Eh, I find it amusing people are trying to give "advice" to what the Thrashers should do. Yeah, their management has been shotty, but I think people are being a bit knee-jerky after one (although bad) game. This is a young team. I don't think they are treading as much water as you guys are painting it.
Eh, I find it amusing people are trying to give "advice" to what the Thrashers should do. Yeah, their management has been shotty, but I think people are being a bit knee-jerky after one (although bad) game. This is a young team. I don't think they are treading as much water as you guys are painting it.
This is a franchise in it's 10th year that has played 4 disastrous playoff games and the franchise is a mess. They have a bad forward corps and are mishandling any assets they do acquire.
I just wanted to say that it's sad that Atlanta used to have a great group of forwards and no defense.
Now they have pretty solid defense, and a weak group of fowards.
Through it all, they've had consistently bad ownership.
Waddell has a job because he's the only guy who will (or can) put up with the ownership's nonsense.
DW can't be too awful after picking up Hainsey. It was the ownership that forced him to make many of the poor moves he's made in the past (Coburn/Zhitnik...etc.).
Here are the Hawks attendance numbers compared to the NHL average. They had one playoff team after Roenick was traded.
Hawks attendance fell below the NHL average after 2 non-playoff years and 3 years after Roenick's departure. I don't see much evidence here of supporting the franchise in spite of not winning.
It sure looks to me like there is a relationship between being a playoff team and attendance in the Chicago market. I could do the same with the Detroit but we all know it would show the same thing. The Wings started being competitive and people bought tickets. When the Wings stank people stayed away.
93-94 +3,023
94-95 +6,021
95-96 +4,405
96-97 +2,849 (Jeremy Roenick Traded before season)
97-98 +2,161 Out of Playoffs
98-99 +1,019 Out of Playoffs
99-00 -0,085 Out of Playoffs
00-01 -1,552 Out of Playoffs
01-02 -0,917
02-03 -1,796 Out of Playoffs
03-04 -3,281 Out of Playoffs
lockout
05-06 -3,637 Out of Playoffs
06-07 -3,759 Out of Playoffs
07-08 -0,495 Out of Playoffs
Well during the 96-97 season Belfour was traded. Then during the offseason Hawks didn't even try to retain Nichols and Murphy. Then every fan favorite was sent packing. Same thing happened with Amonte!
Wirtz dismantled the Hawks for no reason other then to cut back on salary! And the lockout killed it even more. Then once league and players agreed to a CBA during the Hawks press conference Wirtz went off on a tirade about Hawks fans and how showing home games on TV would be a slap in the face of season ticket holders. You really had to be here in Chicago to understand why the fans stopped coming.
Here is his memorial service. This just shows you how much fans hated him for the way he ran things and for his off ice antics!
No one in Chicago liked the man. He chased away almost every fan!
Eh, I find it amusing people are trying to give "advice" to what the Thrashers should do. Yeah, their management has been shotty, but I think people are being a bit knee-jerky after one (although bad) game. This is a young team. I don't think they are treading as much water as you guys are painting it.
You are correct, of course.
Melodrama knows no boundaries.
It's a few fans of other teams wishing upon Kovalchuk for their own selfish needs. Understandable.
Likewise, the insufferable mentality that when times get tough...fold!....quit!
Reality is, it's a great challenge for the right GM, coach and players. Those may or may not exist currently in the organization, but the idea that you fold NHL franchises like the treefort fantasy team is naive.
That's the story of the franchise, don't the fans deserve more? Their attendance is already pathetic, and only going to get worse.
I've been following a team that has, with a rare season or two, been among the dregs of the NHL for the last QUARTER OF A CENTURY.
No hand out, nor crocodile tears expected here.
(Likewise, not many years ago, Anaheim as a laughingstock franchise. Carolina was nothing. Edmonton was having issues. The Pens were bottom feeders. Here on HF, the powers that be were calling to contract those "horrible" franchises at one time or another. They've since each appeared in the Cup Finals in the last three years. Short memories.)
Like NYI, Atlanta needs the right brainpower in the front office and the backing of ownership. Not a handout from anyone. This is a free-market economy. What happens after Atlanta gets help from Big Brother? Then NYI? Then who? See the slippery slope?
And no, actually no fan "deserves" more. If the product is not up to your or my liking, we don't have to pay it.
No need to contract the franchise, no need to provide welfare of any kind.
I've been following a team that has, with a rare season or two, been among the dregs of the NHL for the last QUARTER OF A CENTURY.
No hand out, nor crocodile tears expected here.
