NHL to Atlanta odds just increased significantly

[Ted Hoffman]

My God, have you watched the quality of play of some of the teams now? Water the product down more and it will become unwatchable...

Yeah, and if we only make it "best-on-best" scoring will skyrocket. Maybe make rinks 200x100, so everyone has more room to work with, too.

What could go wrong?

so in 10 years will this team be relocating to Quebec City or Hamilton?

I mean, if one is in the pro-Canada, BETTMAN HATES OUR f***ING GUTS AND WANTS ALL 32 TEAMS IN THE U.S. camp, then yes - one should absolutely be pulling for a team in a "clearly failed" hockey market since that's the easiest route to end up with a team in Canada.

If relocation, the 'Yotes are actually a promising team but that reignites the east/west balance issue.

Every time we talk about adding/relocating teams, geography becomes the biggest impediment. "Well, we can't have a team in _____ because that screws up geography, we'd have to add a team in _______ to balance." Or, "if ____ moves to ___________ then someone has to move back over to keep things in balance."

That's why I have long advocated for, and will continue to advocate for, divisions that span the entire continent without regard to geography. Then, if/when we need to add/relocate teams, geography is entirely out of the list of things that need to be accounted for.

 

[MuckOG]

That's kinda how sports work. There are only a handful of teams in the NHL that support their team no matter what. Even Chicago's and Boston's stop showing up when the team is trash.

Explain why the Flames and Thrashers couldn't make it.

 

[tucker3434]

Don't care about the Flames. They left when disco was still a thing. It's just not really relevant to the current market.

The Thrashers left because they didn't have a place to play. That's it. There were buyers in Atlanta for the team, but without a building to play in that fall and absolutely no plans in motion to build a new one, it was too risky for anyone to take on.

 

[May Day 10]

That's kinda how sports work. There are only a handful of teams in the NHL that support their team no matter what. Even Chicago's and Boston's stop showing up when the team is trash.

The Sabres (we) had a capped season ticket base of like 17K and a waiting list through several bad seasons in a row. Had a great fan base.

13 years of it has eroded it significantly. By next season I am sure we will see truly abysmal "crowds" at games. It is depressing. I can totally see why the Thrashers never got traction. Nashville was a joke market too until they tasted success and how captivating a playoff run is. Now they have proven many people wrong.

The NHL is a really bad product if you have a perpetually bad team.

 

[Ted Hoffman]

Their resources should go into figuring out the possible logistics and breaking down the barriers to a European Division/Conference. The NHL has the leg up on the other major sports with European interest and a lot of European players. They can be the ones to conquer that frontier. Im sure the NBA will surpass them and beat them to it by a decade or so.

As soon as North American-based leagues figure out how to have their CBAs and league structures conform to EU requirements, you'll see that happen.

You might as well ask to see a quark and an orange combine to make a car bumper make out of sound waves that look like the number zebra.

 

[VivaLasVegas]

if I understand it correctly the A's is still not a guarantee because they can't manage to actually get a plan together.

These dingdongs didn't have support going in and then haven't actually managed to really materialize any sort of concrete plan. The MLB for now is apparently just sort of fine with that, but there will eventually come a point where something has to give if Fisher keeps asking for the moon and getting nowhere because now they're basically officially out of Oakland.

My take is that MLB is hoping he will fail so that they can force him to divest. "Here, take some more rope. Please ....."

 

[biturbo19]

There's is adjacent major roadwork being done to accommodate the additional traffic that will come. Details on the site: Roadway Updates – The Gathering at South Forsyth

So essentially...they're putting in a couple privately operated toll lanes?

That's been pretty thoroughly proven to have a negligible positive impact on "traffic". Adding lanes and additional roads in general tends to actually operate completely the opposite way and actually make things worse.

At the end of the day, an Arena and NHL team without any sort of rail or other meaningful transit access is the sort of thing that is going to bring tens of thousands of extra bits of traffic to that corridor/area every game night. Which is inevitably going to cause slowdowns and inconveniences.

There are benefits to that additional draw. It can help support more commercial/retail stuff in the area. Restaurants, bars, etc. in particular. But there's a definite trade-off.
https://thegatheringatsouthforsyth.com/roadway-updates/

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What am i looking at here? lmao. Without a proper legend for context, it just looks like a super crappy Cezanne painting of the Atlanta area or something.

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

Based on the fact that they couldn't make the NHL work two previous times.

Braves fans show up when the team is winning (like now), but when they aren't attendance drops off big time (ie 2014-2016).

What are you talking about? The Braves won 13 straight division titles in Turner Field and has gained attendance since moving into the new stadium. Because attendance fell for 3 years it's not a good sports town? You can say that about every single city.

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

What am i looking at here? lmao. Without a proper legend for context, it just looks like a super crappy Cezanne painting of the Atlanta area or something.

Yeah, I can see the confusion. That's the Braves ticket base map I mentioned earlier.

 

[#37]

This is a terrible idea. That arena will be, at the least, an hour drive from the airport.

 

[Machinehead]

Nothing against Atlanta, specifically, but I think it's crazy that a 32 team league is still quickly expanding.

 

[End on a Hinote]

As much as I wish like hell that Quebec would return, and I was all but convinced that they would back when the Jets returned and QC announced a new 18,000 arena. It's just not going to happen. And I think as Canadian fans we should be happily content with 7 teams.

Nearly half of the country lives in an NHL metro area, and 7 pro teams in a market of only 40 million is pretty good for North America.

 

[Seattle Totems]

Atlanta getting a team again totally turns me off the NHL. They've failed at this twice already and it feels like the same old Bettmen bureaucracy where they try to shove a shit sandwich down the fans throats.

