really matter, ie, your PhD intro here regarding Atlanta’s justification for its label as a “lousy-sports-city” is fairly credible, akin to my sister’s PhD in English, “The Effect of the first translation of the Illiad into English, upon English literature”. But yours is probably more attractive for cocktail conversation, right?

My reply to your article: “Does it really matter?

Mass audience sports are one of the kings right now in American in producing money flow in the society. Your job, the bartenders in Buckhead, etc. So, for you it is an important subject. But, really, from a larger perspective, does this issue of Braves-Thrashers-Hawks-Falcons REALLLY matter? Of course not. Life goes on. One season is different from the next. There is a new excuse born every minute for either the win or the loss, but as my sister used to say, every plot of every story can be boiled down to the 2 dozen described by the Greeks 2,400 years ago. It all comes out the same. If this is true, Our entertainment tim. our support for the Braves or the Angels or (ugggh( the Yankees is not going to impress God on our records He keeps upstairs. We don’t get any extra points for sitting on our fannies, drinking a beer and eating a hotdog in the stands with 15^20,000 other folks when we could be doing something else, something better.

I spend about 30 minutes reading the headlines and a few articles, win or lose. Of course I am not in your neighborhood any more. But when I was, baccccck when you were a puppy, I went to very few games in a year (most were Georgia Tech because of family connections) and I preferred baseball because I was usually doing something else during that time around home. Its just not important enough to worry about, until there’s nothing else left to accomplish.

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With the exception of baseball, yes. Hawks and Thrasher fans need consistent winning and play offf appearances in order for them to pony up and buy tickets. Atlanta needs to lose both teams to get the attention of these loosy goosy fans. Braves fans are more patient because of their past success and a hope for a better tommorrow. In addition, Falcons have proved as of late to be a consistent contender. Of course the open air stadium is one of the most stupid things the Falcon’s ownership could ever do. They will lose season ticket holders. This is not college. No one wants to sit out in the cold and drink beer to watch their team. Team ownership plays into this situation. Hawks and Thrashers owners are disfunctional. Previous GM Waddell would have been fired many seasons ago in another city. What a loser. He helped bring down the Thrashers along with the fans. Just saying!

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Georgia Tech football, baseball and basketball were Atlanta’s first major sport teams. The pros came in on their heels. Georgia Tech went through some very tough times during the 1970s and early 80s. Homer Rice and DRad are great ADs. Georgia Tech has become stronger and ain’t planning on moving.

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I hate how there is so much support for College Football here. We are a lousy sports city when it comes to pro sports. That and the locations of venues suck. Turner Field has no MARTA station that drops you off or has bars/restaurants/nightlife nearby. Who wants to go to Philips when you can’t go out and grab a drink after?

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Honestly, this “Is Atlanta a bad sports town?” question is old and tired. This is NOT a bad sports town. Unfortunately, it is where so many BAD SPORTS TEAMS end up. Fans don’t get to choose the owner, fans don’t get to choose management, fans don’t get to hire scouts, fans don’t get to hire coaches, and fans don’t get to draft players. Fans can only analyze the product and decide if it is worth spending money on it.

Before the Braves of the ’90’s or the Arthur Blank owned Falcons and the brief history of the ‘Nique led Hawks, Atlanta has been handed crap team after crap team that was completely mismanaged. Then when the team fails because of lack of success on the field, the conversation somehow always becomes how bad a sports town Atlanta is or has become.

Really? Do today’s Falcons feel that way? Did the Braves in the ’90’s? Did the Hawks during their last playoff run?

The question isn’t if Atlanta is a bad sports town, but how have fans endured as much garbage from ownerships and players for so long?

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As a native Atlantan and one that supported both the Flames and the Thrashers…the “lousy” comments irritate me. Make no mistake, the failure of the Thrashers lies at the feet of one person: Don Waddell. Yes, we sold out the arena for the first three years because we were so thrilled to have hockey….ANY hockey…back. But after trading star after star after star (Heatly, Kovy, Hossa…) and putting a crappy product on the ice…attendance dwindeld. In ANY city a crappy team is going to get a crappy crowd.

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Or moreover. When the Thrashers did put together a decent team to get into the playoffs, they promptly humiliated the town and then watch piece by piece until the team was so dismantled it was nearly an expansion roster again. Like the ole saying goes, you have to spend money to make money. The ASG never had any intentions of putting any money at all into the Thrashers. So now they get a significantly reduced price tag to sell their franchise. It couldn’t happen to a better bunch of pricks. This town will support any team. But we’re not blind loyalists idiots like many other markets. Fool us once, shame on you….yada, yada, yada.

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I think this could be a great sports town. I believe what has held us back is lousy teams. The Falcons have produced more bad seasons than good. The Hawks just disappoint, i.e., this past season (how many games did they play where they didn’t care?). The Braves do get support because they win. Although that support is weening.
I think it comes down to owner’s who care and winning.

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While I haven’t been to as many other cities to watch sporting events as some of you…Back in the mid 90s, I did a consulting gig in Pittsburgh and was able to take in both a Phillies game and Steelers/Eagles pre-season game in the old Three Rivers Stadium in the same week. What I saw and heard forever changed my perspective of Atlanta PROFESSIONAL sports teams.

