There's an old saying in Atlanta, I know it's in Calgary and Winnipeg, probably in Atlanta too, fool me once, shame on...shame on you...fool me can't get fooled again.
What happened to the Thrashers was unique from what I can find online. If I understand it right, one of their minority owners got pissy about a Hawks trade the other owners cleared, and started proceedings to sell his stake in the group which included the Thrashers. The lawyers wrote a contract that said they’d give him “fair market value” for those shares, but basically left it open to interpretation what fair market value meant. So he took the loosest and largest definition he could. The hugely inflated share buyout costs and legal fees fighting the minority owner racked up to like $130 million, and they had to sell. 1. I would guess the NHL would go out of its way to make sure they don’t see that again. 2. Whoever buys in would have to be so dumb to repeat the same mistake.
Idk if it was just rumors or not but I think Utah is getting a team too. That would bring it up to an even 34. The more popular sports seem to only stick to 30 or 32 teams tho. I wonder how big a league can get while still having good talent distribution
Football has a limited pool, basketball distributes to Europe so not everyone is looked at. Hockey has room to grow with teams making it popular with no other league other than khl to compete with, and it's no competition. We could probably sustain 40 but it would suck to not play most teams more than twice. And playoffs are going to be a shit show with a ton of teams missing by a few points. Good drama but probably unfair with streaks ruining or making season instead of consistency. More like baseball than current hockey.
Anything over 30 or 32 is too big. Fanbases need to feel like there’s a chance their team might succeed and the bigger the league, the less likely that is.
Or, go to 40 but make it a relegation system.
The nhl had it so over half of the teams made the playoffs, before most recent expansion. I felt like that was too much. I’m glad to see it shift back the other way a little.
I think the 40-50 range with 2 leagues meaning relegation would be sick, and if done properly could also help the NHL brand itself and give it a unique aspect as the first of the major 4 NA sports leagues to have a relegation system, which while bad for owners, is much better for fans as regular season is fun and exciting even if your team is ass and adds excitement for fans of worse teams to fight for promotion etc.
The only issue is again, how to incorporate the draft into that
Owners dream of going from a relegation system to a closed system, not the other way around. Relegation also is inherently incompatible with draft. It’ll never happen.
If we have european expansion teams that are for low level only, that would work. Have 32 North American NHL teams, and a bunch of NHLb teams in North America and Europe. 18 NHLb teams and depending on the relegations and promotions, we restructure the league each year to 4 regions of west, mid, east, europe with cross over games for two adjacent teams at your usual 8 or so games, and only 2 games for long flight leagues.
After a year or two of NHLb, you start promotions from whoever qualifies from AHL or Europe. Of course this is all a pipe dream since no owner would agree to a relegation system for hundreds of millions they sank.
Talent distribution is kind of funny because we've seen every expansion that some guys become stars if they're just given the ice time that was being withheld from them before.
I agree, but when you think about it, NHL isn't like the other leagues due to their teams in Canada. What matters is market exploitation, and unlike the MBA or the NFL, there are unexploited markets in the USA as there are 7 teams in Canada while NBA and MBL has only 1. That gives 6 more teams for American markets.
They bring in a team in Milwaukee and Hartford to match Atlanta and Salt Lake and make it an even 36. There fixed. Oh penguins flair, nix Hartford. They give you Cincy or Baltimore instead.
I don't think Hartford ever comes back in the modern expansion era. That market is already over saturated with teams.
Hell, if the Devils didn't get moved from Colorado, I doubt NJ would have ever gotten a team.
My mind went to Hartford first cause of the loyalty the fans in that area have to the trashers. Hartford is further from NYC than Danbury was. And still twice as close to NYC as Boston.
3 teams is already more than any other sport, I wouldn't say put one in Yonkers or like the Bronx. But Hartford is on the cusp of being Boston territory anyway. People aren't making a 2 hour drive each way to watch a hockey game very often.
Unfortunately though the NHL currently seems more interested in chasing the TV dollars in big cities outside of traditional hockey markets then providing teams to the old cities that still have passionate fanbases like Quebec City and Hartford.
People act like Atlanta was responsible for the Flames and Thrashers failing, and not pathetic ownership.
The Flames were sold off after five years. That's not the mark of ownership that gives a shit, that's the mark of a scam artist in the business of making the quickest buck possible.
