Rage, as that's what you feel while driving through Atlanta.
The Thrashers existed for eleven seasons. They qualified for the playoffs once, getting swept in the first round. Seems like a good reason why people wouldn't want to attend Thrashers games.
They’re just kind of an aside. The point is that the failure isn’t a once off.
It’s kind of weak to blame an ownership group when their 2nd and 4th worst years of attendance came before that ownership group, and their numbers actually went up when they took over.
That’s fine. Population only matters if people want to attend the sport. Atlanta gets great attendance to Football and Soccer, but hockey clearly doesn’t have the same following there. It’s not that Atlanta isn’t a sports city. They’re just not really a hockey city. Lots of sports have failed in Edmonton too and they’re as die hard of sports fans as you’ll find. They just prefer hockey.
If we can go back far enough into history, I'm sure there are a ton of random teams from way back when to reference. Again, if we're factoring in the Flames, then Quebec has failed twice as well.The Oilers had a 13 year sellout streak (until the pandemic ended it), during which they had a 10 year stretch without making the playoffs. When over half the teams are going to miss the playoffs, you probably shouldn’t expand to a market where missing the playoffs will result in the team folding
For a tribute to the teams, I like Firebirds.I'm on board with paying tribute to the two previous franchises by combining their names. The Atlanta Flamers.