I kid you not, but when we entered the stadium and began walking around the outer concourse looking for our entry portal, there were CHAMPIONSHIP BANNERS hanging everywhere. And I do mean everywhere. In fact, it almost looked like they had so many of them that they didn’t even have room to hang them all. It was truly stunning!

These weren’t banners like the jokes hanging in Philips Arena (A Banner for hosting the NHL All-Star game? REALLY now….) These were Hall of Fame banners and Div Champs, Conf Champs, LEAGUE Champs over the long history of Pittsburgh pro teams and players.

Now I was born in GA and have lived here 98% of my life and consider myself a die-hard Atlanta sports fan…But this made me stop and think —- Just WHO do we have in the history of Atlanta professional sports that’s in ANY Hall of Fame? Where are OUR championship seasons in this city? If we started hanging banners for anything except the Braves 14 straight Div championships (which many diminish the importance of because they were only followed by one World Championship), how far around an arena or stadium would they hang?

As Mark has pointed out before, two of the local college teams (UGA & GA TECH) have won more National Championships (2) than all of the pro teams combined in this city since pro sports arrived here in 1966. That’s the definition of Loserville.

So the question “Is Atlanta a bad sports city” has at least 2 answers. If you’re talking about the frauds of professional franchises that have worn the Atlanta name, then the answer is undoubtedly YES. In fact, the word “bad” is rather kind when considering there has only been one pro sports championship here in what’s now a combined 151 seasons of play. Several other more derogatory, yet more accurate, terms come to mind….

If the question “Is Atlanta a bad sports city” refers to FANS, then how can the answer be anything other than NO? No other city in this country can claim to have been teased year in and year out by one pro club or another only to ultimately have our dreams dashed, hopes killed and our hearts ripped straight out of our chests more times than us…..Yet we still come back next year, pay our money and get our tickets for the ride again.

We’ve all seen the movie before and we know how it ends. We get dissed for leaving the Falcons playoff game in the 3rd QTR. Trust me, I was there and there was no miracle finish on the horizon for the Falcons that night. We get dissed for leaving this year’s 6th game of the Hawks/Bulls series in the middle of the 4th. I wasn’t at that one….But we all knew how it was going to end anyway.

The Thrashers on-ice product was pretty much the consistently worst product in the history of the NHL for a period exceeding a full decade. When viewed from that perspective, it’s somewhat amazing that the avg home attendance was even above 5,000 per game, much less the actual 13,500 that it was last season. While some of us eventually get fed up and vote with our wallets, there are many more who pick up the slack.

We support our pro teams, even when we get very little in return from them. That’s a pretty RARE quality and it defines us as anything BUT so-called fair-weather fans. We don’t have the dozens of banners hanging proudly like some cities…..But the fact that we haven’t completely run our pro teams out of town, telling them not to return until they get their crap together, means we can and should feel proud of ourselves despite how the rest of the country or world may view us.

If the Falcons, Hawks and Braves all won championships within a 2-3 year period, can you imagine how absolutely RABID the fans of this city would become? It would be like we were told at the Steelers game: “You don’t just go and buy Steelers season tickets…..You have to inherit them.”

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Mega Man 2 on 05/22/2011 at 12:32 p.m.

You took the words right out of my mouth….. Atlanta is a city full of transplants who stay loyal to their home teams, not to mention that several of the seats at different sports venues have been brought out by fortune 500 companies to accommodate several of these transplants…. ask around if you don’t believe me… Georgia is more of a college sports state because of the longer college tradition that bleeds through this state, its also a rural minded state, meaning that most people are willing to travel/attend backyard environments such as Athens in comparison to Atlanta. Finally, (as already stated), our sports teams have a long LOSING history so people are skeptical about paying big money to buy tickets knowing that there is a great chance that they will be disapointed by their team….

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Great article Mark. Atlanta is not a northeast city and doesn’t want to be. I’ll take my Falcons on tv where the atmosphere is better and I don’t get robbed for a hot dog and beer (or robbed going to the game). I attend the Braves only on a nice weather afternoon weekend and 90% of that is atmosphere (and attractive female fans). On the other hand, I’ll take in a Tech game on north avenue and turn around and drive to Athens for an evening game on the same day or drive hours in any direction to Columbia, Knoxville, Clemson or Auburn to see great football and festive atmosphere outdoors on a gorgeous southern fall day. I’ll even payup big to see a bowl, championship, or kickoff game at the dome. Am i a bad sports fan for that? Hardly. I attended about 20-25 Thrasher games since they’ve been here and had a great time, but they disappointed repeatedly and i just dont have any skin in a game played on ice and that I’ve never played before myself. I hate to see the Thashers move, but don’t think it will have any real impact on my sports spending. One thing Bettman may note though, my interest in following hockey in its entirety will cease to exist as soon as the Atlanta Thrashers do.

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Atlanta is a lousy pro-sports town… How else would you explain thousands of empty seats at Braves playoff games back in the early 2000s? You’d never see that at Red Sox or Angels playoff games no matter how many times they lost in the playoffs. Falcons can’t even fill the stadium unless the Cowboys and Packers are in town, and it’s usually their fans that come. Same goes for the Hawks. Atlanta is college football town first, everything else is second and third fiddle.

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All these teams are in competition for a share of our wallets. Guess what? When you are a perennial loser you get less share of the sports entertainment $…see Thrashers.

Win and you get more.

