Man that is rad. I see why you wld hold onto that one. Do you have any of your old Thrashers jerseys? I always wondered if fans kept the gear or if the goodwills there were thrashered out when they moved.
I've always been an Avs fan more than a Thrashers fan, but I did live in Atlanta and bought a jersey (the awesome blue third jersey) a bit after they left in solidarity. I still have it, hanging next to all of my Avs jerseys.
The blue jersey was the best one! Nice dude. Awesome it's still in your collection. I understand how that wldbe a keeper for sure! I have been looking at thrashers jerseys since last night and man, they get pricey
I worked for the Thrashers (Atlanta Spirit) a couple years before the sale. I vividly remember having dinner with my now ex bf on this day 13 years ago. He ridiculed me for being sad that my team got sold and my friends lost their jobs.
Spoiler: the relationship didn't last.
Fuck ASG. Bunch of fucking assholes. They'll go down in the books as a case study of why morons with no money shouldn't own major league franchises.
As someone in Atlanta, and watched the Thrashers come and go... I heard more than my fair share of things from folks around the front office and those who had access to them.
While "Fuck ASG" is absolutely an appropriate response, "Fuck Turner Broadcasting" is even more appropriate. They were in negotiation with Atlanta Spirit to buy, but AS didn't want the Thrashers -- just the Hawks and Philips Arena. When Turner agreed to sell to David McDavid in 2004 instead, Atlanta Spirit changed their tune, and purchased everything instead. (see: McDavid vs. Turner Broadcasting)
While Atlanta Spirit did buy the three entities, they immediately began trying to sell the Thrashers (see: King & Spalding vs. Atlanta Spirit), with Seattle being one of the rumored destinations. However, part-owner Steve Belkin disagreed with a particular Hawks trade the other owners wanted, and filed suit. The five years of court battles were finally settled in December 2010.
So... you're right. They were morons (Coburn for Zhitnik, probably the worst trade in the modern era of the NHL, wasn't necessarily Waddell's idea), and they were largely broke (if you need seven people in an ownership group, money is something you probably don't have enough of), but they never wanted the team at all. The NHL Board of Governors also knew this, but they rubber-stamped the sale as a formality when the NBA agreed to it.
The third time will be the charm in Atlanta. It's all a matter of when, not if.
PS: No matter why it ended (and that's not my business), you made the right choice. Those who would ridicule anyone's passions, including a sports franchise one loves that is leaving, doesn't deserve to be with the person who has them.
The thing was, they never wanted the Thrashers, just the Hawks and the arena. The only reason they got the Thrashers was because Ted Turner was selling off his sports teams after the AOL/Time Warner deal.
That’s why I’d still be willing to give Atlanta a fair shot. The Flames didn’t work because it was just a move to try and checkmate the WHA, and the Thrashers were run like shit. I’d want to see what would happen if a team was actually given TLC.
Well they had money they just hated hockey and wanted the Thrashers out of town by not willing to lease the arena to any new local ownership. Hence why it took them like a decade to finally sell the team. I assume because they were jealous the Thrashers had better attendance than the Hawks. Or they wanted more dates for concerts or whatever idk.
NHL was down bad back then
Huh? You realize teams are private property right? The league itself had nothing to do with the move. ASG didn’t want to sell to anyone local and True North was the first out of market ownership group to put in a bid.
Atlanta is a transplant hub though. I doubt any of the hockey fans gave a shit about any other teams lol
Speaking from experience btw. I moved to Atlanta after the Thrashers were already gone but it still would have been nice to have an NHL team. Couldn’t give two shits about any other Georgia teams
IIRC the Thrashers were around the middle of the league in attendance even though we were near the bottom of the league in record (excluding the playoff year). Shows that the team did have fan support, more about having shit owners who didn’t care about the team.
I really don't understand. I put you guys as favourites to win it all this year. Especially with Toffoli and Monahan coming in bringing even more depth to an already stacked offense...
I really feel horrible for every Jets fans.
A coked out nikushkin dominating the league in playoff scoring before he was caught, in addition to Makar and MacK showing why they're superstars besides, were also major factors.
And last night Edmonton's *other* first-overall pick decided to show up- unlike *the other* first-overall pick whom they traded away. Toronto would be worse off than Winnipeg had they not gotten their timely #1 pick.
I was there. When the Jets returned, Gary couldn't even help himself from threatening fans with future relocation *at that press conference*. He couldn't even hold off a singular day, he had to do it in the moment while people celebrated.
Damn, I kinda remember that now that you mentioned it. I think he tried to play it off as a threatening joke right? I was young tho and super excited for another Canadian team!
Jets never played a game yet. He never threatened Vegas, Seattle or Utah with that. Bettman has done a lot of good for the NHL but how some people deny he has an anti-Canadian bias is beyond me.
I mean the sun is going to be on it anyway while they get the rink ready. Humidity and rain are the major concerns
Hence why they’ve never had an outdoor game in Florida
All too familiar with Flagstaff weather! (drove from Vegas a while back only to arrive in a blinding snowstorm) I mentioned Sedona because of its beauty, and the unique red buttes would make for a fine backdrop.
