Potential Atlanta NHL Expansion Team Thread

[dj4aces]

I've always avoided MARTA like the plague.

And, if we're being honest, the people who can afford (season?) hockey tickets for a family of 4+ by and large do the same.

The league wants to grow the game in the market. The whole market, not just the area where season ticket buyers live. You do that by providing multiple ways of accessing the venue, not "okay, here's a bus shelter, good luck."

I never once had a problem using MARTA. When the Thrashers were here before, I often took the bus and train to get to games, then getting back home. There were some games that ran late where I needed to take a cab from the airport terminus instead, but that was a failing of the incredibly inadequate C-Tran, not MARTA.

While it's highly unlikely that the average person riding the train will purchase season tickets, it's even more unlikely that every seat in the building will be occupied by someone who owns a season ticket package of any kind. Single game tickets have always been a thing, and you never know who might live downtown , in Roswell, or somewhere along MARTA's rail access who wants to see a game but doesn't want to deal with traffic.

 

[Gardner McKay]

Carter's location certainly leaves one to wonder what the traffic plan would be. Could they add a dedicated arena exit to/from GA-400 that empties near parking facilities? You're right that an arena at North Point Mall would certainly run into a lot of residential traffic, which will create a ripple effect in the community if there aren't other plans in place to mitigate that additional traffic.

Another option could be to use the North Point Mall site for something else, and instead build the arena in another place. This becomes problematic because I'm not sure there are any other places they could build a barn that has easy access to GA-400 as well as the potential to access local businesses, hotels, even secondary access to residential areas for folks who live nearby and want to attend games without needing to access GA-400 to do so.

Krause's location is good, in the sense that it's right off GA-400, but traffic management becomes even more of an issue there. Roads will need to be widened to handle the extra traffic, On top of that, access to MARTA will be an even bigger problem too. If one has never had to stand in the rain, snow, wind, or combination thereof to wait for a shuttle -- regardless of whether there's a covered bus stop -- lemme tell ya, it's not fun. Carter's location provides an opportunity to petition the area to maybe add a rail stop for folks coming from points south of the arena to work or take in events. Such an option is unlikely anytime soon at Krause's location... and perhaps that's the point.

In the end, there are advantages and disadvantages to both sites. It's one of the reasons why I'm a little curious about the unnamed groups who've shown interest and what their arena plans are.

As someone who lived in a townhome right off Mansell, about 1 mile from Northpoint mall, the traffic would horrific. Prohibitively bad.

I've always avoided MARTA like the plague.

And, if we're being honest, the people who can afford (season?) hockey tickets for a family of 4+ by and large do the same.

MARTA was fine for a number of years. It wasn't really until post COVID that it became the unbearable, unsafe shit show that it is now.

 

[KevFu]

The one part of all of this that perplexes me is that the Anson-owned Gladiators got the NHL's permission to use and market the Thrashers name and logo, yet it's Krause's competing group that seems to have the inside track to getting the expansion franchise and has made no secret that he wants to resurrect the Thrashers branding.

So, you have two competing potential ownership groups, one of which is currently allowed to use the Thrashers name, and the other who seems primed to commandeer it.

It's really not that weird if you look at it from the "other direction" (aka, the NHL office). The NHL owns the rights to the Thrashers name/logo and are going to use it in a way that promotes hockey in Atlanta.

Because they have a relationship with Anson, the Gladiators stoking interest in an NHL return by using the logo/branding makes sense.

When it comes to expansion, the NHL is going to pick the bid they like the best, and if/when a team is granted, the best use of the Thrashers name/brand to promote hockey in Atlanta now becomes on the NHL jersey instead of the ECHL jersey.