Never win, go on strike, raise ticket prices, trade your best players, run franchise poorly, ask Daddy for more money to support your continuous litigation and then blame the fans…that’s when you get a team relocating to Canada even though there is a solid fan base here.

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I guess Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Buffalo, St.Louis, Jacksonville, Tampa, Nashville and Seattle are bad sports cities also.

Where is their NBA TEAM ?

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Also had a friend that was an avid hockey fan and season ticket holder…he just had it with the losing teams and price increases.
Another thing not mentioned here – this is important – the first hockey team left (and the soccer team) because there was no business support

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`
Hockey and Soccer are both extremely boring.
.

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For those talking about Braves attendance too bad MLB inflates their numbers with paid attendance including half the suites being empty if not more. How many times have you been to a game with an announced attendance of 35K when there are maybe 20K there? There is a reason half the concession stands in the upper levels are closed.

You also have to factor in all 4 major pro teams are expansions/moves. Baseball has not been been here since the 1800’s. Atlanta is a growing town unlike established populations in LA, NY, Chicago, etc. You have 3-4 generations of fans there, here you have 1. And most people who move here from other major cities still follow those teams because well the pro teams in Atlanta suck. No history of winning. Only 1 title. It’s amazing the high school stadiums are packed every Friday night yet no one shows up to a Falcons game until 2 p.m.

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Nice piece, Mr. Bradley. Some say the problem with Atlanta as a sports town is that it contains so many transients from other cities, in that there isn’t as strong of a unified support for the home teams.

I would love to be able to support the teams more, but I live up in West Virgina now. I have to rely on DirecTV for Braves, Falcons and Hawks coverage.

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What I don’t think people understand here is that in the NHL, revenue is dominated by the gate rather than by TV contracts as it is in other sports – especially football. Teams make their money by getting people in to the arena and then selling merch there and everywhere else. It really is a vicious cycle. Fans get pissed off because they don’t win right away and don’t show up to the games, the team doesn’t make money and then the team can’t go out and spend. The Thrashers this year spent to the salary cap floor rather than the ceiling precisely because the team was losing so much money because only 7,000-8,000 people showed up per game. Of course ownership is going to look bad when you’re handcuffed to that degree. With what he had to work with, Waddell didn’t do that bad of a job. This one really is on the fans as distasteful as that may be to say. There may be a good group of a few thousand fans but when everyone in Atlanta would rather see the Falcons, Braves, Hawks or a college football team, how could anyone expect anything different?

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Atlanta is a big time sports city, but here is the problem as far as local support for all sports, Atlanta is so diverse, and probably more than half of the people that live their are not from there. This is why the local teams, every one of them can not fill up the seats. The venue’s for each one has to do some things to appeal to football, basketball, baseball, and hockey fans, not Atlanta fans. The best thing they could do to start out with and fill more seats is make sure on each team, they get a superstar and pay the money. Go get the best player you can possibly get and pay the money. Falcons are doing great, they have built a formidable team that not only Atlanta fans want to watch them play, but football fans enjoy watching them. If the Hawks traded JSmith, JJohnson, and AHorford and went and got Kobe Bryant in his prime, they might not win any games, but I guarantee you they would sell more tickets, and they would have a nucleus to build around, and not wonder what their nucleus to build around is. I think that is the start of their problem right there imo.

But overall, there is not hardly anybody that lives in Atlanta and around it that does not love some type of sport.

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Maybe if Atlanta wasn’t such a Lousy SPORTSWRITER City with such inexcusably poor sports coverage (excluding David O’Brien & Caroll Rogers), it wouldn’t be such a bad SPORTS City.

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In a word, yes.

You can walk up to get tickets for ALMOST every game in town.

Don’t forget: NASCAR dropped the spring race, too.

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Atlanta is like most Sun Belt cities. A majority of people have moved here from elsewhere to escape the gloom of cold winters and stalled economies. They bring their existing sports allegiances from wherever they grew up and moved to Atlanta from. That’s why Turner Field, for example, is overrun with Cubs fans when they are in town. I am a native Atlantan (now living in N.C. due to the abhorrent ATL traffic for one reason), but the city in general is a giant melting pot. Philadelphia, as another example, has rabid fans because, geez, who chooses to move there voluntarily. They have a captive native audience. Atlanta’s overall attractiveness as a place to live dilutes its native fan base and is a detriment to the support of its local teams.

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200 people at a thrashers “rally” led by a mascot for the basketball team???? what’s up with that.

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I’m way beyond disgusted with people and especially sports ownership and league offices griping about Atlanta sports fans, as if we owe them gate revenues like we pay taxes. A pox on all their houses, ESPECIALLY the owners WHO DON’T EVEN LIVE HERE.

ASG committed fraud on the Atlanta sports fans, and for that they want us to buy tickets to a product they don’t give a rats whatever about, except as an investment on a piece of paper??? Get real.

I will only support the local teams to the extent they make an effort to remain competitive in a manner that is respectful of the fans. This can be done without bankrupting the owners – nobody wants to see that. The Braves, even with absentee ownership, have maintained a reasonable payroll and sound management. ASG has helped restore respectability to the Hawks, but has proven unable to get out of their own way. ASG doesn’t care one whit about the Thrashers or their fans.

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Another week has gone by and still no word on the academic status of King and Crowell.

Isnt it odd that Chip Towers, Michael Carvell, nor Bill King haven’t offfered
a single update on this topic. Is there trouble brewing ?

