Potential Atlanta NHL Expansion Team Thread

[dj4aces]

I'm quietly trying to decide which was worse... the NHL approving an ownership group who didn't want to own the team... or Jon Spano. Then again some of the owners for the yotes suggest the whole no money thing wasn't such a deal breaker for the NHL

maybe not quite to the same extent.

Both can be. The NHL's history is filled with both incredible and terrible owners. Spano, del Baggio, Atlanta Spirit, Bill Wirtz... they fall into that latter category, all for different reasons.

Maybe it would’ve been different if the thrashers had been on their own. Being the 4th place league didn’t do them any favors. The NBA approved the sale two weeks before the NHL. That puts the NHL in a tough spot. And as we saw, ASG wasn’t afraid to sue some people, including themselves.

I think this is the fundamental problem with the NBA and NHL owner being the same person/group. When one league approves an ownership transfer, the other is seemingly obligated to do so. But maybe this is just my perspective.

How do you even know what was happening back in 100 or so years ago plz don't comment like that you have no basis...Flames left cause Nelson Skalbania got great money for his NHL team and relocated to Calgary as did Quebec when Colorado business people got involved in bringing in the Nordiques

As has been discussed before, the Flames left Atlanta due to the owner (Tom Cousins) going broke when the real estate market in town crashed. He sold the Atlanta Hawks to Ted Turner, and tried to give him the Flames for free, but Turner declined because he didn't think hockey was good for TV. So Cousins was forced to sell to the highest bidder.

 

[aqib]

How do you even know what was happening back in 100 or so years ago plz don't comment like that you have no basis...Flames left cause Nelson Skalbania got great money for his NHL team and relocated to Calgary as did Quebec when Colorado business people got involved in bringing in the Nordiques

My point was simply that 1980 is so long ago that you can't judge the viability of the market based on what happened in 1980.

 

[FlyguyOX]

Hard to imagine a team in such an affluent area not spending money to maximize it's roster.

 

[Tawnos]

My point was simply that 1980 is so long ago that you can't judge the viability of the market based on what happened in 1980.

And part of the question of viability is about the economics of the league too.

It doesn't really matter what specifically was going on 100 years ago. We know the economics of the league were vastly different compared to today.

It doesn't really matter specifically what was going on 45 years ago, either. We know the economics of the league were vastly different compared to today, too.

 

[nhlfan79]

I think this is the fundamental problem with the NBA and NHL owner being the same person/group. When one league approves an ownership transfer, the other is seemingly obligated to do so. But maybe this is just my perspective.

This times infinity. The NBA had zero basis to reject Atlanta Spirit as owners, but NHL certain would have. The realities of the situation, however, meant that they had to rubber stamp what the NBA already had done. The Thrashers' ultimate fate was sealed as soon as they were acquired by ASG. All that was left was for ASG to wait out the minimum requisite number of years for the non-relocation clause to run out.

 

[dj4aces]

Hard to imagine a team in such an affluent area not spending money to maximize it's roster.

Sure, but it's also important to remember that being in an affluent area doesn't guarantee success. You've gotta market the team, too.

The one tweet from the NHL to Atlanta guy a couple weeks ago suggests there's ~90k NHL fans within a 12mi radius of the proposed site of The Gathering. Optimally, you want to increase that number dramatically. Sure, bringing in the franchise will help, but you need an amazing marketing team who knows what they're doing. You need to be able to bring back the old fans (a challenge, since there are some who've now seen two teams leave in their lifetime and are afraid of having their hearts broken once again), get fans of other teams interested, and be able to attract first time viewers.

Whoever wins the bid here has a long road ahead and a lot of work to do. I hope they have a great marketing team in mind for exactly this challenge.

 

[FlyguyOX]

Sure, but it's also important to remember that being in an affluent area doesn't guarantee success. You've gotta market the team, too.

