The Atlanta Doesn't Support Hockey Myth

By Marty Hyder
 Trolley Tracks Contributor


Well, Russ has now written two blogs about NHL teams' attendance: one about "The Winnipeg Myth" and one about which teams really SHOULD move, based on the numbers (links to those as well as my previous guest blog are on the right, if you haven't read them yet). So now, I'm going to explode the "Atlanta Doesn't Support Hockey" Myth. Or some variation: "Atlanta doesn't deserve NHL Hockey", or "Nobody Cares About Hockey In Atlanta", or whatever. It's usually followed by the common sense declaration "See! They've had TWO teams fail!" But if you knew any of what was REALLY going on -- or if you call yourself a journalist, and actually did any REAL investigative reporting, rather than just occasionally regurgitate some of the press releases given to you -- you'd discover that why the two teams failed actually had almost NOTHING to do with any lack of fan support -- but is REALLY all about... (what else?) MONEY. And shady, underhanded dealings.

But before I get into explaining, let me first address the speculations I made in the previous guest blog that Russ published here for me, where I stated that I expected the Phoenix Coyotes would move to Quebec City. I've discovered some new information, and had to change my viewpoint a little bit.

Firstly, I don't follow what's going on in Quebec at all, and only knew about them building a new NHL-quality arena in Quebec City from mentions that have been made of it on NHL talk shows and other places for quite a while now. The talk sounded like it was pretty much a "done deal" and started so long ago, that I had assumed that they were surely well into the building of it by now. But I just recently found out that there have been numerous delays and they haven't even broken ground yet! And now there's some sort of investigation into the deal, and even a few politicians resigning over it, apparently. So who knows when (or even if) it will be ready.

Along with this, at around the same time, I discovered a story, in Forbes, of all places (NHL Blackberry Sponsorship Means Balsillie Still In The Game), that said that the author had been told by a source that NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman had told Jim Balsillie "that if he behaves himself and doesn’t create any more spectacles or bad publicity for the league, he will eventually get a team". You remember Balsillie, right? I mentioned him in my last blog and how he had pissed off the league -- but didn't say exactly how, for anyone who didn't already know the story. A few years back, he was negotiating to buy the Nashville Predators, and had assured the league that he had no intentions of trying to move them. Then, before the deal was even finalized, he started selling season tickets for the "Hamilton" Predators (southeastern Ontario, about exactly between Toronto and Buffalo, if you're not familiar with Hamilton)! I don't care if you're the billionaire who owns Blackberry and have more money than god -- all of the other owners in the NHL are at least multi-millionaires, too, and besides, it's THEIR club and THEIR rules. You can't just come in and act like you own the damn place and you're going to run the show however you want to. So they put the kibosh on that deal, and also nixed his offers to buy the Phoenix Coyotes. The league has since denied this Forbes story (Bill Daly reaffirms that the NHL is still off-limits to Jim Balsillie) -- but if you've followed this Thrashers ordeal at all, then I'm sure you can appreciate that the league and the truth are not exactly the bestest of buddies. I'll believe Forbes over the league, thankyouverymuch...

So because of this new information and discussions with Russ and others, I still believe that my earlier speculations are pretty much sound, for the most part -- but I NOW believe that the Coyotes will probably be moving to Hamilton (or possibly, but less likely, to somewhere in the Greater Toronto Area as a second metro Toronto team), instead of Quebec City. The league will still make a killing on the deal, as Balsillie will overpay just to get his hands on them, and plus he'll probably have to pay off Toronto and Buffalo to get them to stop pitching a fit about him moving into their markets -- but I believe it will get done.

Now, on to the "Atlanta Doesn't Support Hockey" Myth. I mean, TWO teams failed in Atlanta and had to move because of lack of fan interest, right?

