Potential Atlanta NHL Expansion Team Thread

[FlyguyOX]

Yessirrr lfg.

 

[sneakytitz]

Then I guess that means that if John Bardis is involved, he's involved with either the 3rd group OR Anson's. Can't see him not leveraging The Cooler into a practice facility if he is involved with Krause's group.

 

[FlyguyOX]

Then I guess that means that if John Bardis is involved, he's involved with either the 3rd group OR Anson's. Can't see him not leveraging The Cooler into a practice facility if he is involved with Krause's group.

Correct

 

[dj4aces]

Then I guess that means that if John Bardis is involved, he's involved with either the 3rd group OR Anson's. Can't see him not leveraging The Cooler into a practice facility if he is involved with Krause's group.

The issue I see with The Cooler, in its current state, is it'll need to be rebuilt or retrofit to meet NHL standards. Additionaslly, Atlanta being a new/returning market (all depends on perspective), I think the league and players alike will want to see brand new facilities, not something dredged up from the past.

Best thing would be for Bardis to keep The Cooler as a community rink, and build an actual NHL practice facility for whatever group he might be a part of, if said group wins the bid.

 

[nhlfan79]

The issue I see with The Cooler, in its current state, is it'll need to be rebuilt or retrofit to meet NHL standards. Additionaslly, Atlanta being a new/returning market (all depends on perspective), I think the league and players alike will want to see brand new facilities, not something dredged up from the past.

Best thing would be for Bardis to keep The Cooler as a community rink, and build an actual NHL practice facility for whatever group he might be a part of, if said group wins the bid.

No question. The place currently is a dump, even after recently rebuilding the red rink. Splitting the space with a separate adventure park isn't helping the ice quality. It's almost as if they're running it just well enough to get by, while they wait for another shoe to drop.

 

[aqib]

The market of Atlanta has never "failed." The Flames owner was literally going bankrupt in the late 1970s for non-hockey-related (commercial real estate) reasons and received a record offer of double fair market value from Canada despite local buyers willing and ready to take the team over. The Thrashers ownership group intentionally and systematically dismantled the franchise because they affirmatively wanted them to relocate from the very moment they acquired the team in a package deal, just to eliminate market competition for the Hawks, the only team they really wanted. In both instances, there was zero that the general public could have done about it. All of this information is fully laid out across several thousand posts here.

Atlanta is (and will be) as good of a hockey market as any other non-traditional major American city. If Atlanta 3.0 is done right, it'll be on par with Dallas or Tampa or Washington, DC. It will blow away Nashville, Raleigh, and south Florida.

We can debate the Thrashers situation (which we have).

But the Flames were so long ago they are about as relevant as the 1920 Quebec Bulldogs or 1925 Hamilton Tigers.

 

[FlyguyOX]

The proposed locations for Krause practice facilities at the polo fields would be very close to the smaller community rink in Cumming The Ice Complex.

I was there a couple weeks back and was surprised how nice it was despite only having 1 sheet of ice.

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

We can debate the Thrashers situation (which we have).

But the Flames were so long ago they are about as relevant as the 1920 Quebec Bulldogs or 1925 Hamilton Tigers.

Correct.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

To be honest, we're approaching the time passed period where even if you think the Thrashers failed as a result of fan issues (which I don't), you can't legitimately hold that as a knock against the market still.

It'll be 14 years in a few months since the Thrashers moved, and if expansion happens it'll assuredly be after the 15 year mark. That means it will basically have been as long, and likely longer, as the time between the end of the Jets1.0 and the start of the Jets 2.0 (1996 to 2011), and more than double the time between the end of the North Stars and start of the Wild (1993 to 2000). Heck, if it takes a few more years, it'll be as long or longer than the gap between the Rockies and the Avs, which absolutely feels like eras between when it was "only" 19 years.

Think of how much the world and all our lives have changed since then, and think of how much every market has changed in that time, too.

And harkening back to the Flames might as well be having a grievance over how much one of your caveman ancestors was wronged by a paleolothic neighbor.