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Thrashers' rollercoaster ride hurtling toward Winnipeg?


thefiestygoat

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Judging by the amount of enthusiasm Winnipeg is giving to the thought of having the team back while Atlanta is basically going "meh", I think they will make a decent amount of money.

Unfortunately, money isnt judged by the enthusiasm of a small town.

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That is true too, but traditionally a lot of vintage stuff in general sells well.

I have some Whalers stuff myself. Wasn't really a fan of the team back in the day, but today they have taken on this "Old-Time Hockey" status with most people.

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Do you think that Winnipeg will be a financial success and will add more to the revenue sharing pot to help teams like the league's baby: Phoenix...

Nope, especially if they continue to suck. Relocating teams to Canada doesn't economically help the league in the long term--or even short term.

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Nope, especially if they continue to suck. Relocating teams to Canada doesn't economically help the league in the long term--or even short term.

Situations like Phoenix's don't help the league either. And even if, by some magic of accounting, they are making money with everything that's going on there, it sure doesn't help the league's image.

What would you rather have happen? Should the league force Atlanta Spirit to find a buyer that will keep the team in Atlanta? If there was such an entity, don't you think they would have come forward by now?

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Because the NFL is in a whole other stratosphere compared to the NHL.

Well, that is a convincing argument; I know you've sold me.... :rolleyes: Methinks that you're ignoring the fact that even tho there are fewer games, the stadiums are way larger, as are the costs of said stadiums, payroll, etc. And yet teams are successful in small cities. So yes the NFL is bigger, and so is it's costs. If anything, this reinforces my point.

Edited by AEWHistory
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Well, that is a convincing argument; I know you've sold me.... :rolleyes:

I don't know what you want me to spell out for ya. The NFL is a completely different animal to the nhl w popularity, number of games, etc..

You're saying that because the NFL has bigger stadiums and payroll and has teams in buffalo, jacksonville, that that proves your point that small mrkt cities make lots of money in the Nhl? LOL

Edited by devlman
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I don't know what you want me to spell out for ya. The NFL is a completely different animal to the nhl w popularity, number of games, etc..

You're saying that because the NFL has bigger stadiums and payroll and has teams in buffalo, jacksonville, that that proves your point that small mrkt cities make lots of money in the Nhl? LOL

No. His point is that the market size doesn't determine success. As he said, LA can't hold onto an NFL team while smaller markets can.

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http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=367336

The Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg situation has narrowed to a point where it's quite possible there could be an announcement as early as Tuesday.

Lawyers on the Winnipeg side have signed off on the deal and the Atlanta legal team is doing their due diligence today. If they sign off on the deal, the sale will go through, pending league approval.

If there is no announcement Tuesday, the next likely target would be Thursday.

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Hopefully these reports are not true and a deal is nowhere near being made. It would not be good for the league financially or for TV ratings to have Atlanta move to Winnipeg.

It won't really change things one iota, which is why the league is allowing this to move forward so fast.

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Hopefully these reports are not true and a deal is nowhere near being made. It would not be good for the league financially or for TV ratings to have Atlanta move to Winnipeg.

Atlanta has been bleeding money since day 1 and are not a TV ratings draw in any which way shape or form. I believe they have the lowest local market TV viewership of any NHL team. Even worse than Florida.

The NHL has a chance to actually put fans in seats and turn a profit in Winnipeg. It's a step forward for the league...and frankly you don't really have to do all that much to surpass sh!tlanta as an hockey market.

Edited by '7'
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Atlanta has been bleeding money since day 1 and are not a TV ratings draw in any which way shape or form. I believe they have the lowest local market TV viewership of any NHL team. Even worse than Florida.

The NHL has a chance to actually put fans in seats and turn a profit in Winnipeg. It's a step forward for the league...and frankly you don't really have to do all that much to surpass sh!tlanta as an hockey market.

Again - I'm sure you've done the research and know all the demographics.

Just keep in mind for all of the outlandish things you like to say for attention - that a lot of the same could be said of NJ - with all the Soprano/Jersey Shore stereotypes and all.

Edited by DevilinLA
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Again - I'm sure you've done the research and know all the demographics.