If King or Crowell, or both are not academically elgible
it will have major implications for UGA.

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I lived in Atlanta prior to the arrival of sports teams until 2002. The loss of two hockey teams is a non-factor, we have no ice in Atlanta and no one grew up playing hockey, so the lack of interest there is understandable. The point made about the location of the teams is realistic. A lot of fans don’t like going to locations they are not comfortable with, and that is the city’s fault for picking poor locations.

The fans of Atlanta are basically realists, give us a good product, and we will support you. You also must remember all the losers we had with the Braves and Falcons. Fans will support a competitive team. I think saying Atlanta is a poor sports town is a bad rap on the fans.

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I grew up in Atlanta, living in Indianapolis right now with these overrated teams here. My 2 cents:

One newspaper in the town
No one in the sports section who writes for the paper has any national juice, nor do they invoke anything exciting about teams. A lot of the commentary is about GT and UGA and is entirely predictable. You guys need some competition to up your game.
The majority of teams are owned by groups, who are not invested in the team. We need owners who actually care and also players who are likeable off the field/court.
Bad trades, along with any player who has an opinion (Justice, Sanders) being moved.
Hockey is not being marketed well. It never has been marketed well here.
Teams here have historically underachieved. See my above points about management. With the exception of Blank, are any of these owners trying to win anything?

It’s a shame, because Atlanta is such a huge international city. We should be a lot better.

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Compared to cities like NY, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Detroit, major league sports are relatively new to Atlanta. Those cities also have neighborhoods close enough to ballparks where fans can walk to the stadiums, or if the stadiums have moved to the suburbs, there are generations of fans who recall the old ballparks in their neighborhoods.

And then there are generations of great players, championships, near championships, old-time rivals like Green Bay-Chicago, Giants-Eagles and many others that date to the earliest days of pro football that generate great pride in cities. In baseball, you have the Yankees-Red Sox and many others that create a national uproar every time they play. Atlanta has the Falcons-Saints rivalry, but that’s the oldest and most heated (Though the Braves-Mets games are a lot of fun to attend).

When many of the Braves from the teams in the 90s were playing minor league ball on the AA level in Savannah, I covered them and knew them well. So there was a better connection with the players and team than I have ever had in the past. Sorry to say, minor league teams change their affiliations with major league clubs too often now for fans to develop a real connection with the players when they move on to Big League teams.

College football is a different animal. Right after Bear Bryant died one of his friends was quoted in a Sports Illustrated story on the fervor for the game in the South. His words were eloquent and right on target. He referred to high school players going to state universities and fans connecting with them much like folks connected with members of military militias in the past. Generation after generation of players have played on the local level and progressed to play and star at state universitys where folks earn their degrees or a family member earned the family’s first college degree (a real point of pride in the emerging new South).

So for Southerners, that’s our connection to the game.

I don’t know if we’ll ever have that connection with major league sports. With free agency, the moving of franchises at the drop of a billion and all the other issues associated with professional sports, Southerners just don’t see the links.

And, as Erk Russell was often known to say, it’s easy for some billionaire to rip the hearts out of folks and move a team across the country. But nobody’s gonna move a university.

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Atlanta is not a bad sports city. The fans are great. Hear are a few things that people outside of Atlanta don’t seem to realize.

1. Atlanta has a horrible infrastructure.
2. Atlanta has some of the worst traffic in the country
3. The majority of it’s fan base live in the northern suburbs
4. Transplants

I can’t get off work and make it to a Braves game during the middle of the week. The traffic is so bad and the rail systems are as cruddy as they come. Why would I spend all of the money and time when I can’t make it to the game before the 3rd inning is over? Why do you think Arthur Blank wants to move the Falcons stadium north of the city? Nobody wants to take his/her family and Children and expose them to the horrible areas that Turner Field and the GA Dome are located in. There is nothing to do around the stadiums, except for the CNN Center before the games.

If an Atlanta team is backed by an owner/ownership, that shows they care and want to invest in their team, then the city will support that team 100%. I hate that Atlanta has earned the reputation of a horrible sports city. It’s not as bad as people seem to think. Ya, Atlanta has a pretty big population, but you would be surprised about how many people have moved to Atlanta in the past decade or so that have ties to other teams. You will see an influx in Braves fans over the next 10-15 years.

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Actually it’s two of ten, dufus.

And we don’t appologize for not being bandwagon-jumpers, as you probably are.

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YES!! Because most of the idiots who live in Atlanta, GA are not even from Georgia period!! I’d say 75% of people in the metropolitan area do not live here. They only support when convenient. They support their hometeams…bunch dickweeds!!

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Lousy is an understatement and being overly generous

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Mark, I’m in SPAM Filters.

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rtrrteryeryreeray

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Losing the Thrashers doesn’t make us a lousy sports town. It makes us a lousy hockey town….and I have no problem with that.

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ATLRav hit a great point pages ago. All these supposed great northern sports towns are just fans rooting for players, who for the most part, come from “lousy” sports cities like Atlanta and even worse ones with no major professional sports like Birmingham, Tallahassee, Macon, etc.

I think that’s the key difference. Places like Atlanta are full of sportsmen (and women to be PC) while places like Boston and NY are full of sports fans. Big difference.

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then why can’t the braves sellout playoff games ?

