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Thrashers' rollercoaster ride hurtling toward Winnipeg?


thefiestygoat

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http://www.cbc.ca/sports/blogs/elliottefriedman/2011/05/thrashers-rollercoaster-ride-hurtling-toward-winnipeg.html

For a couple of years, the National Hockey League has told True North Sports and Entertainment to get everything ready. Get your financing done, have a ticket plan in place, make some changes to your building, etc.

But, the warning was strict: "Don't approach any other owner until we tell you to do so. And we better not see you doing interviews."

Last year, the Phoenix Coyotes were about two days from moving to Winnipeg. Now, according to several sources, Commissioner Gary Bettman has - for the first time - given True North permission to close a deal with Atlanta Spirit, the owners of the Thrashers.

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I have mixed feelings about this. I feel bad for Winnipeg losing the Jets, and I've always thought southern expansion was stupid, but it seems like a bad idea to keep offering up sacrificial franchises. Phoenix looks like they're staying. Embrace that. Work with it. Don't go out of your way to find another weak franchise (not that there aren't plenty...)

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I have mixed feelings about this. I feel bad for Winnipeg losing the Jets, and I've always thought southern expansion was stupid, but it seems like a bad idea to keep offering up sacrificial franchises. Phoenix looks like they're staying. Embrace that. Work with it. Don't go out of your way to find another weak franchise (not that there aren't plenty...)

Well isn't that better than teams like Atlanta who never won something and probably nobody would care if they do. Nobody in the building for the 82 games of the regular season.

All-Star games... in Atlanta people didn't even know what was that.

Edited by SS-SS
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Feel bad about this one. My Dad was on a business trip in Atlanta and decided to go to a Thrashers game. He was on the train in, and started talking to these two guys in Thrashers jerseys, and turns out they had an extra ticket. They ended up giving my Dad the ticket, in exchange for a round of beers.

Never really like the "well it's Atlanta, nobody cares there", argument. Like I said for Phoenix, there is some 9 year old in Atlanta who won't understand why his team is up and leaving for Winnipeg.

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Feel bad about this one. My Dad was on a business trip in Atlanta and decided to go to a Thrashers game. He was on the train in, and started talking to these two guys in Thrashers jerseys, and turns out they had an extra ticket. They ended up giving my Dad the ticket, in exchange for a round of beers. Never really like the "well it's Atlanta, nobody cares there", argument. Like I said for Phoenix, there is some 9 year old in Atlanta who won't understand why his team is up and leaving for Winnipeg.

I guess there is some 9 years old in Winnipeg and Quebec that never understood too when it was their team leaving.

Edited by SS-SS
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It's certainly a difficult situation, and you do have to feel for the Atlanta fans. I personally think that the Thrashers could become financially profitable if the team were consistently competitive, but if what they are saying is true, and NO ONE wants to buy the team, then there really is no choice. Winnipeg is the only option that makes sense right now.

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He probably wouldn't comment, but I wonder how Kovy feels about all this. Not so much his old team moving, but if he is relieved to be in NJ and not going to Winnipeg. I don't know too much about the living conditions in Winnipeg, but I've heard it isn't exactly the nicest of places.

Edited by mmajeski06
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Not a big fan of just moving teams around. Don't really buy into the theory that a canadian city needs any and all new teams.

Book it though, Atlanta won't move. They already made an announcement regarding jerseys for next season (kidding that this means much)

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The part I find strange, why is it in most recent cases, a team that moves is on the verge of being a contender. The Nordiques move and then when the cup. The Browns move to Baltimore and they win the Super Bowl like three years later.

Now both Phoenix and Atlanta are moving in the right direction, but they have all this uncertainty going on in the background. I know everyone keeps bring up the fact the Thrashers have one brief playoff appearance in 10 years, but you can't tell me this team is building in the right direction. Losing Kovy hurt them, but they still were pretty good this year.

Also, if you think this ends with a team moving to Winnipeg, that just means Quebec City will move into the spotlight and the Phoenix to Quebec rumors will begin.

Edited by mmajeski06
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Aside from the 9 year olds (which is sad), it's not good for the league to have this many uncertain franchises. While we keep hearing about Winnipeg, Quebec and Kansas City as saviors, what evidence do we have that these places are that great? I feel bad for Winnipeg and Quebec fans who lost their teams, but there were reasons the Jets and Nordiques left, and it wasn't just that Bettman had it in for Canada (though he did screw over any number of cities with his southern expansion idea). I'd love for these places to get teams back -- look how well the Wild have done replacing the North Stars -- but I don't see this helping the league that much.