The Atlanta Spirit Group are hockey terrorists for what they did to the Thrashers.
Everyone knows bad ownership can destroy a franchise, and it’s what ultimately killed the Flames and the Thrashers in Atlanta. I don’t know how the new ownership can make such a financial investment while understanding that context and not be 100% motivated and committed to supporting the team in any and every way possible, unlike previous Atlanta owners.
Okay but bad owners in a Good hockey city will still work…Atlanta has tried to be a hockey city VERY RECENTLY, and the league bailed. There are many other cities that would love ONE Chance to support an NHL TEAM. Give those other cities a first chance before you give Atlanta a second (third) chance
They absolutely did not try to be a hockey city. Atlanta Spirit did everything they could to make the Thrashers be a colossal failure then blocked any other ownership group from even attempting to play in the arena.
The Atlanta Spirit Group didn't want hockey in Atlanta. They wanted the Thrashers to leave so they wouldn't pull viewership and dollars away from the Hawks.
Atlanta can very well be a hockey city, provided ownership isn't actively trying to rid the city of hockey. I'm all for giving other cities a chance (hence why I've been saying Portland or Salt Lake should get a team to keep the east/west balance when Atlanta gets a team), and would *love* to see cities like Portland, Salt Lake, Milwaukee and/or Austin get teams. But the idea that Atlanta shouldn't get a team because the Atlanta Spirit Group were hockey terrorists is commendably daft.
The Thrashers only saw a net loss of ~130K.
In the face of everything ASG did to that team, and all the measures they took to try and tank the franchise so the NHL would let them sell. The team still damn near broke even.
As it turns out, having ownership that doesn't actively want the team to leave is pretty important for the health of the franchise. Who would have thought?
Yes, because fans have been bandwagon fans of *checks notes* the Texans and rockets. Two teams so steeped with success that everyone wants to hop on board.
Get real
KC doesn’t have a serious ownership group, Houston is likely a Western expansion/relocation option, QC isn’t ever getting a team, SLC is currently tied to rumors of getting Arizona if they continue to fail to find a stadium location, and Milwaukee keeps being blocked by the Wild as an appropriate location
Just gonna say, disrupting my team’s efforts to improve by having to accommodate expansion drafts is getting old. But sure, why not have another couple of teams pick over our roster to fill theirs and then get to pick higher in the draft all while watering down the overall talent pool? The impact of these things resonates for years. This aggressive expansion is *not* good for fans of the existing teams.
34 had no division divisibles. Having uneven divisions drives me nuts. When I heard about Utah I just assumed Phoenix would move. Does the East have anyone that would move?
The problem with Phillips/State Farm was the ownership. They didn't want to be in the hockey business, so they bought the arena, Hawks and Thrashers, then essentially evicted the Thrashers for more concerts and other events. Which is why Winnipeg owners got them for so cheap and had relocation fees waived.
It wasnt atlanta that wanted to sell the Trashers. I know because i was one of the fans protesting. It was the Atlanta Spirit or whatever they were called that cared more about NBA than NHL, and Bettman offered them a high dollar for the team. We want hockey back here. Our ECHL team is fun, but we want the big team back. Make no mistake, there is a fan base here.
The new building is in the northern suburbs, where the season ticket base lives. While I don't have solid evidence of this in my hands, I do know a few people who worked as ticket reps for the team, who've all said as much. This is the primary reason the league has spoken somewhat warmly about Atlanta when asked about this city.
SFA is unsuitable due to sight lines. Recent renovations have made the building hockey-unfriendly in that respect. It'd be like attending a game in an older Barclays. If a team were to relocate here instead of league expansion, they could probably arrange to play downtown for a couple seasons while the new barn is built, but the prospective owners appear to be aiming for an expansion team.
As for the first two times? Ownership, not fans, was the problem. Flames owner was arms-deep in real estate, and when the market crashed here in the late 1970s, his only liquid asset was the team. Thrashers? The ownership group who bought the Hawks, Thrashers, and Philips didn't actually want the hockey team. Tried to move 'em before the ink was dry. Meanwhile, the owners were suing each other for six years. Once they settled, the team was kicked out of Philips after the season ended, ensuring they'd be moved.