Just keep in mind for all of the outlandish things you like to say for attention - that a lot of the same could be said of NJ - with all the Soprano/Jersey Shore stereotypes and all.

what does this even mean? NJ has been in highly rated stanley cup finals games and is one of the best road draws in the league year after year. plus, paulie walnuts attended devils games, and anthony soprano was a big fan.

hockey could have worked in atlanta, but it's an indictment that there's not any local buyers.

Edited by Triumph
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Again - I'm sure you've done the research and know all the demographics.

Just keep in mind for all of the outlandish things you like to say for attention - that a lot of the same could be said of NJ - with all the Soprano/Jersey Shore stereotypes and all.

He's not totally wrong. Atlanta had some of the lowest ratings in the league and were watched by an average of 8,000 households in 2009-10. And this isn't about Jersey. It's about Atlanta being miss-managed for 12 years and something finally happening about it.

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Hopefully these reports are not true and a deal is nowhere near being made. It would not be good for the league financially or for TV ratings to have Atlanta move to Winnipeg.

Why? They have some of the worst ratings in the league and they lose money every year.

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He's not totally wrong. Atlanta had some of the lowest ratings in the league and were watched by an average of 8,000 households in 2009-10. And this isn't about Jersey. It's about Atlanta being miss-managed for 12 years and something finally happening about it.

Yep, and the team is never on NBC and rarely on VS, so it's not like it's a positive driver for either. And the problem is if the team stays with a local owner, it will exist in purgatory forever because the leaseholder, which would be the former owner, doesn't really want them there.

Out of the teams that have been thrown around for relocation over the last x years, this one was pretty much a checkmate off the bat. Nobody wants them. The league doesn't want them, the owner doesn't want them, the city/market is indifferent at best, and the owner of the building doesn't want them. Even in the Coyotes case, Glendale is absolutely desperate to keep them there to keep their arena from going belly-up, thus they front stupid money to try and offset the Coyotes losses in partnership with the league.

Winnipeg isn't going to be an awesome market, but it will goose revenue. Atlanta is no longer in a position to drive revenue in any way, short of some insane multibillionaire buying them and building their own building in the market.

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plus the biggest part of this sale is the $60 million relocation fee, which is going to pay for most of what the NHL has been losing on the coyotes.

one has to imagine that the timing of the league signing the new TV deal and this sale are not unrelated. surely NBC/VS would use losing a big TV market as a reason to dicker with the price, even though atlanta is currently a tiny market hockey-wise.

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plus the biggest part of this sale is the $60 million relocation fee, which is going to pay for most of what the NHL has been losing on the coyotes.

one has to imagine that the timing of the league signing the new TV deal and this sale are not unrelated. surely NBC/VS would use losing a big TV market as a reason to dicker with the price, even though atlanta is currently a tiny market hockey-wise.

But they don't really lose the market, they lose the % of the hockey watching market that gets upset and quits. Fans of any other team are still going to watch. The team itself isn't a draw because it's never getting on, barring a playoff series against a top market or a long playoff run.

They were a corpse that was humored as long as the owner kept taking the losses or sold them off in a bundle so someone else takes the losses. Once that's gone, there's zero reason to stick around. They go and head off to a mediocre market, bump revenue a little bit, everyone has a little more to play with, and that's that.

I think it's a little shortsighted because the GTA could support another team that could be a revenue monster, and you only have so many teams to relocate, you really don't want to blow them on Winnipeg and Quebec City, which will probably revenue out like moderately successful US franchises, but it is what it is.

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what does this even mean? NJ has been in highly rated stanley cup finals games and is one of the best road draws in the league year after year. plus, paulie walnuts attended devils games, and anthony soprano was a big fan.

hockey could have worked in atlanta, but it's an indictment that there's not any local buyers.

My point being that "7"'s campaign against Atlanta is largely based on his disdain for southern stereotypes and seems largely personal. While ATL, has surely been mismanaged, his rants lie mainly in that places and fanbases such as ATL and PHX don't deserve their clubs.

An argument could be made that NJ could have shared the same fate if not for Uncle Lou, and I still profess that any of those fans are just as worth as anyone in NJ, or anywhere else for that matter.

What makes Paulie Walnuts any more deserving than Cletus McYokel or even Doug Mckenzie?

Edited by DevilinLA
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