Atlanta has lost two NHL hockey teams for two different reasons, but neither was lost because Atlanta is not a hockey town.
Atlanta is one of those places where everyone is from somewhere else. After our parents moved us there from Indianapolis, my brother and I found ourselves on Atlanta hockey teams with kids from New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Montreal…. We’d travel north to play teams who took us for granted, and we rarely lost.
My brother went to an Olympic Training Camp, played college hockey and professionally in Europe. I went to an Olympic Training Camp, played juniors in Canada, the USHL, and worked with the NHL selling custom equipment for Easton Hockey.
And we were not the only hockey brothers out of the ATL: One of the talented Ardagna brothers was Dartmouth’s team captain in the early ’80’s, one of the Hall brothers started the hockey program at The University of Georgia, and one of the Saponari brothers was an NHL draft pick.
An Atlanta youth hockey teammate and friend of mine Chuck Fletcher actually became a GM for a couple of NHL teams. His dad, Cliff, was Atlanta’s GM and moved with the team to Calgary where they won The Stanley Cup a few years later.
Who knows, if the team would have stayed in Atlanta maybe The Flames would be the ones with their names etched onto that cup?
I will admit, after The Flames left Atlanta there was a dip in hockey enthusiasm. We didn’t even have a local hockey rink for a few years and were forced to drive 2 hours to practice in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I had to look for a better place to play and coincidentally followed The Flames to Calgary when the Fletchers took me in at 17.
Dinner at the Fletchers in Calgary was often a lesson in hockey or the business of sport. Topics ranged from the one-way game of players from Scandinavia at the time to where the next batch of International players would come from to rising stick budgets to how to make the game better for TV.
Guests included Flames coach Bob Johnson who was doing double-duty as Team USA’s coach, and Sports Illustrated’s Editor in Chief who would stay for days. The All Star game was in Calgary that year so it was a who’s-who.
One evening talk turned to why The Flames left Atlanta and Cliff was adamant that they didn’t leave for lack of a southern hockey audience (present-day successes of The Carolina Hurricanes, Nashville Predators, Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers can attest to that.)
The Atlanta Flames hockey club was owned by Tom Cousins who was a residential real estate mogul. In the ’70’s Atlanta was growing faster than the gloves were dropped at a Flames vs. Flyers game. By the ’80’s the city was erecting high-rise office buildings like Dubai in the aughts. Cousins wanted to consolidate everything into this burgeoning boom, and his hockey team was a money-loser, so that went on the block first.
There were some local buying groups interested, but no one could match Canadian businessman Nelson Skalbania. Why? Because Skalbania pre-sold advertising (which was illegal btw). Skalbania would later go to prison for misappropriating funds on another deal.
I know, I know, the Flames weren’t the only hockey team to leave Atlanta.
The Thrashers had their own problems: first off they played downtown like the Flames. The majority of the hockey crowd in Atlanta lives well north of the city in the suburbs. They don’t want to fight traffic, worry about their safety, or pay exorbitant parking rates to see a team that loses. And that was The Thrashers second big problem: they rarely won. But their biggest problem was they were owned by a group of disparate entities called The Atlanta Spirit.
The Atlanta Spirit owned not just the hockey Flames but the basketball Hawks and the arena they played in. These owners were scattered from Atlanta to Boston to D.C. Some of the owners were more interested in the basketball team, others in potential revenue from the arena, others in who knows what. They were always arguing and they actually sued each other a few times well before The Thrashers ultimate demise.
Once again, there was local sentiment to keep the team in Atlanta, and there were some interested local parties, but the fact that they had already lost one NHL team did not bode well for a local savior.
If Atlanta does get blessed with a third team, they really need to be in the northern suburbs. There’s talk of that happening now with the Anson Carter group. They also need to up their marketing skills, and do more community outreach.
A few years back I was thinking an Atlanta group could buy the beleaguered Phoenix Coyotes and name the new team The Atlanta Phoenix, since they’d be rising from the ashes like the city itself had done. But that name was taken by an Atlanta female football team not long after The Thrashers moved to Winnipeg, and The Coyotes are somehow still in Phoenix.
So… If Atlanta gets another chance, and I think they will, how about naming the new team The Atlanta Dragons? There’s still fire and folklore involved, and great cross-marketing opportunities what with the Dragon Con crowd and all the movies and TV shows now shot in Atlanta.
And I’m available for consulting. Just sayin’.