The other thing about the whole "Atlanta failed twice" non-sense is that we all know the Hawks owners basically evicted the Thrashers, and because no owner would want to buy the team to be the tenants of a misfit group of nine who's infighting got tied up in court cases for years...
... the OG Atlanta Flames didn't really fail, but kinda got evicted as well.
The Flames were thrown together at the last minute because the NHL was facing a challenge from the WHA; and Long Island/Bill Shea negotiated with the NHL/Rangers and convinced them to add the Islanders to undercut the WHA by taking away NYC. But the NHL needed another franchise to come with them.
So they had to find someone with an arena, with an operations staff who could make it happen within MONTHS. aka an NBA owner. In the East, without an NHL team already. Since Cincinnati and Baltimore were financially struggling and would see their NBA teams moved soon thereafter, it pretty much had to be Atlanta.
And Atlanta was fine for eight years. It's really easy to look at their attendance NOW and compare it to what numbers are NOW, but the Atlanta Flames attendance wise were doing better than a few established markets every season. They never finished last in attendance. They beat out Chicago some seasons, Detroit some seasons, Philadelphia a season or two, Pittsburgh multiple seasons, LA some seasons.
The Flames owner had most his assets in real estate and got hammered in the real estate market. He needed cash and sold the Flames to a group from Calgary because HE needed to more than the team needed to move or anything like that.
Pro sports in the 1970s just wasn't a massive big-time entertainment business like they quickly became after cable TV. The Yankees sold for $8.8 million in the 70s. If Tom Cousins just didn't sell the Flames, they'd probably be a franchise no different than the Capitals at this point.