First fallacy of The Myth:
Common wisdom says that the Atlanta Flames (who were here for 8 seasons from 1972-1980, before moving to Calgary) couldn't make it. Even Wikipedia says "the Omni Sports Group found it increasingly difficult to financially maintain the team, as ticket sales fell and operating costs rose. The team also lacked a major television deal. Also, while Omni Sports had hoped to attract an NHL team to the Omni early on, their calculations failed to include a second league (the WHL) in the picture. Under the circumstances, Cousins and the rest of his consortium were very receptive to an offer from a group of Calgary businessmen". Oh, really? Well, let's look at the facts. Keeping in mind that Atlanta had pretty much NO history of hockey before 1972 (not even minor leagues, as far as I know), and had to basically create a market and fan base from scratch, they still managed to average 12,039 fans over their eight seasons. Not the greatest number, granted -- but for four of those eight seasons, their average attendance was above the league's average attendance, and surprisingly, in at least four seasons each, they outdrew Los Angeles and more "traditional" hockey markets Washington and Pittsburgh, and even freakin' MINNESOTA. They outdrew "Original Six" teams the Boston Bruins in 1976-77, and the Chicago Blackhawks in 1978-79! This doesn't sound to me like an unsustainable team, for the standards of back in those days. And as Russ pointed out, the Winnipeg Jets averaged only 12,205 over their 17 seasons in the league -- that's not even 200 more than the Flames averaged! So what REALLY went on here?

Dan Bouchard, a former Flames player who retained his home in Atlanta and moved back here after his career was over, recently revealed in an interview on Canada's TSN Radio (http://www.tsn.ca/window/podcastcentre.aspx?xmlURL=http://www2.tsn.ca/podcasts/tsnradiopodcast.xml&mp3URL=http://podcast.tsn.ca/tsnradio/bouchard_051611.mp3) that the sale of the Flames came as a complete surprise, and only came about because the other owners wanted Flames' majority owner Tom Cousins out of the league (Flames Goalie Dan Bouchard Again Attacks Atlanta Thrashers Ownership). Why? Because he was causing trouble for them. He noticed that something didn't look right with the finances, and had Equifax look over the books. It was discovered that the league was pilfering from the players' pension funds (a scandal that MANY years later resulted in the first executive director of the NHL Players Association Alan Eagleson being sent to jail and kicked out of the Hockey Hall Of Fame). The other owners didn't want to hear about it, and Cousins wanted no part of it. Since he refused to be involved in it, and the other owners wanted him out before he got everyone in trouble, he sold the team and the league approved the sale and relocation as fast as they could. Lack of attendance or "fan support" had absolutely ZERO to do with it.
Therefore, first REALITY: Atlanta hockey fans were screwed out of an NHL team.

Second fallacy of The Myth:
Common wisdom says that the NHL made a dumb move by trying to put the Thrashers in a market that had already proven it couldn't support hockey, and guess what? It failed a second time. Most everyone outside of Atlanta (and even a lot of people in Atlanta) thinks that, although I've noticed that recently there's been a very SMALL amount of reporting out of Canada on what has REALLY happened. Gee, thanks, guys. A little late on that, aren't you? Oh well, you got another team in Canada -- so what does it matter if you look into the truth now? Anyway, Russ & I have already pointed out in his "The Winnipeg Myth" blog and my guest blog that lack of attendance or fan support were not the REAL reason for the team's sale, so I won't rehash all of that here. But I had said that the Atlanta Sprirt Group (ASG) never even wanted the team, and only bought it because they had to buy the whole package of the Hawks, the Thrashers and Phillips Arena to get their slimy paws on the Hawks.

