GKJ
Global Moderator
- Feb 27, 2002
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Potential Atlanta NHL Expansion Team Thread
- Thread starter MMC
- Start date
AtlantaWhaler
Thrash/Preds/Sabres
- Jul 3, 2009
- 19,708
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His schtick is obvious. No need to pay any attention.
C'mon do you really think the NHL. is going to give a 3rd chance to Atlanta nobody is that stupid especially when neither the Flames or Thrashers lasted more than 10 years before they moved . Plus I herd somewhere correct me if I am wrong that Atlanta really dose not show as much love for the Braves , Falcons , Hawks & Atlanta United FC as do for the Georgia Bulldogs & Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets so is college sports just more popular there than pro sports.?
It wasn't the market that the team moved from there last time it was the ownership group (lack there of one after the fact) that moved the team.
Lt Frank Drebin
Registered User
My favorite thing about this website is how some people very confidently say things that are completely wrong. Please do a little bit of research man. First off, every single thing you said in your comment is incorrect. Atlanta supports its sports teams very well. The hawks, falcons, Braves, even the soccer team regularly sell out. You can check the attendance for yourself, it’s not hard to do a google search. Secondly, Atlanta has had massive population growth since the Thrashers left. Thirdly, do some reading on why the flames and thrashers left. Both were the fault of ownership, not the fans. The arena this time around will be in a better location. Hockey can work in Atlanta. As evidenced by literally every single sunbelt team aside from the two (Atlanta and Arizona) that have had incompetent ownership.
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BKIslandersFan
F*** off
Ehhhhhhhhh.
I don't agree with this one.
But yea Atlanta love their Braves and Falcons.
Lt Frank Drebin
Registered User
They average 17,000 and the hawks are a pretty bad team. I’d say that’s decent support. I agree the Braves and Falcons are much bigger though. My point is that an NHL team with a good arena location will do well.
TheGreenTBer
shut off the power while I take a big shit
- Apr 30, 2021
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No Fun Shogun
34-38-61-10-13-15
Team Waffle House is going to lead the league in fighting majors.
TheGreenTBer
shut off the power while I take a big shit
- Apr 30, 2021
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AtlantaWhaler
Thrash/Preds/Sabres
- Jul 3, 2009
- 19,708
- 2,929
I'm far from an NBA fan, but I am actually impressed with the attendance of the Hawks all things considered. They have generally hovered around 95%-ish over the last several seasons despite continuing to be a shitty team.
I was just asking is college sports more popular in Georgia than the pro ones that is all . By the way the Arizona Coyotes are moving not because bad ownership they are moving because they can not pay there bills & nobody cares about hockey in Arizona in fact this team should of been relocated years ago instead the NHL. keep them there out pure spite .
sneakytitz
Registered User
College sports are NOT more popular than pro sports in Georgia. UGA is a big deal down here but the Atlanta Braves are a bigger deal, because it crosses GT-UGA-GSU-KSU lines, and then extends into Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, the Carolinas. In the city proper, Atlanta United might even be a bigger deal than UGA these days.
But you don't need to be bigger than anyone here - just have ownership show they give a shit and the fans will stick. The Hawks aren't all that good but Tony Ressler has spent money to try to make them better (Capela, Murray, etc.) and that is lost on no one. That's why the Hawks still sell a ton of tickets. We know they're trying and that is good enough. We were one rolled ankle away from an NBA Finals win.
It would only be their second chance in 40 years. The Flames left 44 years ago.
Yikes, I'm not sure about this take lol...
I'm sure hockey will work but just looking at college football down south its nuts.
AtlantaWhaler
Thrash/Preds/Sabres
- Jul 3, 2009
- 19,708
- 2,929
Me neither...College football is definitely the most popular, here (though, maybe he emphasized "sports" rather than "football").
That said, just shows that Atlanta is a major sports hub overall. Sold out Braves games, MLS attendance records, packed college football games, Hall of Fame, Soccer HQ, as well as the Masters 90 minutes east from Downtown.
ponder719
Haute Couturier
Ownership that cannot or will not pay their bills is bad ownership.
I lived ITP the whole time I was an ATL resident. And I will admit that "lawn flags" is a pretty crappy & inexact way to gauge things but *if* you wanted to use that metric......United soared past everyone in terms of ITP affinity.
I'm just one dude but to understand the hierarchy IMO, you need to narrow down "college sports" to "SEC football." In terms of something outstripping the pro sports in popularity, SEC football is very specifically that. Speaking strictly from a personal point of view, the profile of college basketball diminished quite a bit (Georgia Tech went all the way to the final in 2004 and I barely remember a buzz (pun partially intended) about it and NCAAB only seemed to get less important after that).
But SEC football? It's not just that UGA rules the roost. It's the wide amount of alumni and fans of MULTIPLE SEC teams in the area that always furthers the "social capital" surrounding the sport even beyond the already fervent Bulldogs supporters. Add to that that the city is one of most fertile hotbeds of high school talent that those schools are recruiting.....you have all the reason for local news/radio to devote a strong amount of time to college football. That's paying way more bills than the NHL ever could.
The Braves fanbase is also much larger than anyone gives it credit for. The TBS coverage dating back to the 1970s + the fact that it was the pillar of southeast pro baseball = big swath of fans but not always concentrated in a way that attendance bears it out. But attendance for the Braves has rarely been *bad*, that's a myth that gets perpetuated with little in numbers to back it up. In fact, I'd go one step further and say that of all sporting concerns in the southeast (pro or college), the Braves may not be the most popular based on sheer passion but it would be the team you could get the most of the Southeastern U.S. to "agree" on.
dj4aces
An Intricate Piece of Infinity
No. I think one of the two groups with a lot of wealth behind them are going to purchase a franchise. Because that's how this works. The league doesn't "give" anything to anyone.