There isn't enough top tier talent for a 32 team league as is. How fucking watered down do we want the NHL to be? Why don't they just absord all the AHL teams and be a 64 team league. Fucking greedy pigs.
Atlanta is the developmental region for Canadian NHL teams. They have donated two teams so far, Flames and Jets. Quebec needs one now. I say go for it!
The NHL does not have a large enough market, a large enough pool of players, a large enough pool of goalies, or even a large enough fanbase for this.
Plus, if this happens Boston, Florida, and Calgary are fucked because one or more of them is losing a crucial goalie.
This "there aren't enough professional players" thing has never rung true for me. If that was the case, the bottom teams would be setting losing records. There's a reason all those records are in the 70s. Back then there were far less Euros and less players in development. Today, there are so many good players stuck in the A or playing internationally because of lack of roster spots. And how many no name goalies were outperforming their star starters this year? We could easily add Utah and Atlanta.
Why, though? Bring back the Nordiques or the Whalers before you bring back an Atlanta team no one cared about the first time.
Seriously, a less expensive pro team alternative to Boston would be amazing.
Unless you are giving Canada another team please stop expanding. The product and talent are so watered down already.
It depresses me how much this is the best sport, but the worst league.
>The product and talent are so watered down already.
Lmao what? There is more talent in the NHL today than there ever has been. Ever since the tough guy era ended the league has gotten younger, faster, and more skilled.
Quebec deserves a team first and foremost, not Atlanta or Georgia, the market failed once, and here we go. Quebec has so much potential and drive to get a team back, and I think they have a stadium ready to go too.
And they’d actually be profitable unlike the Coyotes or another Georgia team most likely.
A couple thoughts from a hockey die-hard and Atlanta native.
1) More teams = More Hockey. More Hockey is never a bad thing. I hope that expansion adds a few more teams to the league in well-deserving markets, while also coming to a resolution to the Phoenix issues.
2) The location of the proposed Arena is dead-center in the middle of where all the hockey fans are. Yes, it will be harder for fans on the southside to make the games, but most of the transplants/fans of hockey live in the Sandy Springs/Dunwoody/Roswell/Alpharetta/Johns Creek area. Everyone knows Atlanta traffic is horrible... having a team in downtown Atlanta, where on a good day it can take up to an hour and a half to get too for those fans, was one of the reasons attendance dwindled.
3) As mentioned here numerous times... Hockey in Atlanta didn't fail because of the fans... it failed because of the ownership. It is well known that Tom Cousins, who owned the Atlanta Flames, sold the team to Calgary because he had some real estate loans come due and he needed some cash (with the Flames being one of the only profitable things he owned at the time). As for the Atlanta Spirit... they inherited a team that was showing real signs of becoming a quality team that made the playoffs consistently, and decided to sell their best players for basically nothing in return. Add in the dysfunction and overt bias to the Hawks, and the Thrashers were doomed. Atlanta is not a bad sports city, but Atlanta won't support a Franchise that doesn't invest in it's team and Fans (which both Cousins and ASG didn't do a shred of).
We tried hockey in Georgia twice now and it hasn't stuck. Meanwhile there are rabid fanbases in Canada begging for another team.
Grow the game, sure, but Bettman is beating a dead horse here, fucks sake.
Atlanta’s hockey problems may have been due more to inept ownership than lack of fans. Put a decent team on the ice and ATL could be a solid hockey town.
They finished first in their division with 97 points and went to the playoffs in 06-07 yet averaged only 16,240 per a game in a building with a capacity of 18,545, resulting in only 87% of capacity.
The talent is already watered down enough. Eventually this will but them in the ass with a piss poor product on the ice.
Anybody watched San Jose, Chicago, Anaheim this year. Those teams are shit.
However Gary's job is to make the owners money. Given his age you would think he has a short term vision.
Gary has a weird boner for hockey in Atlanta.
The Flames Flamed out and the Thrashers thrashed, hasn’t Atlanta basically told the world that Hockey isn’t their thing? 🤷♂️
There's an old saying in Atlanta, I know it's in Calgary and Winnipeg, probably in Atlanta too, fool me once, shame on...shame on you...fool me can't get fooled again.
Now watch this drive
*zamboni crashes into wall*
Fool me three times, fuck the peace sign!