It's bad enough that they never gave a DAMN about the Thrashers -- but what makes it even worse is what I've come to realize from reports leaking out recently. The ASG didn't even want the Thrashers as a tenant! Why? My guess is that they knew no one would seriously be interested in buying them and then have to pay rent for every one of 41 home games (plus pre-season and possible playoff games), as well as any offices, etc that they would need. Anyone interested in buying the team and keeping it in Atlanta would either want to buy the whole package of all three (and ASG doesn't want to let go of the Hawks), or would want to buy half ownership in the arena -- and apparently, ASG had no interest in selling that, either. Or a new owner would have to build a new arena for the Thrashers, which was highly unlikely. ASG figured that they couldn't sell only the Thrashers by themselves that way to any local buyers without giving up a stake in the arena, so they just wanted the Thrashers GONE. Period. They never seriously had any intention of entertaining ANY offers from anyone wanting to keep the Thrashers in Atlanta. Of that, I have no doubt -- as I've read and heard of many interested buyers (including former Braves pitcher and huge hockey fan Tom Glavine, who had put together a group of several local big businessmen) who couldn't get ASG to even TALK to them. And now reports are leaking out about a press conference that True North (the new owners) gave in Winnipeg recently where they admitted that they were negotiating to buy the Thrashers at the SAME TIME that they were negotiating with the Coyotes. That's how the deal got done so fast -- when Glendale kicked in the $25 million to keep the Coyotes in place for another year, well, True North was already well on their way to a deal for the Thrashers, as their backup plan. And that is NOT speculation on my part -- they ADMITTED to it, with the league's blessing, even. I guess they all figure (probably rightly) that now that the deal is done, no one would care.

The NHL didn't do anything to try to help find local ownership, either (regardless of what they were actually SAYING). Probably mainly because they knew that ASG had ZERO interest in keeping the team in the arena, and actually wanted them OUT -- so it was pointless. And probably partly because I'd be willing to bet that they had promised the True North group a team, assuming that they would be selling them the Coyotes -- and then when Glendale agreed to pony up the additional $25 million, they got kinda painted into a corner. And I'm sure that the $60 million "relocation bribe", combined with the knowledge that they can later sell the Coyotes for probably even MORE to someone from either Quebec City or Hamilton, probably figured in their thinking quite a bit, as well. So I can ALMOST just about understand the league's positioning on this. Almost. But what I can't excuse is the continual lying coming out of that little weasel Bettman's mouth on a daily basis (literally up until the DAY BEFORE the press conference announcing the sale!), about how hard the league was working to keep them in Atlanta, and how much they hate relocation, and denying that there was any deal to relocate them, and on and on and on -- all the while not lifting a damn finger to actually DO anything (especially after how hard they worked to keep the Nashville and Phoenix teams in their markets). Y'know, if the ASG was absolutely not willing to sell the team to anyone locally, just tell us the damn truth. It wouldn't have sucked any less, but then maybe we wouldn't be so mad at the league, as well. So again, lack of attendance or fan support had NOTHING to do with this sale, either.

Second REALITY: Atlanta hockey fans were screwed out of an NHL team. AGAIN.
Unfortunately, because this Myth will likely continue to be so pervasive, Atlanta may never get a third team -- as any potential owner will probably be scared off by The Myth, thinking that they would surely be throwing away money on a team that Atlanta won't support, and will just fail for a third time...

And as a post-script -- You know what the really funny (or sad, depending on how you wanna look at it) thing about this whole mess is? The ASG wanted to buy the Atlanta Hawks, right? And they couldn't have cared any LESS about the Thrashers, yes? Well, guess what? In the eleven seasons of the Thrashers existence, they actually OUTDREW the Hawks in total average attendance. Bet you didn't know that, huh? Go ahead, look it up yourself. The first seven seasons of the Thrashers' existence, they outdrew the Hawks EVERY year (the Hawks never made the playoffs during this time, and the Thrashers did once). The Hawks have only had the higher attendance for the last four seasons -- all of which they made the playoffs in, while the Thrashers did not (and also just by coincidence, I'm sure -- after the ASG bought the teams, by the way). The average attendance for the Thrashers' eleven seasons total is 14,885 per game -- while the Hawks' for those same eleven seasons is 13,418 per game (I excluded the 2004-05 season, as the Thrashers did not play that season due to the NHL lockout). Looks like the ASG may have sold the wrong team, huh?

Comments

  1. Dead on.

    When I moved back to Atlanta, I went to about 10 Thrashers games a year and was really starting to get hooked. I went through the Snyder tragedy, Heatley trade, lack of playoffs, etc.

    The lockout came at a horrible time, I was never as much of a fan afterwards. After this, I don't know if I'll watch another NHL game....

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