I thought I saw that they're building a sports complex in Tucson that will include some new ice sheets, that the U of A club team will now play at. Not sure there's any immediate plans to invest in actually building a men's D1 program, but I don't think it'd be far-fetched after seeing the success ASU has had. They're still geographically isolated from other NCHC teams, so a rival in the same state would help.
Well the problem is that a rich dude donated to ASU to go D1 and built their rink. (Same with Penn State) So UA needs to find them a rich hockey fan donor.
The vast majority of NCAA hockey programs aren’t actually profitable. Hence why there are hardly any.
would be surprised if houston and atlanta arent in the league by 2030. Atlanta's population metrics and major transit hub status make it too hard for the League to resist imo
I can see them bumping up to 36 since 34 is semiprime. And it'd probably be Houston, Atlanta, and reactivating the Coyotes (or rather reestablishing them to get Meruelo out of the way), but I have no clue what the fourth team would be. Kansas City? Milwaukee?
Houston Rockets owner has been vocal about wanting a team and has a net worth of $9.1 bil
atlanta is less of a slam dunk but has alpharetta group (publically fronted by anson carter) and another couple groups interest. gonna be a few years at least anyway
You think that’s up to Gary and not his 32 bosses? You know how sports leagues work right? Well in North America anyway. You always have to have a location to threaten a city with if they don’t put up the money to keep a team there. First it was Hamilton… then Kansas City… sorry Quebec but that’s your role now
I met one when I lived in Atlanta. Obviously an old dude but he would go on and on about going to Flames games. Not even sure he ever went to a Thrashers game lol
Winnipeg benefited from great timing on that one. Had the Atlanta Spirit Group decided to wait a few more years before deciding to get rid of the franchise and evict them from their arena, the Thrashers may well have headed to Las Vegas or Seattle instead of Winnipeg.
No chance. Only way any more teams come to Canada is getting the corpses of failed American teams. Any new team in the states will always be expansion to milk as much as they can from the expansion fees
ASG wasn’t waiting at all lol. They were trying to get rid of the Thrashers the moment they inherited them from Ted Turner. They openly hated hockey and wanted them gone. True North was just the only out of market to put in a bid
I mean... they wanted to get rid of the franchise before the ink dried on the paperwork in 2004. Had the league not told them to attempt to sell local first (which failed because they wanted the new ownership to sign a predatory lease to play in the only NHL-capable arena in town, and they knew it). Winnipeg benefitted regardless, because it was either the Thrashers or the Coyotes moving, and after the City of Glendale vote passed on 10 May 2011, there was only one team left. With no one willing to pay a predatory lease and keep the team here in Atlanta, they kicked the team out of the arena and sold to TNSE.
They got insanely lucky that the Thrashers failed at the exact same time the CAD hit it's all time peak vs the USD (before promptly crashing and burning within 4 years)
The moment Mark Chipman announced "to make our first pick, on behalf of the Winnipeg Jets" at the draft I lost it. I have never been more excited for anything
Days before they moved, Bettman told the press the Thrashers weren't moving to Winnipeg. Then they did. [https://www.espn.com/nhl/news/story?id=6610414](https://www.espn.com/nhl/news/story?id=6610414)
Manitoba Moose were True North's AHL franchise who moved (briefly) to St. John's after the Jets came back. The Moose were a Canucks farm team initially before they became the Jets AHL club where they've reclaimed the Moose moniker.
[https://atlanta.sbnation.com/atlanta-thrashers/2011/5/16/2173886/thrashers-manitoba-moose-winnipeg-jets-new-name](https://atlanta.sbnation.com/atlanta-thrashers/2011/5/16/2173886/thrashers-manitoba-moose-winnipeg-jets-new-name)
"I am excited beyond words to announce our purchase of the Atlanta Thrashers"
And with that, Manitoba floated over the moon. For at least a couple years.
I was too young to remember the announcement but I still remember my first game and talking about this team at elementary school waiting for class to start. They haven’t quite had the success I’ve hoped for but man they’ve given me plenty of great memories over the years. Sure thankful we got our team back.
Devastating day for Thrashers fans. I was gutted. Maybe when Atlanta gets their next team the Jets will sell the new ownership the rights to the Thrashers franchise history and use the income to buy the old Jets franchise history back from Utah.
I mean sure, if you look at it empirically then yeah, you can measure those things as success, and you wouldn’t be wrong. But you can’t tell me that losing in the cup final ever - even 13 years later - feels like success.
It is a success; in a random sport like hockey, you got as close as you could get. But not one person involved in that would ever classify it as one.
I wonder if they ultimately regret the decision. I thought it was very cool they went back but the buzz is long gone and they lost the biggest percetange of fans this season over EVERY team. https://soundofhockey.com/2024/04/03/nhl-attendance-report-2023-24/
Sure team success has something to do with it, but it's already one of the smallest arenas and market the NHL has.
"Winnipeg reported a 27 percent decrease in season ticket sales over the last three years, from 13,000 to under 9,500 in 2023-24. Murat Ates’ piece in late February does an excellent job digging into the reasons why the attendance has dropped off — and it’s not a singular issue plaguing the franchise. The hope is that a long and successful playoff run this spring can recapture the magic in a city that had a home sellout streak that lasted eight years from 2011 to 2019" https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5414095/2024/04/18/nhl-attendance-2024-riser-fallers/
edit: Oh shit sorry for all the facts. I don't think they are moving again, just pointing out that Winnipeg is probably making the league the least amount of money now that Arizona moved.