(Likewise, not many years ago, Anaheim as a laughingstock franchise. Carolina was nothing. Edmonton was having issues. The Pens were bottom feeders. Here on HF, the powers that be were calling to contract those "horrible" franchises at one time or another. They've since each appeared in the Cup Finals in the last three years. Short memories.)
Like NYI, Atlanta needs the right brainpower in the front office and the backing of ownership. Not a handout from anyone. This is a free-market economy. What happens after Atlanta gets help from Big Brother? Then NYI? Then who? See the slippery slope?
And no, actually no fan "deserves" more. If the product is not up to your or my liking, we don't have to pay it.
No need to contract the franchise, no need to provide welfare of any kind.
Just my opinion.
I especially love the fans who complain "I didn't pay all this money for a ticket to watch this crap" - to which I can only retort that I'd only need one time to determine if I should continue.
If you don't like the product, why do you still pay for the tickets and go to the games?
they lack an identity and a real commitment to win. Scott Mellanby brought that to the team, and he left with it as well.
I agree with the first part.
However, I fail to see how a guy like Scott Mellanby is going to change the culture of the team, while he lives at home in St. Louis. He was offered a position with the Thrashers provided he would relocate to Atlanta, he refused. I think the Thrashers made the right decision there, I do not want absentee "leaders" in the organization.
You cannot change a team or organizational culture from long distance.
All of the people suggesting that Atlanta move can just forget it. It ain't happening any time soon.
The Atlanta Thrashers, the Atlanta Hawks and Philips arena are one entity. They could not be separated when Time Warner sold them to the Atlanta Spirit. If they could be, the Thrashers would have been gone years ago.
The Atlanta Spirit is currently involved in a protracted lawsuit where one member is being sued by the other members. It has been going on for over 2 years now with no signs of ending any time soon. Whichever side wins will buy out the other side at market value. There are theories that they don't care if the Thrashers are trashed so that their value will stay low.
And if attendance in Atlanta is terrible because the team and ownership sucks, it is because it is a bad market. If this were happening "up north" it would be fans refusing to support a bad product.
I especially love the fans who complain "I didn't pay all this money for a ticket to watch this crap" - to which I can only retort that I'd only need one time to determine if I should continue.
If you don't like the product, why do you still pay for the tickets and go to the games?
maybe they like hockey, and simply want the team to be better?
The management has been horrible, but Atlanta as a city is notorious for poor support, even with successful teams. Look at the Hawks, Braves, and Falcons. They've all had periods of good attendance and periods of good play. But sustained attendance is not a strong point. The Atlanta Braves had one of the better runs in all of sports recently. But even they had trouble selling out big games in the later years.
If they're not going to move the team, fire everyone and rebuild from the ground up. I would suggest a firesale but they have no one to sell besides Kovy.
Atlanta has a good amount of transplants there. Which is a double edged sword some who already have a favorite team from back home, but at least they are familiar with the sport. It's not a bunch of country hicks.
Exactly, I moved to Atlanta about 4 years ago and I immediately met some friends that loved hockey, but many of them were from Buffalo, Detroit, and Pittsburgh. Most of them however were at least part time Thrasher fans.
All things being equal, I would take the entire Thrashers roster over anything the New York Islanders could ice right now. Their farm system also has some interesting prospects with star potential.
Remember people, the longer you suck, the more chances you get to become good.
Atlanta, similar to the Isles, will be at the top of the lottery for a few years. It'll be up to Snow and Waddell
To make it work.
You know what.. there's no hope. I just re-read my post and realized I said Garth Snow and Don Waddell had to make it work. There's no logistics in what I just said.
I cant understand what the argument here is, especially with all the talk of Detroit, Chicago, etc. Excluding maybe one or two teams...most teams in this league would have the same affect in the stands if the team was being run like it is in Atlanta. Detroit had the lack of attendance when they werent that good, as did Chicago. Its irrelevent if you are an "original six" or not...if you are bad, you will see the change in attendance and support. Atlanta has absolutely no direction, and a sub-par GM who should of been gone two seasons ago. Unfortunately, they arent going to improve until they get rid of DW, and get the ownership issues squared away.
A lot of Thrasher fans must feel like I did a few years ago, when the Panthers had no direction either. Our top prospects were Denis Shvidki, Ivan Novoseltsev, etc., and it seemed that we were stuck in neutral. Martin really got this team going in the right direction and its a complete 180 from years past. I expect the same to happen in Atlanta once a change is made from top to bottom.
Im going to jump in here and say most US cities wont support a bad hockey team.....
In the states, save for a very few exceptions, teams will only do well at the gate when they are doing well on the ice. If the Thrashers were a top flight team the building would reflect that
