Jeremy Jacobs was asked about a team relocating - and refused to answer

Melrose Munch

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Mar 18, 2007
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The NHL wants to add fans, not cannibalize current fan bases. Large southern markets are where the NHL can have the most growth IF they aren’t managed into the ground. Houston makes perfect sense.



I think they’ll give Atlanta another go but it’ll be a while. There’s too much money to be made if they can do it successfully. But regardless of what’s going on with Philips, they’d be stupid to put a hockey team downtown again. Similar to the Braves, put the team in the northern suburbs where the fans are.
The NHL fansbase is supposed to be urban and educated. Glendale has been a disaster. A new hockey team in Atlanta should be at Phillips.
 
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tucker3434

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The NHL fansbase is supposed to be urban and educated. Glendale has been a disaster. A new hockey team in Atlanta should be at Phillips.

Glendale is a disaster because southern teams need to win some games to get people interested. The yotes don’t.

If a team was added today it would probably be at Philips because building arenas is expensive. But if they were starting from scratch, I’d put it up north and dry to develop the area around it the way they did Suntrust. Regardless of what a hockey fan is supposed to be, you want to make it as easy as possible for your season ticket holder base to get to the arena.
 

MNNumbers

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It's already been explained to you that this is incorrect. Having a second Toronto team would not split the Toronto fanbase. We are talking about a top 5-7 revenue team in the NHL right out of the gate...all while the Leafs continue being a top 1-3 revenue team. But please continue being obstinate.


While I agree that Hamilton or Tor2 would be immediately a Top 7 revenue franchise, that is really not the issue here. The question is NOT: Is there enough money in the Golden Horseshoe and/or Southern Ontario to support 2 or even 3 teams? Of course there is.....

The real question is: Aside from the expansion money, what does the presence of 1 or 2 more teams there do for the bottom line of the other owners? And, the answer goes like this:
1- It raises the salary cap, so it costs them a little bit of money.
2- While LOCAL revenue would be huge, it is not a sure thing that the Canada wide TV contract value changes
3- It does nothing for the American marketing. In other words....Not much merchandise sales, and no one in the States really wants to watch Hamilton on TV.

So, while it is a very viable market, it doesn't help Jacobs, et al..... And, therefore, it may not be at the top of the list.
 

CHRDANHUTCH

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Glendale is a disaster because southern teams need to win some games to get people interested. The yotes don’t.

If a team was added today it would probably be at Philips because building arenas is expensive. But if they were starting from scratch, I’d put it up north and dry to develop the area around it the way they did Suntrust. Regardless of what a hockey fan is supposed to be, you want to make it as easy as possible for your season ticket holder base to get to the arena.
I don't think Atlanta or their suburbs are hockey towns, tucker, the way the Thrashers were handled publically makes Phillips a non-starter and if the reports coming from our Atlanta region fanbase state that Gwinnett/Atlanta's hockey team is facing lease issues after 2018/19, and unless that gets settled or an extension magically gets worked out past next season... Georgia likely will not have hockey at any level if the Gladiators are shut down or suspend or cease operations, the Lynx folded halfway through 2007/08, not long after Fresno did the same thing with their Falcons...

GRA location has been a misdirected POV, because of the Suns, because Sarver has been adamant he wants his franchise to be priority one.
 

nhlfan79

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and now there's a report that Georgia may be losing its hockey franchise after next season, despite the branding to Atlanta...

Huh? Link? I'm pretty well connected to the arena, and by extension the organization, and have heard no such thing. It'd be odd for their brand new owner to spend roughly $500,000 this offseason replacing the entire boards and glass if the team was imminently gone. Just sayin'. As for the lease extension issue you mention, the word I've heard (at least as of mid-April as the Glads season was ending) is that's pretty much a done deal.

Oh, Philips Arena is retaining its ice plant and could still host hockey in its reconfiguration, if necessary. Straight from the mouth of a high-level arena executive, who's a longtime family friend.
 
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tucker3434

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I don't think Atlanta or their suburbs are hockey towns, tucker, the way the Thrashers were handled publically makes Phillips a non-starter and if the reports coming from our Atlanta region fanbase state that Gwinnett/Atlanta's hockey team is facing lease issues after 2018/19, and unless that gets settled or an extension magically gets worked out past next season... Georgia likely will not have hockey at any level if the Gladiators are shut down or suspend or cease operations, the Lynx folded halfway through 2007/08, not long after Fresno did the same thing with their Falcons...

GRA location has been a misdirected POV, because of the Suns, because Sarver has been adamant he wants his franchise to be priority one.

It isn’t a natural hockey town, but it is an untapped market. There’s absolutely no reason Atlanta couldn’t be another Nashville. The biggest difference there was that Nashville states making the playoffs with regularity and gave the fans a reason to show up.
 

DowntownBooster

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you do know why the name was selected originally, DB

You bet. Flames owner Tom Cousins (who also owned the NBA Atlanta Hawks at the time) named the team in homage to the burning of Atlanta by United States Army General William Sherman during the American Civil War. That's why the name made sense for the team in Atlanta. I really did like the logo when the Flames were based in Atlanta not only for the historical aspect to the name but also for the design.