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Not a big fan of just moving teams around. Don't really buy into the theory that a canadian city needs any and all new teams.Book it though, Atlanta won't move. They already made an announcement regarding jerseys for next season (kidding that this means much)

Its not them that needs a team its the NHL that needs to wake up and start placing teams where there is going to be fans going to watch the game.I guess the Trashers fans will not be really happy about that and I understand but we can't deny that moving the Trashers to Winnipeg is the right thing to do.

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They're also doing what's best for the NHL by moving the Thrashers to Winnipeg. I imagine all the teams have some sort of revenue sharing to help out the smaller market teams. Moving a team in a struggling market to a city in a country where hockey is like football is a no brainer.

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Its not them that needs a team its the NHL that needs to wake up and start placing teams where there is going to be fans going to watch the game.

The Thrashers outdrew us for 3 straight years following the lockout. How do we know the Winnipeg metro area is better off than the Atlanta metro? Keep in mind the Jets didn't sell out a bunch of games in their final years.

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The Thrashers outdrew us for 3 straight years following the lockout. How do we know the Winnipeg metro area is better off than the Atlanta metro? Keep in mind the Jets didn't sell out a bunch of games in their final years.

In Canada Hockey is like you probably already know a religion. I am sure that they will have more people coming into the arena in Winnipeg. Just take for example a team like Quebec...the whole place is not even that populated ( something like 800 thousands...not even a million) and they were filling the arena.

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The Thrashers outdrew us for 3 straight years following the lockout. How do we know the Winnipeg metro area is better off than the Atlanta metro? Keep in mind the Jets didn't sell out a bunch of games in their final years.

The Jets were also playing in a terrible arena at the time. I don't think their financial problems were due just to poor attendance. THere was a tremendous grassroots effort to get the Jets to stay. Atlanta has lost 130 million over 6 years and with the return of the Hawks and Falcons to a competitive level it may even get worse.

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The Thrashers outdrew us for 3 straight years following the lockout. How do we know the Winnipeg metro area is better off than the Atlanta metro? Keep in mind the Jets didn't sell out a bunch of games in their final years.

could we stop using attendance as the sole benchmark for revenue? yes, atlanta outdrew new jersey, but new jersey's ticket prices were no doubt higher.

we don't know that the winnipeg area is better than atlanta - that's for a buyer of the team to determine. while i think hockey can do okay in atlanta, this year's team was heading towards a playoff berth and attendance was still rather tepid.

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sounds like Manitoba moose is gaining traction. i like it, jets have such a sh!tty name and logo.

Moose is gaining traction, but then there is the guy on HF Boards who has claimed to have reliable sources who claim it will be Falcons. Has seen jersey mockups for Falcons with the colors being Reb / Blue / Gold. So we shall see.

Edited by mmajeski06
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I'm really hoping if Winnipeg gets a team they go back to the Jets...I always thought they had a great logo and jerseys. Plus I wouldn't be shocked if the majority of people that go to a game wear Jets gear and chant Go Jets Go whether or not the team name is Jets or something like the Moose or Falcons. I read True North has invested a lot of money into the Moose brand and that they don't want that to go to waste, but it seems like the Jets brand is priceless and would be easy to acquire from the NHL.

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Per Kevin Allen:

For what it's worth, a group interested in keeping the Thrashers in ATL has submitted a term sheet to Thrashers owners spelling out an offer.

The 2nd group interested in the Thrashers is serious, but not as far along in the financial process as the True North group.

I still won't be surprised if some group comes out of no where and edges out TNSE. All of this talk of the TNSE being done could be the ultimate ploy by Bettman to get a potential Atlanta owner out of the woodwork.

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He probably wouldn't comment, but I wonder how Kovy feels about all this. Not so much his old team moving, but if he is relieved to be in NJ and not going to Winnipeg. I don't know too much about the living conditions in Winnipeg, but I've heard it isn't exactly the nicest of places.

Evidently, the prospect of the Thrashers moving played into Kovy's decision to not re-sign there.

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And out of nowhere a potential owner is coming forward who wants to keep them in Atlanta.

JohnKincade John Kincade

Craig Custance of The Hockey News will report Venture Capitalist J.B. Smith as #thebalkan...he will be correct in that reporting

Who knows if this J.B. Smith is the current front runner, but he is in the mix.

On another note, the HF Boards people think this Kincade is full of sh*t.

Edited by mmajeski06
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