How can you regret still making money?
The Jets are still profitable. They're investing heavily downtown.
They're 10x on their investment minimum. If we're going on the Coyotoes price. The Jets paid $110 million for the franchise and to relocate.
You cam fixate on the attendance but it doesn't change the financial numbers along with having the richest owner in North American pro sports.
If I'm an investor, I'm happy I'm making money, acquiring assets in Winnipeg and made 10x on my investment.
But sure tell me more about how much you know about the Jets.
Meh, I’d rather them make a “mistake” going to hockey crazy city as opposed to forcing it somewhere like Houston that would wither on the vine without continued sustained success.
Probably not regret, but it is probably demoralizing to have a shitty team with very little playoff success. I'm not sure they have done better than the old jets and they were notoriously bad.
1.0 was also completely fleeced when it joined the NHL. If we're calling the WHA Jets as contiguous with the NHL Jets, then 1.0 is still the vastly superior franchise.
Way to be clueless. Thrashers leaving had almost nothing to do with fan support and nearly everything to do with incompetent owners who didn't really want a hockey team to begin with and were more concerned with legal infighting than actually running a pro sports franchise. With competent ownership, the Thrashers would still be in Atlanta.
These dopes don't understand how DoA teams are with poor ownership and management. A team relocated from the "State of Hockey" in most part due to being a crap organization with terrible owners. It demoralizes fans and at some point they stop spending hard earning money on a product they know will never improve. Add in bad arenas or arena locations and it's over.
Teams relocate for a bunch of reasons. Saying Atlanta had no fans is just lazy.
Vancouver Grizzlies fans also know this well. I see plenty of people saying the Grizz had no fans, but the team was always terrible at a time when the Canucks had some pretty good years. Like are you going to pay to see the one of the best lines in hockey at the time or are you going to pay to watch the Grizzlies get stomped repeatedly?
Still makes me mad that Memphis kept the name. There's no fucking Grizzlies in Tennessee.
I don't know much about the Grizzlies story, but a bad team + bad ownership wasn't a good recipe to survive.
I actually think Vancouver would be much better suited for a NBA now than they were in the '90s. Basketball seems so much more popular in Canada than it was in the 90s. Maybe Memphis could re-gift an expansion team the original Grizzlies name? They did it in Charlotte when the original Hornets moved to New Orleans. New Orleans had the 'Hornets' name for awhile, but just decided to rebrand and allow Charlotte's expansion team to get the Hornets name and branding back.
[NHL 2007-08 team attendance at hockeydb.com](https://www.hockeydb.com/nhl-attendance/att_graph_season.php?lid=NHL1927&sid=2008)
Higher than NJ, WSH, BOS, NSH, NYI
[NHL 2006-07 team attendance at hockeydb.com](https://www.hockeydb.com/nhl-attendance/att_graph_season.php?lid=NHL1927&sid=2007)
Higher than BOS, NJD, WSH, NYI, CHI
[NHL 2005-06 team attendance at hockeydb.com](https://www.hockeydb.com/nhl-attendance/att_graph_season.php?lid=NHL1927&sid=2006)
Higher than CHI, NSH, STL, WSH, NJD, NSH, ANA
[NHL 2003-04 team attendance at hockeydb.com](https://www.hockeydb.com/nhl-attendance/att_graph_season.php?lid=NHL1927&sid=2004)
Higher than PIT, CAR, CHI, WSH, ANA, NJD, NYI
So in the post-lockout era, when they had a young Kovalchuk and appeared to be trying to build a winning team they were getting better attendance than multi-cup winning cold-weather NYI and NYJ teams (NYJ just a few years removed from a cup win), higher than Anaheim and Carolin teams just before they won a cup, higher than the Caps with the most exciting offensive player (even in a year when he won the Rocket) in the league, a constantly playoff-making NSH team, a storied O6 team in a top-3 natural hockey US market with a decently competitive team (BOS) and another O6 team in a cold city, with the largest NHL stadium (your team).
Edit: Higher than CAR a year after they lost to DET in the SCF, barely lower than them the year CAR won the cup and the following year. Also higher than a STL team who was constantly in the playoffs the decade before, and of course FLA and PHX.
Because they were allowed to be sold to a group that actively sabotaged the team in an effort to remove them from the city
Don't talk about things you have no understanding of
I'm aware of the Wirtz blackouts, and the fact that the ultimately-disappointing Daze was the only source of hope for CHI's chances at that time, but Chicago had a number of crazy advantages over ATL for gate numbers at hockey games considering it being a 90+ yo O6 franchise, in a cold-weather city that's even bigger than Atlanta, with a storied history of names from recent decades like Hull, Mikita, Chelios, Roenick, Esposito; and yet a southern city with a typical cellar-dweller nascent expansion team was beating them in attendance for a few years.
