Finally Ranting about the Atlanta Spirit Group

The Atlanta Thrashers flew town for the much colder, bleaker confines of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The buyer, True North Entertainment, was looking to buy a team. The Phoenix Coyotes looked like a good bet. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman had been on the ground in Phoenix trying to diffuse the situation. The league wanted the team to stay, so the city stepped up and floated the team a $25 million loan to stay. So True North turned their attention to Atlanta.

Here in Atlanta, the Atlanta Spirit Group, the owners of the Atlanta Hawks, Atlanta Thrashers, and Philips Arena, were battling each other like spoiled children. The consortium of owners purchased all three entities, and from almost day one began looking for a buyer for the Thrashers. Meanwhile, the started sinking more and more money into the Hawks. This last season, the Hawks were 8th out of 30 in NBA in payroll. The Thrashers were 28th out of 30 in the NHL. So it's obvious that the owners cared more about the NBA.

Enter True North, who was willing to shell out $170 million to take the team to Winnipeg. The ASG was all too willing to take the money. So for the second time the city of Atlanta loses an NHL franchise.

The metro Atlanta area houses about 5.5 million people, many of which are northern transplants. Winnipeg is home to 785,000. Nothing wrong with that, just a much smaller market. People continually railed against Thrasher fans for not showing up, blaming low attendance numbers. The Thrashers averaged 86% capacity last season, or around 15,000 fans per game. The arena in Winnipeg only seats 15,000. Even if Winnipeg sells out every game they will barely beat Atlanta's attendance numbers.

To make matters worse, the ASG spent most of their time in court, suing each other because Steve Belkin didn't like the trade for Joe Johnson. So once again, the NBA takes up so much of the ASG's time that the NHL becomes an afterthought. So no marketing is done. No one in Atlanta can name anyone on the team because the ownership keeps trading away the good players and forcing the GM to operate on a shoestring budget. Then, the ownership has the cojones to blame the fans for not showing up.

Yet, people will continue to throw money at the ASG because they want to see the Hawks. Meanwhile, the Thrashers are in Winnipeg, the Thrasher fans are sick to their stomachs, and the NHL has a PR black eye because of it all.

The Atlanta Spirit Group will never get another dollar of my money. So help me God I'll never attend a Hawks game or go to Philips Arena again until they are gone from Atlanta forever.