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re: the whole “bad part of town” argument, I’ve gone to several sporting events in this city (all 4 teams) and have never been robbed.

I’ve taken the train to these games. I’ve driven to these games. I’ve been to the under ground and above ground parking lots. And I’m about the least threatening individual (physically and otherwise) you’d ever want to meet. And I’ve never been robbed.

But the PERCEPTION is that you will be. I’m not naive: we have a high crime rate here. But once you push a part of town as a “bad part of town,” it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The less reputable people are willing to venture somewhere, the less reputable the area as a whole will be, but if everyone had showed up, there’d have been nothing to worry about.

That’s PART of what bugs me about this town. A bunch of scaredy cats in the northern parts of the city that are terrified to come down to see a game because they think they’ll get mugged. But guess what? If you don’t own a car (and plenty of people that live in major cities don’t), heading up north ain’t exactly a dream either!

And the pro sports leagues don’t do the northern-city dwellers any favors either. Most games typically start at 7…not exactly giving enough working folks any reasonable time to gather up the kids and get to the game with ATL traffice being what it is and the public transit being as insufficient as it is.

Bottom line, between scared northern-part-of-the-city dwellers, crappy public transit, inconvenient scheduling…….Atlanta just isn’t BUILT to be anything but a lousy sports city, even if there are plenty of people here who care.

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The only really good pro sports cities are Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago. Everywhere else is mediocre at best.

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I’m a big Braves fan. Becoming more of a Falcons fan but still – and will probably always be – a Browns fan. And I love GT sports – all of them!!!

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Mark, I’m in SPAM filters, yet again. Sorry.

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not going to games because fans dont like the ownership? please. did your dog also eat your homework?

wrap it up in any excuse you want but Atlanta just flat out does not care about hockey. Hockey is not a national sport, its a regional one. There are other NHL teams with bad ownership that still draw in the fans because, bad ownership or not, people who care about hockey will go see it.

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Your comments about average crowds at the Falcons games exceeding the others combined ignores that there only 7-8 Falcons home games per season vs 40 something for the Thrashers, 80-90 for the Braves and while I don’t know the numbers for the Hawks way more than the Falcons. So if I miss the Braves game today, big deal there will be one tomorrow or the next day. A 10 day road trip is considered a long time. Supply and demand and price elasticity.

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Ownership ANTAGONIZED the hockey fanbase here. I’d never seen anything like it. Bruce Levenson called a fan, during a season ticket holder meeting, a “smartass.” And while the team was rebuilding, which it vehemintly denied it was doing, they raised ticket prices. When STH’s complained, Levenson said, “DEAL WITH IT!” And when fans actually bought season tickets, by November/December, their same seat was discounted 50% to the general public.

You tell me … is that a ‘right and proper way’ to run a franchise? Or, how to ‘run off’ a franchise. Now, think it over. I’m sure the answer will come to you.

If you say, “You buy anyway,” would you also tell a cheating spouse that their lover may now move into the house with you? All because, “It’s important to maintain the marriage,” and not, sayyy, that the marriage actually “function?” When you stare at a house, from the curb, you have NO IDEA how much dysfunction might dwell within. It’s only when one of the spouses moves out … that the neighbors learn of the discord and abuse.

In 1999, the Atlanta Thrashers set an NHL attendance record for an expansion team, selling out 38 of 41 hockey games. An aberration? Or proof, demonstrably, where hockey interest lie, IFFFFF the fans believe that ownership is trying to win. If ownership doesn’t care, the fan is left to wonder, “why should we?”

“Marriage for One, anyone?”

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collage football will always rule————-over payed —no tallent so called pro sports

———-can go ———-i love the 70’s loosing braves and there 5 $ front roll tickets

—————————-paying 400$ for a family of 4 to watch a 3 hr game———20$ beer

————————————————————————-10$ hott dogs——please

—————————————leave the ATL quick—————–at list paying high dollar tickets

=—————————————————————————at a dawgs or jackets support higher learning

———————————————–not drug habbits yyyyyaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwww

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Is Atlanta a lousy sports city? Well, the fan base is jaded, and with good reason. Even the hapless Mets started winning after being in existence 8 years or so. The Falcons were so bad for so long, and the on again-off again Hawks have never looked like a true championship contender. Ironically, the Braves’ run in the 90s and early 2000s fueled the negative attitude instead of turning it around, because several of those teams were clearly talented enough to win it all but didn’t. There’s nothing wrong with Atlanta that winning won’t cure.

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This whole article just described a terrible fanbase. Fair weather, all of you. You don’t want to pay for a bad product, that’s fine. The Chicago Cubs are a terrible product too, but they sell out every game, because the fans love the team and the sport. You can try and rationalize it by adding college in, but the fact is EVERY college town is full of die-hard college fans. University of Michigan just had the worst 3 years in it’s history, and the still sell out the biggest stadium in the country. No one has been hit harder be the recession than Detroit, and the attendance figures are generally higher all across the board (with the Lions as the exception, but 50 years of mediocrity will do that). So yes, Atlanta is a terrible sports city and probably doesn’t deserve to have most of the teams that they do. And hey, that’s perfectly fine. Don’t go to games, markets like Oklahoma, Las Vegas, and Canada will buy all your franchises and appreciate them.