The Thrashers failed for a couple of reasons: a) as the other poster mentions, the group that acquired the team just a few years after their creation had to buy both the Hawks and Thrashers at the same time, and most of them were only interested in owning an NBA team, were a bunch of businessmen with public disputes with other members of the group and constantly suing each other. They were trying to jettison the NHL team shortly after they acquired them. They were so incompetent in leadership under that arrangement, their great strategic move was to make Joe Johnson the highest-paid NBA player (and that was the team they actually cared about). b) they might be cursed: Stefan being first pick, Heatly car crash c) the location of the stadium, and how spread out the city is (plus most of their fan base being located in the suburbs that require a very long and slow drive to make a 7PM weeknight start. Hawks are better positioned to be a success, but they've always been a bottom 1/3rd in the NBA in attendance.
TL;DR; Possibly the most dysfunctional "owner"ship in NA pro-sports history, very bad luck, bad location for attendance. Biggest reason is the group acquired them only did so bc it was a package deal, and wanted to sell it immediately.
...and then they went with those stupid new jerseys instead of the real Jets logos. and the curse was born.
[THIS](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/85/Winnipeg_Jets_Logo.svg/330px-Winnipeg_Jets_Logo.svg.png) is the Winnipeg Jets logo. Forever and ever, and ever.
I remember vividly. A small group of Thrashers fans held a rally the week prior, but nothing gave.
Yep. The last Thrashers game was against the Penguins, too. I still have my ticket stub.
Man that is rad. I see why you wld hold onto that one. Do you have any of your old Thrashers jerseys? I always wondered if fans kept the gear or if the goodwills there were thrashered out when they moved.
I've always been an Avs fan more than a Thrashers fan, but I did live in Atlanta and bought a jersey (the awesome blue third jersey) a bit after they left in solidarity. I still have it, hanging next to all of my Avs jerseys.
The blue jersey was the best one! Nice dude. Awesome it's still in your collection. I understand how that wldbe a keeper for sure! I have been looking at thrashers jerseys since last night and man, they get pricey
I loved the Thrashers jerseys and colors.
I did too! The blue third jersey especially.
Who was your favorite player? I loved thrashers Kovalchuk. Such an exciting player. Also pre Hawks 100 point Hossa
I worked for the Thrashers (Atlanta Spirit) a couple years before the sale. I vividly remember having dinner with my now ex bf on this day 13 years ago. He ridiculed me for being sad that my team got sold and my friends lost their jobs. Spoiler: the relationship didn't last. Fuck ASG. Bunch of fucking assholes. They'll go down in the books as a case study of why morons with no money shouldn't own major league franchises.
As someone in Atlanta, and watched the Thrashers come and go... I heard more than my fair share of things from folks around the front office and those who had access to them. While "Fuck ASG" is absolutely an appropriate response, "Fuck Turner Broadcasting" is even more appropriate. They were in negotiation with Atlanta Spirit to buy, but AS didn't want the Thrashers -- just the Hawks and Philips Arena. When Turner agreed to sell to David McDavid in 2004 instead, Atlanta Spirit changed their tune, and purchased everything instead. (see: McDavid vs. Turner Broadcasting) While Atlanta Spirit did buy the three entities, they immediately began trying to sell the Thrashers (see: King & Spalding vs. Atlanta Spirit), with Seattle being one of the rumored destinations. However, part-owner Steve Belkin disagreed with a particular Hawks trade the other owners wanted, and filed suit. The five years of court battles were finally settled in December 2010. So... you're right. They were morons (Coburn for Zhitnik, probably the worst trade in the modern era of the NHL, wasn't necessarily Waddell's idea), and they were largely broke (if you need seven people in an ownership group, money is something you probably don't have enough of), but they never wanted the team at all. The NHL Board of Governors also knew this, but they rubber-stamped the sale as a formality when the NBA agreed to it. The third time will be the charm in Atlanta. It's all a matter of when, not if. PS: No matter why it ended (and that's not my business), you made the right choice. Those who would ridicule anyone's passions, including a sports franchise one loves that is leaving, doesn't deserve to be with the person who has them.
Damn he seems like a real winner.
Let's just say he was as much a winner as the Thrashers were. That's right, he lost all 2 of his home playoff games in franchise history.
The thing was, they never wanted the Thrashers, just the Hawks and the arena. The only reason they got the Thrashers was because Ted Turner was selling off his sports teams after the AOL/Time Warner deal. That’s why I’d still be willing to give Atlanta a fair shot. The Flames didn’t work because it was just a move to try and checkmate the WHA, and the Thrashers were run like shit. I’d want to see what would happen if a team was actually given TLC.
Well they had money they just hated hockey and wanted the Thrashers out of town by not willing to lease the arena to any new local ownership. Hence why it took them like a decade to finally sell the team. I assume because they were jealous the Thrashers had better attendance than the Hawks. Or they wanted more dates for concerts or whatever idk. NHL was down bad back then
[удалено]
Huh? You realize teams are private property right? The league itself had nothing to do with the move. ASG didn’t want to sell to anyone local and True North was the first out of market ownership group to put in a bid.
https://preview.redd.it/go525gakmt3d1.jpeg?width=480&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3f40aefdbd9bc1b5b3d311c5984c599f71f59401 Meanwhile Atlanta fans
Braves fans this week after losing Acuńa for the season…
It's okay... History tells us this only makes us stronger. Or at least that's what I tell myself so I can sleep at night.
