I have sad news, you ugys. Pour out a Sweetwater IPA, and play some Allman Brothers way down low. The Atlanta Thrashers are no more. While you guys are marveling at my photoshop skillz up there in the banner image, Brandon at With Leather has the details:
True North Sports and Entertainment, the Canadian group that has been negotiating to buy the team since mid-May, made formal announcement of the move at news conference in Winnipeg at 12:20 p.m.
“Sometimes, we simply don’t have a choice,” [Commissioner Gary Bettman] said.
The Thrashers owners, Atlanta Spirit, negotiated the sale of the Thrashers to True North since mid-May. The Thrashers’ owners have said in court documents that the team has lost $130 million since 2005.
Sh**, and I just learned what a “Thrasher” was. Fun fact: Atlanta is the only U.S. city to lose a sports franchise to Canada, and they’ve done it twice. The first time was when the Flames left for Calgary in 1980. The Thrashers have been in Atlanta since the league expanded in 1999, and spent most of their time adding black players to the team to try and and get hockey over in urban Georgia. Steven Godfrey of SB Nation has a great retrospective on that little storyline coming to an end, and hopefully they’ll continue to put together the team with a racial bias and make their mascot a big affable flag-waving white guy.
If I know anything about Canada (and it’s debatable), that guy should have a nickname ending in “ie”. Dougie, Davie, Gordie, Stevie, rinse/repeat. The team hasn’t announced a new name yet. Here’s the “call to sanity” gimmick in two parts:
1) Hockey should NEVER be played in places that aren’t covered in snow. Yes, Tampa, Carolina, I know you guys won cups. Shut up. Marko Jaric looks like he got one too many concussions on the set of a third-world Zorro remake, but he somehow married Adrianne Lima. Just because something unfortunate happened doesn’t make it a valid precedent. Good-bye Atlanta; like American Idol you seemed like something fun and different, but turned out to be just a giant suckfest.
2) This team NEEDS to be renamed The Jets. Any other name is unacceptable. Your new fan base doesn’t care about the franchise history (such as it is), they just care that they have a team. There are no lakes in LA, there’s no Jazz in Utah. Fortunately renaming franchises is (the) one area where the NHL is mildly competent. The old Jets moved to Phoenix and became the Coyotes, the Nordiques became the Avalanche, the North Stars became the Stars, and if I keep typing long enough, you’ll assume I came up with a fourth point. So please, please, please, bring back the Jets. Do it for everyone with an old jersey. Do it for Bobby Hull, Phil Housley, and Dale Hawerchuk. Do it for sanity.
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Tampa and Carolina get called out yet Miami is left unchallenged?!? Please, Miami is a lukewarm sports town that only supports frontrunners and Tampa’s outdrawn Miami since 2002.
Excellent point, I literally forgot there was a Miami hockey team. The Panthers haven’t been relevant since they had Vanbiesbrouck. I also forgot the Stars (who also won a cup in the South), the Ducks, Kings, Sharks, and Predators.
Side note, is there a worse city for pro sports than Miami? The Heat fans are cheering another potential title run about as enthusiastically as a guy watching his father’s colonoscopy video.