Tawnos
A guy with a bass
I moved down to Atlanta the year the Thrashers relocated (November of the Jets first season). So disappointed, I was looking forward to cheap tickets when the Rangers came to town.
However, from what I know of the situation, the failure was in ownership, not that hockey can't work down here. Nobody is going to get invested in a team that makes the playoffs once in 15 years, and gets swept when they do. Build a winner, and people in this city would support them. The NHL is never coming back, though, and that's a shame.
The group that bought the Thrashers only bought them because they had to as part of buying Philips Arena and the Hawks. They never wanted to own them and they never wanted hockey in their building. Basically, they decided to put the team up for sale and evict them simultaneously, leaving them without a place to play even if they could find local ownership.