Atlanta is a market the NHL wants, and the NHL is a league people in the area want here. Get ready, because it's happening.
I remember some of the old broadcasts on TBS in the late 80s into the 90s, which had folks writing fan mail to Skip Carey and the rest of the Braves broadcasters from places like Billings, Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, Boise, and other places in the northern US and Canada. That fanbase was far and wide, and I kinda wonder how many of those folks are still around, and if they're still following the Braves today.
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Anecdotal: I grew up hour outside of Seattle. When I was really young not many Mariners games were on TV. Into middle school and high school we basically had 3-types of MLB fans at our school(s): Mariners fans. Mariners & Braves (AL & NL favorites) fans, or just Braves fans. The backup QB to me in HS was a huge Braves fan, wore a Braves hat every day to school, played college baseball at UW but his dream was to play for the Braves. His family even did trips to ATL to watch Braves games in the summer. He's still a huge Braves fan.
I was/am a M's fan, in football my favorite team was/is naturally the Seahawks but ironically my favorite player was Deion. Wore my Sanders Falcons jersey at least once a week to school in 3rd and 4th grade. Even 'documented' in a car magazine because my Uncle won a race and I was in the pit crew picture wearing my Deion Sanders Falcons jersey.
Regardless, the Braves TBS era is underrated as far as the national support it created.
KevFu
Registered User
The other thing about the whole "Atlanta failed twice" non-sense is that we all know the Hawks owners basically evicted the Thrashers, and because no owner would want to buy the team to be the tenants of a misfit group of nine who's infighting got tied up in court cases for years...
... the OG Atlanta Flames didn't really fail, but kinda got evicted as well.
The Flames were thrown together at the last minute because the NHL was facing a challenge from the WHA; and Long Island/Bill Shea negotiated with the NHL/Rangers and convinced them to add the Islanders to undercut the WHA by taking away NYC. But the NHL needed another franchise to come with them.
So they had to find someone with an arena, with an operations staff who could make it happen within MONTHS. aka an NBA owner. In the East, without an NHL team already. Since Cincinnati and Baltimore were financially struggling and would see their NBA teams moved soon thereafter, it pretty much had to be Atlanta.
And Atlanta was fine for eight years. It's really easy to look at their attendance NOW and compare it to what numbers are NOW, but the Atlanta Flames attendance wise were doing better than a few established markets every season. They never finished last in attendance. They beat out Chicago some seasons, Detroit some seasons, Philadelphia a season or two, Pittsburgh multiple seasons, LA some seasons.
The Flames owner had most his assets in real estate and got hammered in the real estate market. He needed cash and sold the Flames to a group from Calgary because HE needed to more than the team needed to move or anything like that.
Pro sports in the 1970s just wasn't a massive big-time entertainment business like they quickly became after cable TV. The Yankees sold for $8.8 million in the 70s. If Tom Cousins just didn't sell the Flames, they'd probably be a franchise no different than the Capitals at this point.
... the OG Atlanta Flames didn't really fail, but kinda got evicted as well.
The Flames were thrown together at the last minute because the NHL was facing a challenge from the WHA; and Long Island/Bill Shea negotiated with the NHL/Rangers and convinced them to add the Islanders to undercut the WHA by taking away NYC. But the NHL needed another franchise to come with them.
So they had to find someone with an arena, with an operations staff who could make it happen within MONTHS. aka an NBA owner. In the East, without an NHL team already. Since Cincinnati and Baltimore were financially struggling and would see their NBA teams moved soon thereafter, it pretty much had to be Atlanta.
And Atlanta was fine for eight years. It's really easy to look at their attendance NOW and compare it to what numbers are NOW, but the Atlanta Flames attendance wise were doing better than a few established markets every season. They never finished last in attendance. They beat out Chicago some seasons, Detroit some seasons, Philadelphia a season or two, Pittsburgh multiple seasons, LA some seasons.
The Flames owner had most his assets in real estate and got hammered in the real estate market. He needed cash and sold the Flames to a group from Calgary because HE needed to more than the team needed to move or anything like that.
Pro sports in the 1970s just wasn't a massive big-time entertainment business like they quickly became after cable TV. The Yankees sold for $8.8 million in the 70s. If Tom Cousins just didn't sell the Flames, they'd probably be a franchise no different than the Capitals at this point.
dj4aces
An Intricate Piece of Infinity
Tom Cousins, who owned the Flames at the time, offered the franchise to Turner. Turner turned him down because, if I recall correctly, he didn't think the sport would be good television.
Fast-forward to 1997, when the Thrashers franchise was awarded to none other than Ted Turner, but he was playing a rich man's game of Pokemon: Gotta collect 'em all. With that, he owned three of the four major league sports franchises in Atlanta, which were all acquired by AOL Time Warner in the merger.
KevFu
Registered User
Yup, it Turner bought them in 1980 and put them on TBS when the Braves weren't on, they'd be huge.
RoyalAir
Looks Better In Gold
He kinda did that when he bought the Thrashers. He started a new network, Turner South, to specifically air Thrashers games in the ATL-designated media market. I think he could go as far east as Columbia, SC, and as far west as Birmingham. I know my brother in Mississippi couldn't get Thrashers games, even though he got TS. This network also had some Hawks games, and a sizable slate of Braves content, too.
Turner South, which had some really cool original programming, was later turned into SportSouth, and is now a Bally RSN.
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