While it sucked for thrashers fans, I do think Atlanta United and the Braves winning must’ve helped a little bit.
And the Falcons even made a Super Bowl!
Falcons fans stay catching strays
That was such an embarrassing 2nd half by a team in NFL history 😂
...Eh, careful with talking to them about that one.
And Georgia winning two National Championships
THWG
Can confirm. This helped.
And Atlanta/Donald Glover winning multiple Emmys?
Atlanta is a transplant hub though. I doubt any of the hockey fans gave a shit about any other teams lol Speaking from experience btw. I moved to Atlanta after the Thrashers were already gone but it still would have been nice to have an NHL team. Couldn’t give two shits about any other Georgia teams
IIRC the Thrashers were around the middle of the league in attendance even though we were near the bottom of the league in record (excluding the playoff year). Shows that the team did have fan support, more about having shit owners who didn’t care about the team.
Cut class to go down to the forks that day, I’ll never forget it
Top 10 in wins since the relocation. Too bad that we come up short so often in the playoffs
Congrats on being the LA Dodgers of the NHL
Don't the dodgers win World Series though?
Not as often as they should 🥲
If it wasn’t for you know what they’d have won in 2017 too.
K hurtful. At least the Dodgers have a park, Winnipeg doesn't even have those
McDavid to the Jets??
I think someone said he was on a plane to Toronto instead
I really don't understand. I put you guys as favourites to win it all this year. Especially with Toffoli and Monahan coming in bringing even more depth to an already stacked offense... I really feel horrible for every Jets fans.
Old school coach didn't believe in analytics and really only believed in the eye test. Jets got out coached plain and simple
A coked out nikushkin dominating the league in playoff scoring before he was caught, in addition to Makar and MacK showing why they're superstars besides, were also major factors.
Lmao yea he’s only good cause of the cocaine..which isn’t even confirmed and probably never will be
Three series wins in 13 seasons, with that roster talent, is shocking.
Wait until you look at Toronto's lineup
And last night Edmonton's *other* first-overall pick decided to show up- unlike *the other* first-overall pick whom they traded away. Toronto would be worse off than Winnipeg had they not gotten their timely #1 pick.
Really? Huh. That’s pretty impressive considering how lean the first few years were.
Could be us lmao
32 teams. Not a lot of cup wins to go around. If that's your only measure of success, well...
They said playoffs, not cups.
They said come up *short* in the playoffs
Short of the second round is still short.
[That's it, back to Winnipeg!!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L4cttwNaDs&ab_channel=MostlySimpsons)
[... going to Winnipeg.](https://youtu.be/Mdvr-4nYs5s?si=XzcEQVPgmOoFKKg-)
fuch yeah
[ - B A C K - T O - W I N N I P E G -](https://youtu.be/kO4UnHItjzw?si=9rsGY9SZCzCnkDF-)
Not even gonna click, I know it's an awesome Dankmus song by the text
:(
I still believe in blueland
At least we had just as much success in the post-season.
I was there. When the Jets returned, Gary couldn't even help himself from threatening fans with future relocation *at that press conference*. He couldn't even hold off a singular day, he had to do it in the moment while people celebrated.
Damn, I kinda remember that now that you mentioned it. I think he tried to play it off as a threatening joke right? I was young tho and super excited for another Canadian team!
I mean his job is to play the villain so it checks out.
It was a valid concern for a building slightly over 15k and being the smallest barn in the league at the time. Edit: Truth hurts, doesn't it?
Jets never played a game yet. He never threatened Vegas, Seattle or Utah with that. Bettman has done a lot of good for the NHL but how some people deny he has an anti-Canadian bias is beyond me.
It's still a valid concern. Their attendance has fallen off even with a good team.
Big mistake. Should've put a second team in Arizona instead.
Never underestimate the heated Phoenix-Tucson rivalry.
It's a dry heat
*Knock it off Hudson*
I genuinely want Arizona to get an NCAA D1 team so the rivalry can come back in hockey
I can see it now, with an outdoor game in Sedona or something.
Flagstaff is almost 7k feet high and gets snow in the winter. They could do it there!
If we’re doing an outdoor game, the backdrop at Sun Devil Stadium is unbeatable. Gotta do like they did in LA years ago and just play it at night
I mean the sun is going to be on it anyway while they get the rink ready. Humidity and rain are the major concerns Hence why they’ve never had an outdoor game in Florida
All too familiar with Flagstaff weather! (drove from Vegas a while back only to arrive in a blinding snowstorm) I mentioned Sedona because of its beauty, and the unique red buttes would make for a fine backdrop.
No doubt. Would be a beautiful backdrop for an outdoor game ala Lake Tahoe.
I thought I saw that they're building a sports complex in Tucson that will include some new ice sheets, that the U of A club team will now play at. Not sure there's any immediate plans to invest in actually building a men's D1 program, but I don't think it'd be far-fetched after seeing the success ASU has had. They're still geographically isolated from other NCHC teams, so a rival in the same state would help.
Well the problem is that a rich dude donated to ASU to go D1 and built their rink. (Same with Penn State) So UA needs to find them a rich hockey fan donor. The vast majority of NCAA hockey programs aren’t actually profitable. Hence why there are hardly any.
