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Atlanta Thrashers goaltender Ondrej Pavelec's mask pays tribute to the city's famous Fox Theater.
Is this a time of trepidation for Atlanta Thrashers fans? Should we be afraid (once more) that the Thrashers will be moving? Is the report out of New York correct? Are the Thrashers (and Hawks!) for sale again? It’s been rumored for some time that one or both franchises (and beautiful Philips Arena) could be on sale. Now, cue Jim Balsillie: Back up the moving van, The Thrashers are for sale! Let the rumors fly! But before you go crazy, do read the Atlanta ownership group’s statement:
As has been shared publicly for more than a year, we are interested in finding minority investors and have engaged a firm to assist us in that effort. We have no plans to move either team, and remain committed to the Hawks, the Thrashers, Philips Arena and the city of Atlanta.
Now that we’ve done due diligence, let’s assume the team is for sale, there are several reasons it would be difficult, though not impossible, to extract the Thrashers from Atlanta, the most important one being the naming rights agreement with Philips. It requires both an NHL and NBA franchise playing in the building. As with any contract, there are likely some ways out, but those ways would be quite expensive.
There are lucrative sponsorships to be considered, as well as long-term leases on luxury boxes that were signed with assumption that both hockey and basketball would be played in Philips Arena.
Atlanta IS a Hockey City
There are numerous reasons that Gary Bettman is right in his desire and commitment to make hockey work in “non-traditional” markets. Atlanta, contrary to what many believe, is a fantastic hockey city. It’s a city with a metro area of close to 5.5 million. It’s a city with deep pockets and a great, great many of those, ya know, hockey-loving Northerners who have relocated down South. It’s got a lot of Southern hockey-loving people too — don’t let the popular image of what Atlanta is (and isn’t) fool you. The problem has been lackadaisical ownership, the NHL lockout (which came at a horrible time for burgeoning franchises), and unfortunately, the economic downturn, which hit some cities worse than others.
Philips Arena's wall of NHL jerseys.
I know Canadians like to dream of plucking one of the Southern franchises (said with disdain) from its home and moving it back up North where hockey really lives. Winnipeg is a popular choice and rallying point for these Canadians. But, can that city — or many of the others (some in the U.S. as well) whose names pop up (ahem, Kansas City, Hamilton, Ontario, Kitchener/Waterloo, Milwaukee, etc.) — sustain a team? Does it have 13 Fortune 500 companies headquartered there (as Atlanta does)? Does it have the all-important ability to sustain corporate sponsorship? Does it have a state-of-the-art arena with all the bells and whistles that people demand today — particularly those corporate sponsors? Does it have a huge potential market? The potential to bring NEW fans to the NHL’s table? Yes, we know our friendly neighbors to the North have the fans, but that’s only one piece to the extremely complex puzzle that is professional sports today. To put it another way, why would you court the lady you already have?
With even a little bit of on-ice success, Atlantans have proven they will support the Thrashers.
So bring on new ownership. Ownership that cares about cultivating this growing fanbase and nurturing lost relationships with fans. The Atlanta franchise can be turned around. What was Yoda’s most important lesson to Luke Skywalker? Patience.
It won’t happen overnight.
Photos: Ondrej Pavelec and Philips Arena by Goddess Kaatiya. Copyright 2007-2010. All Rights Reserved.
Question… How is the non-professional hockey? Has it grown a lot in Atlanta? Has the team made a huge effort into getting kids to skate, such as sponsoring teams such as what Dallas and the Cali teams have done with the Junior Stars or Junior Kings, Sharks…? Here in Texas we have more people playing on teams than most states, and a lot of areas in Canada. (I know they don’t like to believe that)
Atlanta is a great place for hockey, despite the huge football stronghold that seems to conquer all during football season. Yet I can’t help but agree that if you have a winning team, people will come. Everyone likes a winner. Everyone wants to feels like a winner when their team is winning. That’s why the Red Wings have weeds — I mean fans — all over the US. Put together a winning team and you’ll have more fans than you know what to do with.
It is more than a stronghold — it’s the heart of football country (outside of Texas). It’s hard to compete with collegiate football in the early part of the season. But seriously, it’s about getting people coming, falling in love with hockey and becoming lifelong fans. This is also NASCAR country and those fans are loyal to the death. We just have to tap into that. A winning team would help immensely.
@TRG The area has an up-and-coming scene for the young ones. It’s not as big as Texas, where even my former high school (a stone’s throw from Galveston) has a hockey team now. I still can’t believe it. The Stars have done wonders. In my observation, Atlanta is slightly behind in that department, but the Stars just do everything so well when it comes to marketing and getting people excited about the game. Plus, when the Stars came to Texas they were almost immediately powerhouses — that made a difference too. As a native Texan, I want to say that we take such pride in everything when it comes to winning that the populace just embraced hockey wholeheartedly. But that wouldn’t be completely accurate, as there have been strong markets in the state of Texas long before the Stars — the WHA Houston Aeros boasted Gordie Howe and his sons. There are a lot of Northern transplants in the state too.
But back to your question, I think the Atlanta metro area is doing well in getting kids into hockey. They do have the Junior Thrashers and many other levels of kids hockey. There’s an affordable ECHL team in the ‘burbs — the Gwinett Gladiators, which is a great family event. Some of the local colleges have hockey teams now. And the high schools do as well. Peter Bondra’s son skated for one of the local high school hockey teams.
That being said, the state as a whole is probably not doing as well, but really, there aren’t many major cities in the state of Georgia outside of Atlanta. Like Texas has Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, even El Paso — large-to-huge markets with vast populations. So the state as a whole probably lags behind, though considering the relatively low population outside of the ATL it might not make as big a difference.
When the Avalanche came to Denver, hockey grew in leaps and bounds. Rinks started popping up everywhere. The waiting lists grew longer and kids had nowhere to play. The adult rec league went from just a couple of house leagues with a couple of levels to several house leagues with 6-8 divisions. Women’s hockey in the state went from one division to five and whereas there was no program for girls there is now a “selects” all-girl program with about 12 teams. It’s a amazing.
In this case, the Avalanche had to do nothing but win their first year. As we know, they do nothing for their fans, and very little for the community. Also, they aren’t competing with football as much as I’m sure they are in Atlanta or other fall sports, with the exception of soccer, but I assume that’s universal.
That being said, the Denver metro area has half the population of Atlanta. There is a huge market that needs to be tapped into, but I again think it’s hard when your team isn’t doing anything on the ice.