Attendance started dropping after year 1 before ASG came into the picture. The only time after year 1 that attendance was over 16K after the first year was under ASG ownership. Attendance still dropped the year after they made their one playoff run. While they didn't make the playoffs after that they weren't awful just mediocre
So this conspiracy theory that ASG was tanking for 7 straight years just doesn't hold water.
It's pretty much established fact that Atlanta Spirit wanted to sell the team the moment they bought it, because they simply didn't want it in their arena. It's also established fact that a rift developed between Steve Belkin (the owner based out of Boston) and the rest of the group that prevented any attempt to flip the team.
The remaining owners, having just spent to the cap in 2005 in an attempt to maximize potential sale revenue, tanked the team with poor signings and bad trades (Zhitnik for Coburn, anyone?) as the court battle between Atlanta Spirit and Belkin persisted. Those moves disheartened the diehard fans, and made it less appealing for folks to have a desire to sit in traffic for an hour or more to watch an intentionally created dumpster fire lose another game. Furthermore, it caused pessimism and uncertainty among the fans to develop. Many of us didn't want to admit it at the time, but the fear that the team would move once the case was settled did rest in the back of most people's minds as rumors continued to swirl about the team's future in the market.
I'm sure you'll point to the acquisition of Dustin Byfuglien and Andrew Ladd and say not all the trades were bad. And you'd be correct, until you consider that Belkin reached a settlement agreement with the remaining owners in December 2010. This is something that had been in the works for a while, but once the settlement was reached, there was nothing stopping Atlanta Spirit from selling the team.
The presence of young and highly touted players like Bogosian and Kane, as well as successful vets like Byfuglien and Ladd, allowed Atlanta Spirit to get as much as they did for the team without them spending to the cap. One might ask how an ownership group could be so derelict, could mismanage their assets in this way, and the very idea that it was by design all adds up to something that seems incredibly illogical. You'd be right. It is illogical. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever. But it happened. Much of the Atlanta Spirit and Ted Turner/AOL saga of Thrashers ownership was published in an article in The Athletic earlier this year.
Folks don't have to like the fact that the league considers the Atlanta market different now than it was 12 years ago, and that the league is open to the possibility of giving the market a third try. However, with all the new rules in place, with a more robust vetting of potential ownership (likely as a direct result to having dealt with Atlanta Spirit from 2004 until 2011), the team would almost assuredly find instant success. But that's a chapter that has yet to be written.
Hope this clears things up. Or, is my direct knowledge of the situation at the time also mere "conspiracy theory"?