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I don’t think they are moving… I know they are moving

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Enough with the Cubs fans are so great and go to games even though the team is bad. It’s not the team that’s selling out that stadium. It’s the stadium itself. Not only is it almost a national monument. It seats so few that it’s hard not to sell out.

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Some of the statements are completely off, while I respect anyone’s opinion, some of them are complete ignorance… People complaining about location, people trying to compare “US” with boston, new york, chicago, L.a, etc. It gets very old!!! Places like Chicago have a LONG PRO History that would compare teams such as the Cubs to the Bulldawgs here. Not to mention that areas such as chicago, ny, etc have generations and generations of fans and have enormous populations of “home grown” people from top to bottom. No, Unfortunately, I’m not much of a College Football Fan and I was raised here! However, I will support any Georgia product… For those saying that Downtown isn’t a great spot are just hoping for a venue that is only convenient for themselves! Traffic is absolutely horrible in the Northern Suburbs, Yes, it might be true that several Fans come from the Northern corridor, but its still only about 1/4 to 1/2 depending on the day and without public transportation around the arenas up there, it will be imaginable traffic going right through your neighborhoods!!! That would really give some of you something to complain about!!!

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Atlanta’s passion for college football is the best point to be made when considering if we’re a good sports town or not. We simply do not have the pro sports tradition and pedigree that the biggest cities have, and the histories of our pro teams are relatively short. Our tradition lies in college football and that is reflected in the passion fans have for the sport in this city. It is unrivaled. When you talk about sports in general, college football is as important to the country as any pro sport, and fans don’t get anymore passionate about it than in Atlanta. With that said, how can one one say we’re a bad sports town?

As far as pro sports, after the Braves run of the 90s and early 2000s they have a fan base that rivals any baseball. With a run of sustained success from our other franchises, which you’re beginning to see with the Falcons and even the Hawks have a window if they make the right offseason moves, you will see growth and strengthening of those fan bases as well.

We’re a unique town that contains as many transients as natives, and we’ve seen an unusual amount of losing from and mismanagement of our pro teams. These reasons and more contribute to less than stellar attendance at our pro teams’ games. But knowing how we root for college football, and the opportunity our franchises have to take a turn for the better in terms of ownership and quality of play, Atlanta has the potential to be one of the best sports towns, college or pro, in the country.

So says this eternal optimist from the ATL.

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Smaller cities with pro teams probably have less options for entertainment than Atlanta, and they have less traffic to get to the game. Larger cities like NY or Chicago or Philly have many people living a stone’s throw from stadiums, and/or swaths of loyal blue collar folks that worship their teams. Plus, Atlanta is more transient than the average city. Those are my excuses as to why Atlanta fans are mild, but I do think they are indeed a bit mild compared to the upper tier cities.

Still, there are places like Pittsburgh that worship the Steelers and love the Penguins, but they loathe the Pirates who consistently lose.

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You guys had stars, good teams and you still didn’t show up. Heatley, Hossa, Kovalchuk, Savard and even this year you guys were in a playoff spot with the highest scoring D-man in the league and you still didn’t show up. Stop making excuses, the majority (and I stress the majority) doesn’t like hockey. Sorry to the minority that actually does like hockey.

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Thanks for proving ATL is the worst sports town. The comments as to why you don’t support your teams is proof enough.. bunch of f’n whiners. waa waa waa

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We have a bad announcer for the Hawks i’m so sick of him saying let’s go hawks, let’s go hawks, let’s go hawks, let’s go hawks, let’s go hawks he is very annoying. He is not getting the fans into it he’s making them sick

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keep crying losers
waa waa waa

we have bad announcers
we have bad owners
the arenas are in bad spots

can’t wait til you lose your next team

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@ Brendan…
There have been writers who have called for GM and even a few owners heads. The Denberg and Fratello warfare was savage. The Glanville and Herok tandem was savaged daily in the AJC.

Look, there needs to be some realistic tenor brought to the matter of what really comes next in this city. That silly Northside can cure all ills talk needs to be buried once and for all… Those people sound like those silly Orange County or Santa Clara County fans in California. Teams move to places like that playing demographic roulette. You can do that in football only slightly. The Jets were praying to get back into NY proper with the failed Olympic stadium proposal. Atlanta can hardly talk, we broke the hearts of two cities to gain the Braves and Hawks. So many people on these blogs misuse the term Karma. But, these teams are like the worst girlfriend/boyfriend you may have ever had. Sometimes you’re happy to have dodged the bullet; but knife wounds that a long time to heal!

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Atlanta is not a bad sports town at all. I was born and raised in Atlanta and remember when the Braves came from Milwaukee in 1966 and the Falcons were born the same year. In 1968, Hawks arrived from St. Louis and we became a complete major league city.
Having watch all “our teams” since their arrivals, you have to remember that, even though the Braves and Hawks were good teams initially, they were not good teams in the 70’s and 80’s the majority of the time and the Falcons have just recently achieved back to back winning season for the first time in over 40 years.
You look at most cities attendance when their hometown teams are bad and you will find poor support wherever you look.
Atlanta has always shown good support of our teams whenever the product was worth watching…nothing different from any other town.
As far as the NHL goes, being a born Southerner and growing up back in the 60’s and 70’s…hockey was never a part of our region of the country, much less our town.
It’s too bad the Flames and Thrashers left, but personally, I never had an interest in either one of them…I hope we don’t try to get another hockey team…to me…2 was more than enough.