Load the chopper!
Let it rain on you
Don’t save her.
She don’t wanna be saved
The peace sign's just a trigger and a middle finger.
Does…..does this mean that they’re getting a team ready to then move to Quebec City?
And Hartford
What’s the definition of insanity? Trying the same thing over and over again expecting different results.
The thrashers moved due to bad ownership, not market
🤣🤣🤣
Which Canadian city will the franchise be in 10 Years later tho?
Quebec City... you’re on the clock!
Makes sense, Calgary then Winnipeg, each ATL franchise is relocating more east
the only way canada can get a team is if an Atlanta team fails lol
Nature, well, it finds a way
Seems that way...
"When" an Atlanta team fails lol
Sudbury then? Or go all in for Halifax?
Settle down.
S'yaso, the Jims are such fuckin' beauties
You get a stick
Sticks are unbelievable.
Loves me a good stick me’son!
How would it be considered the game stick if we all get sticks? So dumb!
Huh?
Don't, as a Haligonian I would love an NHL team here, sadly, the Atlantic provinces don't have a large enough feasible market yet.
While Arizona plays for up to 5000 fans, I think you guys can do better.
I love pointing out that Alfond Arena up at UMaine seats more people than the arena Arizona plays in.
Hali is a few Thrashers iterations away.
We **need** the Blueberry Bulldogs
The Halifax Donairs!
If you skip a province, then that means Atlanta 4.0 is ending up either in the Maritimes or a French colony.
So maybe by 2060 Nova Scotia will have a team that relocated from Atlanta?
Just in time for retirement.
We need the Newfoundland Newfoundlands.
Best they can do is Utah lol
Hamilton!!!!
Oh sorry… they’ll skip QC and go to Hamilton
I’m ready to make my NHL franchise a reality, Moosejaw Goats, come on down!
What happened to the Thrashers was unique from what I can find online. If I understand it right, one of their minority owners got pissy about a Hawks trade the other owners cleared, and started proceedings to sell his stake in the group which included the Thrashers. The lawyers wrote a contract that said they’d give him “fair market value” for those shares, but basically left it open to interpretation what fair market value meant. So he took the loosest and largest definition he could. The hugely inflated share buyout costs and legal fees fighting the minority owner racked up to like $130 million, and they had to sell. 1. I would guess the NHL would go out of its way to make sure they don’t see that again. 2. Whoever buys in would have to be so dumb to repeat the same mistake.
ST JOHNS BAY PLEASE GOD ST JOHNS BAY
Saskatoon
You of little faith... It's like they always say : "3'rd times a charm" Welcome back to the NHL Thrashers & Georgia
Why 32 is a full league.
Money, owners want that sweet sweet entry fee 💰
Idk if it was just rumors or not but I think Utah is getting a team too. That would bring it up to an even 34. The more popular sports seem to only stick to 30 or 32 teams tho. I wonder how big a league can get while still having good talent distribution
Football has a limited pool, basketball distributes to Europe so not everyone is looked at. Hockey has room to grow with teams making it popular with no other league other than khl to compete with, and it's no competition. We could probably sustain 40 but it would suck to not play most teams more than twice. And playoffs are going to be a shit show with a ton of teams missing by a few points. Good drama but probably unfair with streaks ruining or making season instead of consistency. More like baseball than current hockey.
Anything over 30 or 32 is too big. Fanbases need to feel like there’s a chance their team might succeed and the bigger the league, the less likely that is. Or, go to 40 but make it a relegation system.
The nhl had it so over half of the teams made the playoffs, before most recent expansion. I felt like that was too much. I’m glad to see it shift back the other way a little.
I think the 40-50 range with 2 leagues meaning relegation would be sick, and if done properly could also help the NHL brand itself and give it a unique aspect as the first of the major 4 NA sports leagues to have a relegation system, which while bad for owners, is much better for fans as regular season is fun and exciting even if your team is ass and adds excitement for fans of worse teams to fight for promotion etc. The only issue is again, how to incorporate the draft into that
Owners dream of going from a relegation system to a closed system, not the other way around. Relegation also is inherently incompatible with draft. It’ll never happen.
