Friday, June 3, 2011
Sports Ben's Sports Take: An Appropriate End for the Thrashers
Posted by Ben Bussard on Fri, Jun 3, 2011 at 1:32 PM
Handfuls of Thrashers fans gathered at Stats sports bar on Friday afternoon to mourn the loss of yet another NHL franchise here in Atlanta.
'790 the Zone' hosted a Wake Ceremony for the seldom relevant franchise complete with a hearse carrying the team mascot and a bagpiper pumping out Amazing Grace over the crowd of a dozen or so fans in attendance.
But for a franchise that left town mainly due to its inability to attract an audience, what else did we expect for its sendoff?
You can blame whomever you want to for the loss of the Thrashers—the ownership group, the NHL commissioner, the city itself—but what ultimately drove this team out of town was a lack of support.
Sure, they weren't the most productive team and the ownership was downright conniving, but there have been numerous stretches of ineptitude by other Atlanta franchises that didn't end up costing them their zip code.
From 1970-81, the Braves posted a winning percentage of .457 (856-1019) and failed to finish higher than third in their division.
The Falcons missed the playoffs for the first 12 years of their existence and posted a cumulative record of 57-107.
And I know you all remember the Hawks' run from 1999-2007 where they averaged less than 28 wins per season and never cracked the top four in the division standings. (For the record: the Hawks went 218-438 (.332) over those eight seasons)
As other Atlanta sportswriters have suggested, sports fans here aren't lousy, they're just "discerning". They choose not to support a lousy product and shouldn't be blamed for their refusal to attend sporting events.
I wonder why the city of Chicago—perhaps the best sports city in the country—has continued to support a baseball team (the Cubs) that hasn't won a championship in over 100 years? I guess they're just stupid, or they have a significant amount of expendable income.
The lack of support for the Thrashers sport of hockey in Atlanta is what did the team in and the sparse crowd that gathered to say their final goodbyes is a lasting testament to why this city will never be considered a great an average sports town, but at least we have the most discerning fans.
So discerning, in fact, that we'll sacrifice an entire franchise before we even think about attending a game.
Comments (10)
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Chicago's a bad example - at least compare apples to apples. The Blackhawks sucked from 02-07. During that stretch, the Thrashers way out drew Chicago in attendance. Chicago owners responded and put a better team out there - and the fans came back. The Thrashers' owners responded by continuously getting rid of their best players - wrong move.
However, I don't care. I'm a southerner - hockey's on the level of soccer, bowling, and tennis to me.
Angus, don't try to use facts or common sense comparisons in your argument. This "writer" just likes to make asinine statements so that people will post on his lame blog entries.
This is probably the worst article I have ever read on the subject of the Thrashers and their struggles. That is saying a lot considering all of the nonsense that came from the Canadian media the past few years. Also, anyone who bases the support of hockey in the Atlanta area on the attendance of a pointless "wake" created by 790 the Zone, with 2 days notice and specifically to piss of 680 and the Thrashers fans, is a complete moron (aka Ben Bussard).
Also, the statement that Atlanta doesn't support hockey is way off base. Atlanta boasts the 2nd largest amateur hockey league in the USA with 2000 members: The AAHL. That is one of several adult amateur leagues. Nevermind the countless youth programs, junior teams, and the emergence of KSU's hockey program.
Remember when CL was going to go out of business? Writers like this were the reason why.
Atlanta is not Chicago for a myriad of reasons, but a big difference is we don't have generations of people who grew up here. We are a city of transplants who cheer the opposing team and only show up for ours when the playoffs are in sight. Sure people in Chicago support the losing Cubs, because their parents and grandparents did.
Why won't all our transplants shift allegiances to the town they not live in and not show up for the Red Sox, Mets, Yankees, Cubs, Blackhawks, whatever else? That's the question you should be asking.
I'm old enough to remember the Flames, they got support from Atlantans long before the wave of Northerners came here. And the NHL still yanked them away. What was the excuse then?
Finally, why should I pay big bucks to watch overpaid athletes playing for selfish owners who have no loyalty to their town and don't put a decent product on the ice, court or field. It's a two-way street.
The loss of the Thrashers reflects nothing to me or my city, thanks.
Gee, I wonder why nobody went. Maybe because from any other angle, that looks like a player in a coffin, and that's only inappropriate as hell considering what has happened to this team.
Or maybe it was the horrible time, or the fact that this station had absolutely nothing to do with the Thrashers.
The real problem is the location of Philips Arena..DOWNTOWN. Downtown Atlanta has such a negative stigma and people just don't like going downtown. They don't like driving downtown, they don't like taking MARTA downtown. Maybe someday the city will clean downtown up and it will become a city we can all be proud of. Otherwise, if they had built the arena closer to to the fan base, perhaps in Sandy Springs, the Thrashers might still be here.
Metito... WRONG! Philips Arena is constantly the number one or number two most popular venue in the United States (it swaps from year to year with Madison Square Garden) and constantly in the top ten worldwide. How is that possible if people don't like going downtown? Just because you're scared doesn't mean the rest of us are cowards.
Know what isn't in the list of top venues? Cobb Energy Center. Know what else isn't in the list? Gwinnett Arena. Maybe people are scared of Cobb and Gwinnett rather than Downtown.
But hey, keep repeating your lies to yourself. It's the Christian thing to do.
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