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The Braves are boring now no key players I remember when we were the hottest team. Tickets to high, food to high no parking I really can’t name a player except chipper who need to retire because he stays hurt a lot now.

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Listen, 200 people show up for a ’save the Thrashers’ campaign and Thrashers owners send the friggin basketball mascot to the ‘rally’. On the other hand, just on a RUMOUR of the Thrashers coming to Winnipeg you get 4-500 people holding an impromptu rally at midnight in downtown Winnipeg. The writing is on the wall.

When I see all the fans above complaining about bad Hawks/Thrashers management I can see why – they can’t even send the right mascot to the rally. GO JETS GO

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The other side of the coin is that many people who DID grow up in Atlanta now live elsewhere, myself among them (born and raised in Atlanta, living in Philadelphia). The reason I’m not moving back anytime soon? Atlanta is no longer a great place to be a working parent, what with the hour-long commutes downtown and pathetically limited subway/regional rail system.

I’d be glad to move back (and buy Braves and Hawks season tickets) if they ever build a dedicated transit system that extends out to Cobb and Gwinnett so that the choice isn’t between “drive and sit and traffic for an hour” or “be unemployed.” But until then…

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@ niremetal…
Co-sign both posts!

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To all the Canadians who claim to be die hard fans NO matter what……any of you one of the few hundred a night watching the Expos for the last decade they played there???

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One more thing…my kids were born in Atlanta and guess who they root for! Falcons, Braves, Thrashers, and Hawks. Give it one generation!

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sports scientists will one day offer a theory to explain why the atlanta hawks mascot showed up at a rally for the thrashers, but no thrashers mascot. It could be deep.

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The City is great but the sports writers are sh!t, starting with Bradley ending with Cunningham, and let’s not forget Schultz. You guys never report you just give your opinions. You guys are the key to getting the City behind your teams but you bash your teams. You guys are part of the same fan base that chant MVP for opposing teams. You guys are jokes, so to answer the question the yes the city is a lousy sports city coupled with a team of lousy sports reporters.

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[...] The Thrashers are most likely leaving Atlanta. Does that make Atlanta a lousy sports town? [...]

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I DONT THINK ATLANTA IS A BAD SPORTS CITY, I JUST THINK ATLANTA MAKES BONE HEAD MISTAKES. AN EXAMPLE ON A BONE HEAD MISTAKE WAS ABOUT 5 YEARS AGO WITH THE HAWKS. RASHEEDA WALLACE WAS NOT THE BEST PLAYER IN THE LEAGUE, BUT HE WAS ELEMENT THAT ATLANTA IS NOT ACCUSTOM TO HAVING AND WHAT DO WE DO? WE TRADE HIM AS SOON AS WE GET HIM, REGARLESS OF THE TREMENDOUS IMPACT HE HAD IN THE ONE OR TWO GAMES HE ACTUALLY GOT TO PLAY HERE. PLAYERS LIKE RASHEEDA WOULD HAVE ATTRACTED HIGHER CALIBUR PLAYERS TO ATLANTA, ITS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE, IT’S JUST COMMON SENSE!

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Atlanta fans all they know is to complain. The team is not doing this.. the ownership is not doing that…the game is at the wrong time… the location is bad… Face it this is a fair weather fan town…. AND YES A VERY BAD PRO SPORTS TOWN.. all you have to do is go to a game when one of the bigger teams come… it looks like an away game. Frankly if you consider yourself an Atlanta fan you should be ashamed of yourselves. Don’t blame anyone else… Maybe If the Braves had a sellout crowds like Philly they could have spent more…. Maybe if more people showed up consistently to Philips Arena during the regular season the owners will have more to spend.
Stop complaining if you don’t support your teams. You are lucky to have these teams in ATL.

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The last world championship was 1995 when the Braves won it for Atlanta have not done anything sense but Atlanta is not a bad sports town Falcons fever has grown with them drafting Julio Jones and possibly bringing in a big FA Hawks just need a big time center like the home town star Dwight Howard .

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Atlanta is not a lousy sports city. On the contrary, Atlanta is a great sports town. Several years ago, my religious affiliation held its first and only International Convention in Atlanta, and we’ve never been back. Why? Because Atlanta is not a great convention city, but It’s a GREAT SPORTS CITY! Everything about the State Capital lends itself to accomodating sports enthusiasts, which brings me to the real reason Metro-Atlantans don’t support Hockey. We play football in the rain, sleet and snow. We play baseball in all kinds of inclement weather … and the same can be said for basketball. But only the most infinitesimal fools play hockey in Atlanta. It’s a YANKEE sport. So if people in Metro-Atlanta want a yankee sports team to fare well in Atlanta, then the transplanted yankees in Atlanta need to pack the place out in support of their sport.

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What makes a city a bad sports city? Not selling out every game of every sport? I think the fact that Atlanta has so many sports options available makes it a great sports city.
In addition to having all of the college teams close by, we also have a huge tennis and golf playing population that actually spends money to PLAY those games, year round.
I only have so much discretionary money to spend on sporting events. I support my college teams, like a lot of folks do, and I spend a good amount to play golf regularly. I don’t have the extra bucks to spend on watching bad hockey, or mediocre basketball and baseball. If these teams were big time winners I might reconsider. But they are not.

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I think last years Braves playoff games were both sellouts.