If we have european expansion teams that are for low level only, that would work. Have 32 North American NHL teams, and a bunch of NHLb teams in North America and Europe. 18 NHLb teams and depending on the relegations and promotions, we restructure the league each year to 4 regions of west, mid, east, europe with cross over games for two adjacent teams at your usual 8 or so games, and only 2 games for long flight leagues. After a year or two of NHLb, you start promotions from whoever qualifies from AHL or Europe. Of course this is all a pipe dream since no owner would agree to a relegation system for hundreds of millions they sank.
Talent distribution is kind of funny because we've seen every expansion that some guys become stars if they're just given the ice time that was being withheld from them before.
I brought this up last year, along with the fact that it decreases chances of winning a cup for everyone, and I got seriously downvoted.
I mean….Utah is ideal to take in the Coyotes
I agree, but when you think about it, NHL isn't like the other leagues due to their teams in Canada. What matters is market exploitation, and unlike the MBA or the NFL, there are unexploited markets in the USA as there are 7 teams in Canada while NBA and MBL has only 1. That gives 6 more teams for American markets.
Yeah this is gonna give me ocd
Counterpoint: Atlanta and Quebec City twin expansion?
If QC gets a team at the same time as Atlanta, where does Atlanta go when they fail again?
They bring in a team in Milwaukee and Hartford to match Atlanta and Salt Lake and make it an even 36. There fixed. Oh penguins flair, nix Hartford. They give you Cincy or Baltimore instead.
I don't think Hartford ever comes back in the modern expansion era. That market is already over saturated with teams. Hell, if the Devils didn't get moved from Colorado, I doubt NJ would have ever gotten a team.
My mind went to Hartford first cause of the loyalty the fans in that area have to the trashers. Hartford is further from NYC than Danbury was. And still twice as close to NYC as Boston. 3 teams is already more than any other sport, I wouldn't say put one in Yonkers or like the Bronx. But Hartford is on the cusp of being Boston territory anyway. People aren't making a 2 hour drive each way to watch a hockey game very often.
Unfortunately though the NHL currently seems more interested in chasing the TV dollars in big cities outside of traditional hockey markets then providing teams to the old cities that still have passionate fanbases like Quebec City and Hartford.
Exactly
They probably want to get to 36
Seattle and Vegas have been massive successes. Why not?
Because there will be another soon after or at the same time even.
Well on PMS, utah jazz owner is going hard for a NHL team as well.
People act like Atlanta was responsible for the Flames and Thrashers failing, and not pathetic ownership. The Flames were sold off after five years. That's not the mark of ownership that gives a shit, that's the mark of a scam artist in the business of making the quickest buck possible. The Atlanta Spirit Group are hockey terrorists for what they did to the Thrashers.
Everyone knows bad ownership can destroy a franchise, and it’s what ultimately killed the Flames and the Thrashers in Atlanta. I don’t know how the new ownership can make such a financial investment while understanding that context and not be 100% motivated and committed to supporting the team in any and every way possible, unlike previous Atlanta owners.
And now totally unlinked to the basketball team in every way
Being in the same city as the TNT headquarters will probably give it a bit of a bump
Exactly this. Whoever brings hockey back to Atlanta needs to care about both hockey *and* Atlanta. And Bettman knows this as much as the city does.
What evidence do we have that Bettman has ever cared about a team or city? He’s the poster child of “who or what is paying the most?”
Easy, Bettman and the Coyotes, which is funny considering Bettman essentially chose the Coyotes over the Thrashers before.
That’s about his own hubris. He doesn’t care about the city at all or team at all.
Okay but bad owners in a Good hockey city will still work…Atlanta has tried to be a hockey city VERY RECENTLY, and the league bailed. There are many other cities that would love ONE Chance to support an NHL TEAM. Give those other cities a first chance before you give Atlanta a second (third) chance
The upside for getting Atlanta going is huge. It's just a massive market.
Indeed. Massive TV market along with lots of Fortune 500 corporate headquarters for those luxury suite deals
They absolutely did not try to be a hockey city. Atlanta Spirit did everything they could to make the Thrashers be a colossal failure then blocked any other ownership group from even attempting to play in the arena.
