Hated to watch the Winnepeg Jets leave there back when. But soon the Detroit Red Wings can move to the Eastern Conference (for the 2012-13 season?).
You know, I would feel bad for Atlanta, but I think there are only 15 people in the city that knew they had an NHL team, and only 5 of those guys actually went to the games. Tough break, but I'm glad to see the jets are back.
+1 It does seem that Atlanta is a particularly "harsh" environment - Unless they're winning super bowls / World Series' the stands always seem pretty empty to me..... OTOH, Winnipeg + hockey will, I'm pretty sure, be a sell out every game - At least for a few seasons (?) Cheers, Ian
there should be a rule, no NHL teams in cities that don't get at least two feet of snow per year. and I agree, Atlanta is a horrible sports town, but lots of big companies there that support the luxury box habit that controls pro sports.
Bah-Humbug! [I'm a Sharks fan after all! ] +1 Hasn't worked quite so well for Crazy Al & the Coliseum..... And as noted elsewhere, Candlestick really *sucks*! [The Raiders are generally blacked out, the '9ers are ok - How about the Falcons?] Cheers, Ian
Yup, that's the second Atlanta NHL team to flee the city - we (Calgary) got the first one, the Flames, in 1980! I have a brother in Winnipeg who is a huge hockey fan, he is super-excited! The whole city was celebrating the announcement. They are saying they need 13,000 season tickets sold in the 15,000 seat arena, and don't expect many problems reaching that target.
i'm glad it was the thrashers that wound up heading north, the blues may be on the moving block next. however, my guess is that if another team moves, it'll be the phoenix coyotes. they were in a downhill spiral during the gretzky era in, i think it was 05-09, or 2010, but when they filed for bankruptcy, all hell kind of broke loose. didn't they have a buyer lined up who wanted to move them to ontario?
Yes, that was Jim Ballsile, the founder of RIM which makes the Blackberry. He wanted to move them to Hamilton Ontario, which is roughly in between Toronto and Buffalo...that would give you three pro teams within a 120 mile radius, which is one of the reasons the NHL used to veto Ballsile's purchase of the Coyotes...another "unwrittern" reason is he has been blacklisted by Betman and the owners, but why I do not know.
franchise. Didn't particularly want the Thrashers to depart ATLA. Don't particularly want the 'Yotes to depart PHX. But Hamilton, Ontario, is a perfect choice for an NHL club. Will never harm the Leaf's sellouts (even with losing records) and the Sabres fans will remain Sabres fans..... they will not mess with the border crap (other than if tix get/are cheaper but I don't see that happening esp. in regard to the CDN-USD currency now). If anything, it would build rivalries. Mike?
From Atlanta and yea pro-sports isn't a big deal there. Braves were so horrible for so long when I was growing up I remember going to Fulton county stadium and sitting where we pleased. Hawks were never big on the list. Falcons were the same as the Braves, the Smith family almost ruined that franchise. Now that Blank actually cares if the team does well or not they have great attendance. Thrashers, yea bad move putting a hockey team in the deep south... no one here cares about hockey and I know only a handful of people that actually watch it at all. Now come here and try to get tickets to any college football games. GT is packed, UGA and well any SEC team it's damn near impossible to get into the stadium with out paying huge mark ups to scalpers. College football rules the roost down here, always has and always will.
I am not 100% certain, but I believe the Leafs and Sabres have to agree to allow them to have a team because it would be less than 100 miles away from either hockey club. I heard something about that on a sports talk radio show, but I didn't catch all of it so I can't say for sure....but I definitely will say that the NHL isn't too happy about having three teams that close, especially to one of them being a small market team (Buffalo) and what it "may" do to their fan base.