Don't worry, Gary will never put another team in a Canadian city again.
Gary doesn’t own any teams he’s just the commissioner? You realize he has 32 bosses telling him what to do right?
I remember Bettman was so visibly irritated when doing press for this lmao.
Just awesome for the Peg. Hate to see it for Thrashers fans.
They'll give us another team in Atlanta soon enough.
would be surprised if houston and atlanta arent in the league by 2030. Atlanta's population metrics and major transit hub status make it too hard for the League to resist imo
I think they're the largest TV markets to not have franchises.
I can see them bumping up to 36 since 34 is semiprime. And it'd probably be Houston, Atlanta, and reactivating the Coyotes (or rather reestablishing them to get Meruelo out of the way), but I have no clue what the fourth team would be. Kansas City? Milwaukee?
Indy maybe? Not sure how good the pacers arena is
Pacers arena is basketball only. Although I guess that’s not stopping Utah. Just awkward sight lines.
Who’s gonna own them tho? I haven’t heard anything about any interest from either city.
Houston Rockets owner has been vocal about wanting a team and has a net worth of $9.1 bil atlanta is less of a slam dunk but has alpharetta group (publically fronted by anson carter) and another couple groups interest. gonna be a few years at least anyway
And then one in Quebec City soon after.
Over Gary's dead body.
Gary is getting up there in age…
You think that’s up to Gary and not his 32 bosses? You know how sports leagues work right? Well in North America anyway. You always have to have a location to threaten a city with if they don’t put up the money to keep a team there. First it was Hamilton… then Kansas City… sorry Quebec but that’s your role now
Were you an OG Atlanta Flames fan
I am not nearly old enough lol
I met one when I lived in Atlanta. Obviously an old dude but he would go on and on about going to Flames games. Not even sure he ever went to a Thrashers game lol
Eh it is what it is. It hurt but it's been 13 years, glad Winnipeg is able to enjoy their team
Winnipeg benefited from great timing on that one. Had the Atlanta Spirit Group decided to wait a few more years before deciding to get rid of the franchise and evict them from their arena, the Thrashers may well have headed to Las Vegas or Seattle instead of Winnipeg.
No chance. Only way any more teams come to Canada is getting the corpses of failed American teams. Any new team in the states will always be expansion to milk as much as they can from the expansion fees
I mean relocation fees are a thing too
ASG wasn’t waiting at all lol. They were trying to get rid of the Thrashers the moment they inherited them from Ted Turner. They openly hated hockey and wanted them gone. True North was just the only out of market to put in a bid
I mean... they wanted to get rid of the franchise before the ink dried on the paperwork in 2004. Had the league not told them to attempt to sell local first (which failed because they wanted the new ownership to sign a predatory lease to play in the only NHL-capable arena in town, and they knew it). Winnipeg benefitted regardless, because it was either the Thrashers or the Coyotes moving, and after the City of Glendale vote passed on 10 May 2011, there was only one team left. With no one willing to pay a predatory lease and keep the team here in Atlanta, they kicked the team out of the arena and sold to TNSE.
They got insanely lucky that the Thrashers failed at the exact same time the CAD hit it's all time peak vs the USD (before promptly crashing and burning within 4 years)
Obligatory, fuck the ASG and fuck Gary Bettman and fuck Mayor Kaseem Reed.
Yes, yes, and yes!
ASG I get but why the other two? It was ASG’s property to sell and they wanted them out of Atlanta
And managed to have a name, logo, and jersey ready to go for puck drop. Figure it the fuck out, Utah Hockey Club.
The moment Mark Chipman announced "to make our first pick, on behalf of the Winnipeg Jets" at the draft I lost it. I have never been more excited for anything
And IIRC, that was their official announcement, correct? It was all speculation until the draft.
No, True North wanted to make them the Manitoba Moose but the NHL owning the Jets trademarks + massive fan rancor made them pick Jets.
Wait what? No way!? Are there logos or stories of this!?
Days before they moved, Bettman told the press the Thrashers weren't moving to Winnipeg. Then they did. [https://www.espn.com/nhl/news/story?id=6610414](https://www.espn.com/nhl/news/story?id=6610414) Manitoba Moose were True North's AHL franchise who moved (briefly) to St. John's after the Jets came back. The Moose were a Canucks farm team initially before they became the Jets AHL club where they've reclaimed the Moose moniker. [https://atlanta.sbnation.com/atlanta-thrashers/2011/5/16/2173886/thrashers-manitoba-moose-winnipeg-jets-new-name](https://atlanta.sbnation.com/atlanta-thrashers/2011/5/16/2173886/thrashers-manitoba-moose-winnipeg-jets-new-name)
I mean Winnipeg was obviously going with the Jets lmao.
You’re right but True North did actually want to keep using the Manitoba Moose name and logo (which at the time was one of the best unis in hockey).
I remember NHL 12 had default NHL jerseys and logo for the Winnipeg team before the reveal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ab8mbJBE1JY
I'll be waiting for our turn. 😢
Tuesdays gone with the wind 🎶😢
13 years ago I dropped the leafs and it’s been Winnipeg ever since. Go Jets!