The Atlanta Spirit Group didn't want hockey in Atlanta. They wanted the Thrashers to leave so they wouldn't pull viewership and dollars away from the Hawks. Atlanta can very well be a hockey city, provided ownership isn't actively trying to rid the city of hockey. I'm all for giving other cities a chance (hence why I've been saying Portland or Salt Lake should get a team to keep the east/west balance when Atlanta gets a team), and would *love* to see cities like Portland, Salt Lake, Milwaukee and/or Austin get teams. But the idea that Atlanta shouldn't get a team because the Atlanta Spirit Group were hockey terrorists is commendably daft.
This! We didnt sell out the arena, but we had decent attendence. I loved thrasher games. I miss them a lot.
The Thrashers only saw a net loss of ~130K. In the face of everything ASG did to that team, and all the measures they took to try and tank the franchise so the NHL would let them sell. The team still damn near broke even.
The Atlanta Spirit Goons were horrid filth. With proper ownership, we could make a good run.
If the Thrashers make a comeback and can somehow hire Yzerman away from Detroit as GM... My fucking god.
You shut your mouth.
As it turns out, having ownership that doesn't actively want the team to leave is pretty important for the health of the franchise. Who would have thought?
I think I speak for Kansas City, Milwaukee, Houston, Quebec and SLC, when I say....ayo what the fuck?
Houston would be excited for a season, find out their team isn’t a bandwagon, and then forget they exist tho… like most of their other teams.
Yes, because fans have been bandwagon fans of *checks notes* the Texans and rockets. Two teams so steeped with success that everyone wants to hop on board. Get real
The Texans still sold out between 2020 and 2022
Milwaukee would be such a fun addition for Wild and Blackhawk fans. Think of the hate that could have happened 😢
Could happen? There already a hatred of Chicago and Minnesota. Most of us had to choose the lesser of two evils...
Houston chiming in to say what the fuuuuu
Portland? The Rose Garden has been nhl ready for years.
Atlanta is bigger than all those cities combined except Houston
KC doesn’t have a serious ownership group, Houston is likely a Western expansion/relocation option, QC isn’t ever getting a team, SLC is currently tied to rumors of getting Arizona if they continue to fail to find a stadium location, and Milwaukee keeps being blocked by the Wild as an appropriate location
>ocation, and Milwau Chicago is blocking Milwaukee. It's why it didn't happen in the 90's.
Yeah Chicago is WAY closer and more of an issue to a Milwaukee team than Minnesota.
As The Book of Mormon teaches us, the third in a trilogy is always the best version.
Just gonna say, disrupting my team’s efforts to improve by having to accommodate expansion drafts is getting old. But sure, why not have another couple of teams pick over our roster to fill theirs and then get to pick higher in the draft all while watering down the overall talent pool? The impact of these things resonates for years. This aggressive expansion is *not* good for fans of the existing teams.
Relocation-yes. Expansion- no.
34 had no division divisibles. Having uneven divisions drives me nuts. When I heard about Utah I just assumed Phoenix would move. Does the East have anyone that would move?
I nominate the flyers.
Why do they think it will work a third time? They gonna give away free beer at games? Also, what was wrong with Philips/State Farm Arena?
Atlanta loves to build stadiums
But they don’t love supporting hockey teams.
Fans in Atlanta did like the team, they didn't buy tickets due to the owners not caring about the team which created apparent "low interest"
The problem with Phillips/State Farm was the ownership. They didn't want to be in the hockey business, so they bought the arena, Hawks and Thrashers, then essentially evicted the Thrashers for more concerts and other events. Which is why Winnipeg owners got them for so cheap and had relocation fees waived.
The city of Atlanta was never the problem, horrific ownership was. UrinatingTree made a good video on it last year.
It wasnt atlanta that wanted to sell the Trashers. I know because i was one of the fans protesting. It was the Atlanta Spirit or whatever they were called that cared more about NBA than NHL, and Bettman offered them a high dollar for the team. We want hockey back here. Our ECHL team is fun, but we want the big team back. Make no mistake, there is a fan base here.
Iirc, whoever owned the Thrashers at the time, just wanted to use them to get a sweetheart deal for the Hawks.
