NSHPreds1835
Glads/Preds
I disagree COMPLETELY about Atlanta being a "failed" hockey market twice. Just because a team leaves doesn't mean it's a failure. What's the difference between Winnipeg, Minnesota, Quebec, Hartford and Atlanta? Teams relocate when the situation loses all three of the holy sports trinity (owner, venue, market economy). If there's no owner committed because of the other two, a team moves. That's not a failure, that's circumstance. The Islanders have a horrible arena and the market economy (including politics) is preventing them from getting a new one. But they still have a committed owner, so they're still there.
Winnipeg now has an arena and a committed owner, and the new CBA and strong Canadian dollar fixed the market economy issue.
Minnesota got the new arena, new owner and the economy they're fine.
Atlanta had the arena, but the ownership didn't want them and that mean a new owner would have the economy/arena issue (paying to be a ASG tenant). Hence, they moved. I don't consider that a failure of hockey for a city. Hockey is too awesome to fail. When you assign blame, it should be to the decision makers, not something as broad and general as "the whole city/market"
The main thing is that a city the size of Atlanta (or Dallas, Denver, New York, etc) is that there's enough people and corporate dollars that not having a completely full building isn't a huge deal, because when the bandwagon's full, it's huge.
As loyal as the Jets fans are, there's a limited number of them. Their bandwagon in the good times isn't going to be much larger than their loyal fanbase in the downtimes.
Which is why no one would say that the Braves or Falcons are in trouble, even if they're not drawing.
We look down on them for not selling out Braves playoff games. Or being middle of the pack in attendance when their team has the second-best record in the NL right now. (But yeah, it's hot as hell in ATL in the summer, why drop the cash to go to the game, when you can buy a six-pack for the price of one stadium beer and watch in your air conditioned home in stunning HD?)
Comparing football to other sports simply isn't an apples-to-apples comparison. There's eight home football games (college or pro). It's an EVENT. Hockey, basketball, or baseball are marathon seasons.
Yes, this is true. doubleheaders don't draw well for anyone (maybe Boston). We'll see how many people are at the Marlins/Mets doubleheader at 1 pm in New York. With the Irene flooding, mass transit issues and the fact that the Mets are sucking. Then again, Josey comes back today, so we'll see.
You might have a point about the weather and why people decide to stay home and watch the game on tv. I'm hoping when the time comes for a new stadium to be built for the Braves it will have a retractable roof. As for not selling out playoff games? Considering the Braves postseason history alot of it might be people have just become so skeptical and are waiting for the team to show them something. I mean the Braves haven't been to the World Series since 1999(The Braves were 1-4 in World Series appearances in the 1990s) and haven't even reached the NLCS since 2001. Winning your division or getting in as the Wild Card only to be bounced in the first round can only be tolerated for so long. As for hockey I would like to see there area get an AHL team at some point and I think the better location for that team would be in Duluth Georgia where the current ECHL Gwinnett Gladiators play.
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