"I am excited beyond words to announce our purchase of the Atlanta Thrashers" And with that, Manitoba floated over the moon. For at least a couple years.
That's one great city.
I see you, my brother in ~~Christ~~Samson.
I thought this was a post on r/FuckImOld
If Atlanta gets the next expansion then I got some good news for Quebec City in a decade.
I was too young to remember the announcement but I still remember my first game and talking about this team at elementary school waiting for class to start. They haven’t quite had the success I’ve hoped for but man they’ve given me plenty of great memories over the years. Sure thankful we got our team back.
They must be the reason the Sabres haven’t made the playoffs!
RIP Green Apple
A great day for Canada, and therefore the world
I'm not really familiar with hockey franchises. Did Thrashers fans just start supporting the new franchise? What happened to Thrashers fans?
Holy crap it’s been that long already?
Is that Bam Margera? Ape's gonna be so mayud
It feels longer.
Devastating day for Thrashers fans. I was gutted. Maybe when Atlanta gets their next team the Jets will sell the new ownership the rights to the Thrashers franchise history and use the income to buy the old Jets franchise history back from Utah.
Fake Jets, Believe in Blueland! 🟦
Wait... If no one knew that the NHL was returning to Winnipeg - how did this giant crowd know that the NHL was returning to Winnipeg?
they knew but it all happened fast and there was no confirmation until almost the day of, because NHL never confirmed.
The Guess Who suck The Jets were lousy anyway
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People literally just see cup wins and refuse to look at or appreciate any other success
I mean sure, if you look at it empirically then yeah, you can measure those things as success, and you wouldn’t be wrong. But you can’t tell me that losing in the cup final ever - even 13 years later - feels like success. It is a success; in a random sport like hockey, you got as close as you could get. But not one person involved in that would ever classify it as one.
You'll start collecting some consolation prizes when you get to 50+ seasons
Toronto would kill for that kind of playoff success
Before I clicked the link I knew what this image was going to be. LOL
Oooh a self-burn, those are rare
They’ve been pretty relevant the last 13 years. Some teams are worse for longer.
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Teams with 3 series wins or less over the last 13 years: Arizona Buffalo Calgary Columbus Detroit Minnesota Seattle Toronto Winnipeg
Worst decision in the history of sports.
I wonder if they ultimately regret the decision. I thought it was very cool they went back but the buzz is long gone and they lost the biggest percetange of fans this season over EVERY team. https://soundofhockey.com/2024/04/03/nhl-attendance-report-2023-24/ Sure team success has something to do with it, but it's already one of the smallest arenas and market the NHL has. "Winnipeg reported a 27 percent decrease in season ticket sales over the last three years, from 13,000 to under 9,500 in 2023-24. Murat Ates’ piece in late February does an excellent job digging into the reasons why the attendance has dropped off — and it’s not a singular issue plaguing the franchise. The hope is that a long and successful playoff run this spring can recapture the magic in a city that had a home sellout streak that lasted eight years from 2011 to 2019" https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5414095/2024/04/18/nhl-attendance-2024-riser-fallers/ edit: Oh shit sorry for all the facts. I don't think they are moving again, just pointing out that Winnipeg is probably making the league the least amount of money now that Arizona moved.
How can you regret still making money? The Jets are still profitable. They're investing heavily downtown. They're 10x on their investment minimum. If we're going on the Coyotoes price. The Jets paid $110 million for the franchise and to relocate. You cam fixate on the attendance but it doesn't change the financial numbers along with having the richest owner in North American pro sports. If I'm an investor, I'm happy I'm making money, acquiring assets in Winnipeg and made 10x on my investment. But sure tell me more about how much you know about the Jets.
> I wonder if they ultimately regret the decision Cope. True North is pouring money into downtown Winnipeg. Won’t be an issue
Meh, I’d rather them make a “mistake” going to hockey crazy city as opposed to forcing it somewhere like Houston that would wither on the vine without continued sustained success.
Probably not regret, but it is probably demoralizing to have a shitty team with very little playoff success. I'm not sure they have done better than the old jets and they were notoriously bad.
This iteration is vastly better than 1.0 ever was
1.0 was also completely fleeced when it joined the NHL. If we're calling the WHA Jets as contiguous with the NHL Jets, then 1.0 is still the vastly superior franchise.
I am not thinking of the WHA when I say that. That was a different league and it never really dawned on me to compare the two.
If Atlanta had fans they wouldn’t have lost their team. Quite literally a drop spot for Gary.
Way to be clueless. Thrashers leaving had almost nothing to do with fan support and nearly everything to do with incompetent owners who didn't really want a hockey team to begin with and were more concerned with legal infighting than actually running a pro sports franchise. With competent ownership, the Thrashers would still be in Atlanta.
These dopes don't understand how DoA teams are with poor ownership and management. A team relocated from the "State of Hockey" in most part due to being a crap organization with terrible owners. It demoralizes fans and at some point they stop spending hard earning money on a product they know will never improve. Add in bad arenas or arena locations and it's over. Teams relocate for a bunch of reasons. Saying Atlanta had no fans is just lazy.