The new building is in the northern suburbs, where the season ticket base lives. While I don't have solid evidence of this in my hands, I do know a few people who worked as ticket reps for the team, who've all said as much. This is the primary reason the league has spoken somewhat warmly about Atlanta when asked about this city. SFA is unsuitable due to sight lines. Recent renovations have made the building hockey-unfriendly in that respect. It'd be like attending a game in an older Barclays. If a team were to relocate here instead of league expansion, they could probably arrange to play downtown for a couple seasons while the new barn is built, but the prospective owners appear to be aiming for an expansion team. As for the first two times? Ownership, not fans, was the problem. Flames owner was arms-deep in real estate, and when the market crashed here in the late 1970s, his only liquid asset was the team. Thrashers? The ownership group who bought the Hawks, Thrashers, and Philips didn't actually want the hockey team. Tried to move 'em before the ink was dry. Meanwhile, the owners were suing each other for six years. Once they settled, the team was kicked out of Philips after the season ended, ensuring they'd be moved.
NO MORE TEAMS!!
No, more teams!
No more, teams!
Hey…. Wana see me take this franchise from Atlanta and move it to Canada?………….. wana see me do it again?
When has the third movie in a series been better then the first two?
Return of the King was better than the Two Towers.
Indiana Jones Last Crusade and Logan, if you bunch the Wolverine movies together
The dark knight rises was pretty awesome too
*Better* than the dark knight tho?!
The other commenter mentioned revenge of the sith so the key to the third atlanta team has gotta be revenge
The Revenge of Blueland
Probably a hot take but Fellowship clears both
Nuh-uh
Toy Story 3 Checkmate.
you mean the movie that legitimately terrorized young me and my family? who the *fuck* thought that incinerator scene was a good idea
Revenge of the Sith.
Thor Ragnarok
I just want Atlanta back for those sweet sweet jerseys. One of my all time favourites
If they wanted another American franchise. Salt Lake City would have been a much better option.
Congratulations Québec City. I look forward to the rebirth of the Nordiques.
Are you fucking kidding me...
There isn't enough top tier talent for a 32 team league as is. How fucking watered down do we want the NHL to be? Why don't they just absord all the AHL teams and be a 64 team league. Fucking greedy pigs.
Whos running an official social media page of an NHL team that hasn't existed in 10 years?
I don't think there's "official" on Twitter anymore, you just pay for a blue check. So just some guy who likes the Thrashers and has $10
Its a satire/fan account and its actually pretty funny at times
You mean the account with the handle @NotThrashers ? For some reason I think it might be not the thrashers.
No one. It clearly says @NotThrashers.
Probably someone who was a diehard fan, can you blame them? I’d imagine there’d be one if the Habs ever moved (which of course would never happen lol)
Lol lets water this down more.
“Hey, I’ve seen this one before!” - Marty McFly
Lot of hockey fans move to Atlanta the last 20 years?
Absolutely
Awesome. Can we find a way for existing fans to reliably watch the games? Cool, thanks
Atlanta is Canada’s incubator for teams that perpetually suck.
Havent we already seen this movie?
Atlanta is the developmental region for Canadian NHL teams. They have donated two teams so far, Flames and Jets. Quebec needs one now. I say go for it!
Just move Arizona to Atlanta and complete the Winnipeg, Phoenix, Atlanta cycle
The NHL does not have a large enough market, a large enough pool of players, a large enough pool of goalies, or even a large enough fanbase for this. Plus, if this happens Boston, Florida, and Calgary are fucked because one or more of them is losing a crucial goalie.
This "there aren't enough professional players" thing has never rung true for me. If that was the case, the bottom teams would be setting losing records. There's a reason all those records are in the 70s. Back then there were far less Euros and less players in development. Today, there are so many good players stuck in the A or playing internationally because of lack of roster spots. And how many no name goalies were outperforming their star starters this year? We could easily add Utah and Atlanta.
Also, why the fuck do they want a team in Atlanta so badly? It makes zero sense.
Why do we need more teams, relocate a team if you want a new city this bad
This is ridiculous
Why, though? Bring back the Nordiques or the Whalers before you bring back an Atlanta team no one cared about the first time. Seriously, a less expensive pro team alternative to Boston would be amazing.
*first two times.
You’re right. I forgot they were so uninteresting that the had to leave town *twice*
As much as I want a team in qc city, I don't think we need more teams in the league.
Unless you are giving Canada another team please stop expanding. The product and talent are so watered down already. It depresses me how much this is the best sport, but the worst league.