The one tweet from the NHL to Atlanta guy a couple weeks ago suggests there's ~90k NHL fans within a 12mi radius of the proposed site of The Gathering. Optimally, you want to increase that number dramatically. Sure, bringing in the franchise will help, but you need an amazing marketing team who knows what they're doing. You need to be able to bring back the old fans (a challenge, since there are some who've now seen two teams leave in their lifetime and are afraid of having their hearts broken once again), get fans of other teams interested, and be able to attract first time viewers.

Whoever wins the bid here has a long road ahead and a lot of work to do. I hope they have a great marketing team in mind for exactly this challenge.

Idk, you make it sound like a big task, but my generation (early 30's) grew up going to thrasher games regardless of being an NHL fan or not and there is a near-universal nostalgia for the thrashers.

We now have our own families and likely live close by if we're still in state (I do, and am).

Atlanta united sold out consistently despite metro families having to make the annoying commute downtown. A hockey team everyone has nostalgia for, and in our own backyard now? Easy.

I really don't think it's going to take much to have a sell out every night.

 

[Yukon Joe]

The one tweet from the NHL to Atlanta guy a couple weeks ago suggests there's ~90k NHL fans within a 12mi radius of the proposed site of The Gathering. Optimally, you want to increase that number dramatically. Sure, bringing in the franchise will help, but you need an amazing marketing team who knows what they're doing. You need to be able to bring back the old fans (a challenge, since there are some who've now seen two teams leave in their lifetime and are afraid of having their hearts broken once again), get fans of other teams interested, and be able to attract first time viewers.

Whoever wins the bid here has a long road ahead and a lot of work to do. I hope they have a great marketing team in mind for exactly this challenge.

Anyone who both remembers watching the old Atlanta Flames, and who feels they had their "heart broken twice" is a guaranteed, die-hard fan. The much bigger problem is going to be fan apathy - that maybe they used to go to a few Trashers games, but they just don't care any longer.

But the Thrashers left in 2011. They haven't even broken ground on an arena, never mind grant an expansion franchise. By the time an Atlanta 3.0 franchise drops the puck it will be roughly 20 years since the Thrashers.

 

[dj4aces]

I really don't think it's going to take much to have a sell out every night.

The idea that it won't take much is the same idea the league itself has, and yet everyone largely agrees that the league sucks at marketing. It has a long history of sucking at marketing, and it's easily the number one area where the league must improve. The prospective Atlanta franchise should forge its own path, maybe even take cues from how Vegas and Seattle markets to their fans, rather than take cues from the league.

I totally get being optimistic, largely because optimism and positivity is my natural state. But I've also learned over the years that there's also being realistic, and you can't let optimism run wild. The reality is, no matter how many 30-somethings are here and willing to drop four or five figures on season tickets, you still need an amazing marketing team to attract the folks who aren't already fans of the sport. You ensure survival by growing the fanbase.

Anyone who both remembers watching the old Atlanta Flames, and who feels they had their "heart broken twice" is a guaranteed, die-hard fan. The much bigger problem is going to be fan apathy - that maybe they used to go to a few Trashers games, but they just don't care any longer.

But the Thrashers left in 2011. They haven't even broken ground on an arena, never mind grant an expansion franchise. By the time an Atlanta 3.0 franchise drops the puck it will be roughly 20 years since the Thrashers.

Apathy will definitely be a problem as well, and something that proper marketing can also address. I know several such fans. I know a few who got angry at me, even one who used to post here, that I'd even suggest the league would ever return to Atlanta. I sometimes wonder how that guy is doing. Another guy sold me a number of old pennants from the 1970s or so -- California Golden Seals, Quebec Nordiques, and an old Red Wings pennant -- after the Thrashers left town. He was part of the Thrashers organization and had no desire to even follow the sport anymore.

A lot of folks who saw two teams move had their hearts ripped out after the Thrashers left town. Some of them still follow the sport, and might be eager to adopt Atlanta 3.0 when a franchise is finally announced. Unfortunately, like the guy who sold me the pennants, some do not. If there's any hope of bringing them back, it's gonna take a lot of work to accomplish that feat.