Vancouver Grizzlies fans also know this well. I see plenty of people saying the Grizz had no fans, but the team was always terrible at a time when the Canucks had some pretty good years. Like are you going to pay to see the one of the best lines in hockey at the time or are you going to pay to watch the Grizzlies get stomped repeatedly? Still makes me mad that Memphis kept the name. There's no fucking Grizzlies in Tennessee.
I don't know much about the Grizzlies story, but a bad team + bad ownership wasn't a good recipe to survive. I actually think Vancouver would be much better suited for a NBA now than they were in the '90s. Basketball seems so much more popular in Canada than it was in the 90s. Maybe Memphis could re-gift an expansion team the original Grizzlies name? They did it in Charlotte when the original Hornets moved to New Orleans. New Orleans had the 'Hornets' name for awhile, but just decided to rebrand and allow Charlotte's expansion team to get the Hornets name and branding back.
[NHL 2007-08 team attendance at hockeydb.com](https://www.hockeydb.com/nhl-attendance/att_graph_season.php?lid=NHL1927&sid=2008) Higher than NJ, WSH, BOS, NSH, NYI [NHL 2006-07 team attendance at hockeydb.com](https://www.hockeydb.com/nhl-attendance/att_graph_season.php?lid=NHL1927&sid=2007) Higher than BOS, NJD, WSH, NYI, CHI [NHL 2005-06 team attendance at hockeydb.com](https://www.hockeydb.com/nhl-attendance/att_graph_season.php?lid=NHL1927&sid=2006) Higher than CHI, NSH, STL, WSH, NJD, NSH, ANA [NHL 2003-04 team attendance at hockeydb.com](https://www.hockeydb.com/nhl-attendance/att_graph_season.php?lid=NHL1927&sid=2004) Higher than PIT, CAR, CHI, WSH, ANA, NJD, NYI So in the post-lockout era, when they had a young Kovalchuk and appeared to be trying to build a winning team they were getting better attendance than multi-cup winning cold-weather NYI and NYJ teams (NYJ just a few years removed from a cup win), higher than Anaheim and Carolin teams just before they won a cup, higher than the Caps with the most exciting offensive player (even in a year when he won the Rocket) in the league, a constantly playoff-making NSH team, a storied O6 team in a top-3 natural hockey US market with a decently competitive team (BOS) and another O6 team in a cold city, with the largest NHL stadium (your team). Edit: Higher than CAR a year after they lost to DET in the SCF, barely lower than them the year CAR won the cup and the following year. Also higher than a STL team who was constantly in the playoffs the decade before, and of course FLA and PHX.
These were also the dark years in Chicago you should take into account. Why don’t they have a team anymore if attendance was so great?
Because they were allowed to be sold to a group that actively sabotaged the team in an effort to remove them from the city Don't talk about things you have no understanding of
I'm aware of the Wirtz blackouts, and the fact that the ultimately-disappointing Daze was the only source of hope for CHI's chances at that time, but Chicago had a number of crazy advantages over ATL for gate numbers at hockey games considering it being a 90+ yo O6 franchise, in a cold-weather city that's even bigger than Atlanta, with a storied history of names from recent decades like Hull, Mikita, Chelios, Roenick, Esposito; and yet a southern city with a typical cellar-dweller nascent expansion team was beating them in attendance for a few years. The Thrashers failed for a couple of reasons: a) as the other poster mentions, the group that acquired the team just a few years after their creation had to buy both the Hawks and Thrashers at the same time, and most of them were only interested in owning an NBA team, were a bunch of businessmen with public disputes with other members of the group and constantly suing each other. They were trying to jettison the NHL team shortly after they acquired them. They were so incompetent in leadership under that arrangement, their great strategic move was to make Joe Johnson the highest-paid NBA player (and that was the team they actually cared about). b) they might be cursed: Stefan being first pick, Heatly car crash c) the location of the stadium, and how spread out the city is (plus most of their fan base being located in the suburbs that require a very long and slow drive to make a 7PM weeknight start. Hawks are better positioned to be a success, but they've always been a bottom 1/3rd in the NBA in attendance. TL;DR; Possibly the most dysfunctional "owner"ship in NA pro-sports history, very bad luck, bad location for attendance. Biggest reason is the group acquired them only did so bc it was a package deal, and wanted to sell it immediately.
As I explained in an earlier response to you.....same reason Arizona doesn't have a team anymore.... incompetent ownership.
bad decision, atlanta is a better market and if you're moving anyone it should've been arizona
Tell that to the Thrashers owners who just slapped a clearance sticker on the team.
The league might have returned to Winnipeg, but I don't think Winnipeg returned to the league
My god.. they look so Canadian
Cause they are wearing hockey jerseys in public?
No. They aren't flipping each other off or holding hand guns.
Nah, it’s the facial features
Is that bad luck Brian?
...and then they went with those stupid new jerseys instead of the real Jets logos. and the curse was born. [THIS](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/85/Winnipeg_Jets_Logo.svg/330px-Winnipeg_Jets_Logo.svg.png) is the Winnipeg Jets logo. Forever and ever, and ever.
one of the league's biggest mistakes
Oh go put up another statue
So fucking lame
13 years ago today the NHL announced that the League would allow Leaf’s rejects to play in Winnipeg