:jets
 
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MNNumbers

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Huh? Link? I'm pretty well connected to the arena, and by extension the organization, and have heard no such thing. It'd be odd for their brand new owner to spend roughly $500,000 this offseason replacing the entire boards and glass if the team was imminently gone. Just sayin'. As for the lease extension issue you mention, the word I've heard (at least as of mid-April as the Glads season was ending) is that's pretty much a done deal.

Oh, Philips Arena is retaining its ice plant and could still host hockey in its reconfiguration, if necessary. Straight from the mouth of a high-level arena executive, who's a longtime family friend.

This is news to me on Philips. Can you get a seating configuration link somewhere?

For example....TSRA in Phoenix CAN host hockey, but not nicely. Barclay's CAN host hockey, but not nicely.
 

nhlfan79

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This is news to me on Philips. Can you get a seating configuration link somewhere?

For example....TSRA in Phoenix CAN host hockey, but not nicely. Barclay's CAN host hockey, but not nicely.

Unfortunately not. What I was told from my source last fall was that current Hawks/arena ownership was not adverse to having a hockey tenant, but it wasn't in their short-term plans. The implication was that down the road, maybe in two or three more years from now, there would be interest in bringing in an AHL team, not the NHL. The reconfigured lower seating bowl can still accommodate hockey. Although I've seen people on here mention it as a reason to think Philips is hoops-only going forward, the end zone bar at Hawks games is mobile, which makes sense since Disney on Ice and major concerts regularly come through each year.

EDIT: Here's a two-minute time lapse of the lower bowl reconfiguration. The biggest change is making the one endzone that had retractable seats now permanent.
 
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MNNumbers

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Unfortunately not. What I was told from my source last fall was that current Hawks/arena ownership was not adverse to having a hockey tenant, but it wasn't in their short-term plans. The implication was that down the road, maybe in two or three more years from now, there would be interest in bringing in an AHL team, not the NHL. The reconfigured lower seating bowl can still accommodate hockey. Although I've seen people on here mention it as a reason to think Philips is hoops-only going forward, the end zone bar at Hawks games is mobile, which makes sense since Disney on Ice and major concerts regularly come through each year.

Are you able to answer this? Would a rink fit there centered, or off-centered?

And, the words "hockey tenant" basically mean that NHL isn't coming there for a long while, because NHL won't work there as a tenant.
 

nhlfan79

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Are you able to answer this? Would a rink fit there centered, or off-centered?

And, the words "hockey tenant" basically mean that NHL isn't coming there for a long while, because NHL won't work there as a tenant.

I don't think it would make the rink off-centered, as in Brooklyn, going off the video. No one's seen the final renovations yet, which will be unveiled in October. There's a video floating around of an interactive model of the new design from the Hawks preview center, which gives the most current sense of the final product.

I didn't mean "tenant" in the sense of a third-party owner paying rent to the building owner. I meant in terms of having a team call the arena home.

Here's a more recent video of the changeovers after the first of the two stages of renovation.

 
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MNNumbers

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I don't think it would make the rink off-centered, as in Brooklyn, going off the video. No one's seen the final renovations yet, which will be unveiled in October. There's a video floating around of an interactive model of the new design from the Hawks preview center, which gives the most current sense of the final product.

I didn't mean "tenant" in the sense of a third-party owner paying rent to the building owner. I meant in terms of having a team call the arena home.

Thanks for the discussion.

At 1:36 of the video you linked, you can see the BB court in place. It seems there isn't enough room for hockey in there on center if the far end seats are permanent, but I could be seeing it wrong.
 
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Mightygoose

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Makes sense Phillips will still have an ice plant. The building would work just fine hosting an AHL team to book up series of dates, cater to the hockey fans that do residents in the area. At the same time, if they're not interested in owning an NHL team, there's no point bringing them in. Why have a competitor in your own building?
 

CHRDANHUTCH

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Makes sense Phillips will still have an ice plant. The building would work just fine hosting an AHL team to book up series of dates, cater to the hockey fans that do residents in the area. At the same time, if they're not interested in owning an NHL team, there's no point bringing them in. Why have a competitor in your own building?
and an AHL Team isn't coming to Atlanta, REMEMBER THE PARAMETERS the AHL requires, an NHL Team either owns it or an O&O, now the question becomes this: Will Phillips and the Hawks be the saviour to keeping the Gladiators in state, if Gwinnett splits or ends that contract after 2018/19, AS has been initially reported.... I do not see Atlanta at the AHL Level, knowing what Colorado's Eagles still haven't yet brought the Bud Events Center up to minimum specs, and the longer the Eagles season goes, the shorter the timeframe becomes for them to retrofit the arena
 

AdmiralsFan24

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Mar 22, 2011
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Thanks for the discussion.

At 1:36 of the video you linked, you can see the BB court in place. It seems there isn't enough room for hockey in there on center if the far end seats are permanent, but I could be seeing it wrong.

I think a hockey rink would easily fit in there. You only need 45 feet past a basketball court on each side to fit a rink. The problem I see is that one end with a permanent seating structure now seems like it would be at a weird angle with a hockey rink. The front row of those seats would be several feet above the boards which might create some weird viewing angles.
 

nhlfan79

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now the question becomes this: Will Phillips and the Hawks be the saviour to keeping the Gladiators in state, if Gwinnett splits or ends that contract after 2018/19, AS has been initially reported....

There's exactly a 0% chance the Glads play out of Philips if, for some reason, they don't renew at the Gwinnett Arena.
 

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