Go to a market with potential and drum up excitement. I don't care if it's in the US or Canada.

 

[Crede777]

To ensure an Atlanta expansion team succeeds early on, the NHL should amend its expansion draft rules such that teams must expose any player with the first name "Connor" regardless of contract status or protections. Especially if the owners are paying 1 billion dollars.

 

[biturbo19]

Yeah, I can see the confusion. That's the Braves ticket base map I mentioned earlier.

I kind of inferred it was probably something like that. But certainly ambiguous without a legend.


From what i understand of the Atlanta area, I'd imagine it also likely doubles as at least a vague facsimile of a sort of "affluence heat map"? Easy to see where there's a potentially large sports fan base to draw upon, with disposable income...in that northern exurb sort of belt. If it's easier for them to just drive in to that highway oriented community, rather than having to go into town.

I still think the key to really thriving as a market (especially a non-conventional one) is a Downtown Arena that becomes entrenched in the whole experience, the nightlife, etc. Nashville is the textbook example of this. But i guess Atlanta is also a bit of a unique case in terms of layout, demographics, etc. And i'm sure that this time they won't just dive in without understand the dynamics that are important to making it work there.

 

[Look Up]

Boy I can’t wait for my team to have less of a chance to win the whole thing…

Lots of teams will be competing for respect in the handshake line, lol

 

[VivaLasVegas]

Atlanta getting a team again totally turns me off the NHL. They've failed at this twice already and it feels like the same old Bettmen bureaucracy where they try to shove a shit sandwich down the fans throats.

Go to a market with potential and drum up excitement. I don't care if it's in the US or Canada.

The NHL doesn't "go to a market" but only takes in applications from those with stadium deals and a $1 billion check wherever they come from.

 

[Fishy McScales]

To ensure an Atlanta expansion team succeeds early on, the NHL should amend its expansion draft rules such that teams must expose any player with the first name "Connor" regardless of contract status or protections. Especially if the owners are paying 1 billion dollars.

However, an exception will be made if they have jersey number 97 or higher.

 

[TheTotalPackage]

I just figure expanding to a 36-team league, which was started to be talked about shortly after Seattle's entry to the league, will be Bettman's final and lasting legacy on the league which I presume will be in conjunction with the end of his commissionership.

 

[nhlfan79]

To ensure an Atlanta expansion team succeeds early on, the NHL should amend its expansion draft rules such that teams must expose any player with the first name "Connor" regardless of contract status or protections. Especially if the owners are paying 1 billion dollars.

And/or last name. I'm sure a certain someone would be happy to escape Winnipeg if given the chance.

 

[KovalchukFistPump]

Atlanta people, you know your population base better than anyone here, and I know you're probably excited to have a team. But Forsyth County looks like a potential Glendale situation here. I.e. far from lots of people where they might not choose to deal with traffic to make the game.

 

[nhlfan79]

I still think the key to really thriving as a market (especially a non-conventional one) is a Downtown Arena that becomes entrenched in the whole experience, the nightlife, etc. Nashville is the textbook example of this. But i guess Atlanta is also a bit of a unique case in terms of layout, demographics, etc. And i'm sure that this time they won't just dive in without understand the dynamics that are important to making it work there.

That's the thing that people who aren't from here just don't get. There is *no* downtown entertainment district in Atlanta, like Broadway in Nashville. State Farm Arena and Mercedes-Benz Stadium are next door neighbors to each other and are their own destinations. There's no real retail development around either one, and, for that matter, nor was there anything over by Turner Field (or whatever it's now called).

Atlanta is the quintessential commuter city. Almost no one lives downtown.

There are no meaningful walkable bars, restaurants, etc. to hang out at before and after a game. There's a Chick-Fil-A down the street, near the College Football Hall of Fame, and a McCormick and Shmicks upscale steakhouse, and that's just about it. I guess the dying CNN Center still has a food court with a Subway, an Arby's, and Dunkin.

Atlanta people, you know your population base better than anyone here, and I know you're probably excited to have a team. But Forsyth County looks like a potential Glendale situation here. I.e. far from lots of people where they might not choose to deal with traffic to make the game.

That has it 100% wrong. It's smack dab in the middle of where the fanbase is and will be. Downtown is where most people in those same northern suburbs won't deal with hellish rush hour traffic to get to a weeknight game.

 

[KovalchukFistPump]

That has it 100% wrong. It's smack dab in the middle of where the fanbase is and will be. Downtown is where most people in those same northern suburbs won't deal with hellish rush hour traffic to get to a weeknight game.

Just seems a little too far north for me. Will probably be one of those arenas that gets the "middle of nowhere, nothing else to do, no postgame/pregame dining" etc designations. I agree that suburbs would be better for a hockey fanbase than downtown Atlanta but this one just seems too far and I feel like they're going to get the same criticism that the Glendale arena and the Sunrise arena has gotten.

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

Atlanta people, you know your population base better than anyone here, and I know you're probably excited to have a team. But Forsyth County looks like a potential Glendale situation here. I.e. far from lots of people where they might not choose to deal with traffic to make the game.

See post 287. That map is what the Braves presented when showing one of the many reasons for moving to the northern burbs. It shows who has bought tickets to games over the last several years. Since that move, their attendance has gone up and their development is a HUGE success. I'm betting the Gathering is using similar data.

 

[Crede777]

However, an exception will be made if they have jersey number 97 or higher.

As far as the NHL is concerned, 97 in Canadian numbers is only about 65 American. See numbers for: Player salaries, Canadian team attendance, etc.