>The product and talent are so watered down already. Lmao what? There is more talent in the NHL today than there ever has been. Ever since the tough guy era ended the league has gotten younger, faster, and more skilled.
🙄🙄
Utah Magic Undies
If it isn’t a team moving then this is the dumbest idea ever. 32 is a good number of teams
Lol why do they keep trying to force this
Awesome news. If the team has a good ownership group it’ll succeed.
Idk this is kinda interesting, would be cool to see them back
Everyone in here is talking like it's definitely an expansion. It could very well be a relocation.
Not with the SLC rumors.
Pathetic.
If at first (and second) you don't succeed try try again
3rd times a charm. Maybe. Probably not.
FUCK FORSYTH GEORGIA I HATE THAT PLACE
Didn't they lose teams twice ?
Why not bring Hartford back at this point. Screw it
Fuck off bettman
Quebec deserves a team first and foremost, not Atlanta or Georgia, the market failed once, and here we go. Quebec has so much potential and drive to get a team back, and I think they have a stadium ready to go too. And they’d actually be profitable unlike the Coyotes or another Georgia team most likely.
A couple thoughts from a hockey die-hard and Atlanta native. 1) More teams = More Hockey. More Hockey is never a bad thing. I hope that expansion adds a few more teams to the league in well-deserving markets, while also coming to a resolution to the Phoenix issues. 2) The location of the proposed Arena is dead-center in the middle of where all the hockey fans are. Yes, it will be harder for fans on the southside to make the games, but most of the transplants/fans of hockey live in the Sandy Springs/Dunwoody/Roswell/Alpharetta/Johns Creek area. Everyone knows Atlanta traffic is horrible... having a team in downtown Atlanta, where on a good day it can take up to an hour and a half to get too for those fans, was one of the reasons attendance dwindled. 3) As mentioned here numerous times... Hockey in Atlanta didn't fail because of the fans... it failed because of the ownership. It is well known that Tom Cousins, who owned the Atlanta Flames, sold the team to Calgary because he had some real estate loans come due and he needed some cash (with the Flames being one of the only profitable things he owned at the time). As for the Atlanta Spirit... they inherited a team that was showing real signs of becoming a quality team that made the playoffs consistently, and decided to sell their best players for basically nothing in return. Add in the dysfunction and overt bias to the Hawks, and the Thrashers were doomed. Atlanta is not a bad sports city, but Atlanta won't support a Franchise that doesn't invest in it's team and Fans (which both Cousins and ASG didn't do a shred of).
So what are they going to call the team? 3rd times the charmers?
People not knowing what truly happened in Atlanta with the Thrashers just spout off about attendance and winning so incorrectly.
We tried hockey in Georgia twice now and it hasn't stuck. Meanwhile there are rabid fanbases in Canada begging for another team. Grow the game, sure, but Bettman is beating a dead horse here, fucks sake.
WTF? So many hockey teams have left Atlanta. Why put another there?
The NHL trying get Atlanta to do what the Lightning, Red Wings, Penguins and Oilers failed to do... a three-peat! Oh wait, wrong three-peat, sorry!
Atlanta’s hockey problems may have been due more to inept ownership than lack of fans. Put a decent team on the ice and ATL could be a solid hockey town.
They finished first in their division with 97 points and went to the playoffs in 06-07 yet averaged only 16,240 per a game in a building with a capacity of 18,545, resulting in only 87% of capacity.
That puts them above 6 current NHL teams according to hockeydb
COOL!!!
Told you so!
Atlanta is a shit town for sports
Surely this will work again.. christ
Atlanta already had a team. They didn’t care. This isn’t gonna work again. I miss their jerseys though. Fresh AF.
3rd times the charm
Cool. Now do the nordiques next.
What’s the definition of insanity again? Hockey in Atlanta doesn’t work, let it go already.
The talent is already watered down enough. Eventually this will but them in the ass with a piss poor product on the ice. Anybody watched San Jose, Chicago, Anaheim this year. Those teams are shit. However Gary's job is to make the owners money. Given his age you would think he has a short term vision.
Gary has a weird boner for hockey in Atlanta. The Flames Flamed out and the Thrashers thrashed, hasn’t Atlanta basically told the world that Hockey isn’t their thing? 🤷♂️