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If your definition of a ‘bad sports town’ is one that won’t show up, pay boo-coop bucks for tickets, refreshments and parking, at an ever-increasing pace – regardless of how well any given team may be performing, then you’re right, we’re not a goodun’. Haven’t checked the numbers but you show me any – beyond those you can count on one hand – fans of any franchise any where that fill their stadiums/arenas year-in and year-out while those teams are constantly losing. Seems to me I read that when the Blackhawks had some down years even the Chicago faithful didn’t sell the place out. People in this town will support a winner in anything, with the possible exception of women’s basketball and professional soccer.

Those that complain about the Braves not selling out all their playoff games – although I believe we did last season – there’s history there. For umpteen years the Braves made the playoffs…and in all but one lost their last game – whether it was during the WS or in earlier rounds. Season ticket holders soon found that in order for them to have their regular seats they had to commit to every possible ticket for every possible game from the Wild-card to the World Series….that’s thousands and thousands of dollars, in advance with a hassle on the back end after they lost to get a refund – the team kept pushing them to apply it against the next year’s season tickets. So then the choice was ‘just how many games can I afford to attend during this post-season?’ Those decisions usually meant folks ‘opted’ for later rounds in the hope that they could see ‘em advance…I mean, you go out to the game with the expectation of going home happy…and if you don’t, go home happy, that is, pretty soon you start to be even more selective…which leads to some empty seats somewhere along the way.

Even college football and b-ball are subject to the same phenomena – when’s the last time Alexander was sold out…or Grant Field for that matter? Used to be every B-ball game was packed, now even the Georgia game wasn’t.

And, finally, I’ll start taking crap from sports commentators and writers about attendance when they show me just how many games they have ever paid to attend, let alone buy season tickets to…then they can talk.

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JSS, I just don’t think this team was ever given a fair chance. And I do think media could have been much harder on pushing for changes. But, this is “nice, friendly” Atlanta, where we don’t write articles titled, “Fire Waddell Now!”

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there are far worst sports cities than atlanta. got 1 championship overall for this city, but guess no 1 outside atl sees that in baseball, but when new orleans gets a championship in their city its all like(YAHOO WE GOT OURSELVES A CHAMPIONSHIP….LIGHT THE SKIES WITH FIREWORKS AND GO MEDIA CUZ WE CELEBRATING HARD!!!!!)

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When people talk championships, why don’t they mention the Atlanta Chief’s 1968 championship in the NASL????????????????????

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Lousy sports town. Worst in America. I remember baseball playoff games where the Braves couldn’t sell out. I don’t care how many time you get to the post-season, other cities (Boston, NY, St. Louis) would snatch up tickets in a heartbeat. Empty seats at Falcons games (even after a Super Bowl appearance). NBA & NHL? Even worse. This is a large market. The excuses you hear could be made by lots of other cities, but they’re not.

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Call it a poor sports town. However, Atlanta is 90% imports from other towns, and 10% too poor to leave. The 90% wants Atlanta teams to lose, but jumps on the band wagon if it means buying tickets as a good business expense. Losing teams are not good business expenses. The problem is paying players many millions of dollars when they are nothing more than puffed up show balloons, like those brought out each year for the Macy’s parade. Who wants to pay to watch a parade? No one. The average ticket for an Atlanta sports event is a significant cost for budgeted households. Sports have priced themselves into the caviar and champagne class, rather than the 5-cents beer, 5-cents peanuts, and 50-cents ticket that made (baseball especially) them popular. Someone needs to get a grip on reality. Grown men playing a child’s game, when they should be out working for a living, is not something worthy of being paid so highly. Society is tearing apart at the seams, and the madness of professional sports is part of that. Call if a poor sports town, but one person’s poor sports town is another person’s town refusing to support the madness of uncontrolled greed – by players and owners. They should all pack up and leave Atlanta.

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tickets are too damn high!!! lol it makes no logical sense to pay the hi price of tickets….. tickets need to be 15-20 $$$ for all seats regardless where you sit…. if you want people to come out.. don’t televise games….what happened when ball players where just “regular” jones like in the 30’s 40’s 50s…….why sacrifice?? you have to drive or take marta downtown and its just a pain getting there…. build more arenas in the suburbs where most individuals have the $$ and wouldnt mind going to arena thats close by…

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Here are reasons I don’t go to Braves, Hawks, Falcons, Thrashers games:

1) Traffic sucks
2) The stadiums/arenas are too difficult to get to
3) I don’t want to sit in three hours of traffic to get there and back
4) Traffic sucks

If you want the fans with money (i.e. north side) to come out in big numbers, put the stadiums where we can get to them without sitting half a day in traffic.

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When the owners say they are selling the team and have treated the fans the way they have, it does not make a difference if 35 thou show up or 200 show up. So I say to you, the media and some of you fans, who don’t know the difference between a basketball and a hockey puck, If the team is competitive, the southerners will show up, if you are not, they will stay away, except for college football. Some still think they take attendance at the games even when they graduated 20 yrs ago. We northerners could care less about college Football. Now, a good BU vs BC hockey game is somethign to talk about. Plus- who the heck can afford $300-$400 a game for tickets/food/parking/souvenirs/program etc? Oh and you have NBA thugs calling the season ticket holders racists! And don’t forget, they go into the stands to beat up the season ticket holders. Yeah- real smart NBA.

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