Hockey in Atlanta on thin ice
By STEVE HUMMER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, February 15, 2009
In his throwback Dan Bouchard No. 30 Atlanta Flames sweater, Marty Fischer was dressed for the icemaker chill of Philips Arena.
But he is a man who has loved and lost at hockey before, and merely the thought of the Thrashers going the way of those old Flames was enough to send a shiver through him.
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3 REASONS FOR HOCKEY TO STAY
- 1. The NHL wants a presence in the eighth-largest television market in the United States.
- 2. Moving the team could threaten the $9.3 million-a-year arena naming rights agreement with Philips.
- 3. There is evidence Atlanta would support a competitive team — attendance and interest spiked around the only playoff season — if the Thrashers put one on the ice consistently.3 REASONS HOCKEY COULD LEAVE
- 1. There is the perfect storm of a bad economy, the uncertainty that goes with the court battle over ownership and the team's bad performance of late.
- 2. Vultures are circling: There is interest in acquiring hockey in cities such as Kansas City, Las Vegas, Quebec City and Winnipeg (although each city has its own set of issues).
- 3. Unlike the NBA's Hawks, the Thrashers are not tied to the Philips Arena bond payment agreement.
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Worried about the future of hockey in Atlanta?
“The way things are going, yeah, it’s worrisome,” said the 60-year-old die-hard fan from Marietta, while awaiting a faceoff at a recent Thrashers game.
In 1980, Atlanta lost one NHL team — those old Flames — to the Canadian wilderness.
“It was like a divorce,” Fischer remembered. And Calgary got the kids.
And now, another set of uncertainties swirl around the Thrashers, who brought hockey back to Atlanta in 1999, playing on all those old hockey insecurities.
Welcome to Blah-land — formerly Blueland — where the ownership is fighting itself, the team is in the cellar and angst grows over the very future of hockey in Atlanta.
A Feb. 3 story in the Toronto Sun listed the Thrashers among six NHL teams most vulnerable to either being moved or being shuttered.
“This could be a blueprint of how not to operate an expansion franchise,” the newspaper warned, referring to the Thrashers.
There is no consolation to be found in the local paper, either.
This week, the three-year-long dispute among the eight-man Atlanta Spirit group — which owns the Thrashers, Hawks and Philips Arena operating rights — goes to trial again.
On the ice, the Thrashers have been downright dispiriting, owning the second-worst record in the NHL. And in this most gate-driven of professional sports, Thrashers attendance at Philips Arena has dropped proportionately (ranking 29th in the 30-team league). Some of those absentees are catching the game on TV — ratings are up 27 percent this year — but that still amounts to fewer than 5,000 Atlanta households.
Officially, the word is: Remain calm, all is well.
“We’re not planning on contraction. We’re not planning on moving clubs,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said. “There is a strong core of fans who we are certain will support the team in increasing numbers as things progress on the ice and with the economy.”
Speaking for the Spirit group, Thrashers executive vice president and GM Don Waddell said, “In countless meetings with ownership, never once have we expressed any interest in selling the Thrashers or moving the Thrashers.”
But the Spirit group is facing serious challenges, prompting some sports business experts to question its ability to hold on to the Thrashers.
In nine seasons, the Thrashers have gained precious little traction in Atlanta. Today they face threats to their long-term health on three distinct fronts.
The Economy
Perhaps you’ve heard — it’s tough out there right now.
“In the city of Edmonton, hockey is the No. 1 thing. When the economy is bad, people will give up on other things rather than hockey,” said Dan Mason, a professor of sports management and a hockey business expert at the University of Alberta. “Atlanta may choose to give up hockey before any number of other things.”
“You’d have to be completely naïve not to think that franchise is struggling,” said Ray Ferraro, a former Thrashers captain, now a hockey broadcaster living in Vancouver.
There are bargains to be had, but the NHL can be an awfully expensive date. The man in the Atlanta Flames sweater, Fischer, paid $156 for lower bowl seats for a night at the Thrashers game with his wife. His Flames season tickets averaged out to $7 each per game, he said.
When the Flames left in 1980, no one blamed the loss on the lack of fan support — it was more an offshoot of a financial crisis by then-owner Tom Cousins.
Nor is anyone prepared to claim the Atlanta fans can’t sustain hockey now.
Former coach Bob Hartley has been to two Thrashers games this season.
“The crowds weren’t very good,” he said. But, he maintains, “Is it the greatest hockey market? Maybe not. Is it a market that should do well? Absolutely. Atlanta deserves a hockey team.”
Whether Atlanta chooses to pay for one during grim economic times is another matter.
The Ownership
Figures filed prior to this week’s trial showed the Atlanta Spirit losing millions of dollars on its two franchises — an average of more than $21 million a year since it took over in 2004. That average could have been worse, if not for the hockey lockout of 2004. Without the need to support the Thrashers, the Spirit’s losses were cut to $12.5 million that year.
One perception of the ownership is common in the stands: “They’re basketball guys,” said Tim Thompson, a season-ticket holder from Lawrenceville.
Those same fans wonder how long the Spirit — in whatever shape it’s in after the trial — is willing to absorb losses from this “stepchild” property.
But the team argues that the Thrashers are an important part of a larger financial package.
“A stand-alone hockey team in this city? It would be very tough [to survive]. Very tough,” Waddell said. Since the Spirit also operates Philips, however, the Thrashers are intertwined in lucrative arena sponsorships, Waddell said. The largest of those is the $9.3 million-a-year naming rights deal signed by Philips, which extends through 2019 but could be voided if either of the two “anchor” sports franchises pulled out.
Fans aren’t fed on sponsorships; they live on results. According to the Web site HockeyBuzz.com, the Thrashers have the fourth-lowest payroll in the league ($47.5 million, which is about $9 million below the cap ceiling). Whether the Spirit is able or willing to spend enough to build a winner is the question customers are most passionate about.
“Everyone wants to focus on that $57 million [cap ceiling],” Waddell said. “We’re one of those franchises that economically can’t be at the cap. We have to have a budget we can live with.”
Ultimately that feeds into the last, most important, issue facing the Thrashers.
The Product
“Certain teams have an identity. With Detroit, you know what you’re going to get. With Philadelphia, you know. With most good teams, that’s the way it is. I don’t know what the Thrashers’ identity is,” said Tim Ecclestone, the former Flames winger who settled in Atlanta after the team left.
Under Waddell’s watch, the Thrashers have been to the playoffs once in eight seasons — and got swept by the New York Rangers.
While not always to blame, the franchise has lost some of its most dynamic, marketable players, such as Dany Heatley and Marian Hossa. All-Star winger Ilya Kovalchuk, with one more year left on his contract, could have one skate out the door.
This, the Thrashers’ ninth season, has represented a significant backslide, and the fans are restless. The first customer wearing a paper bag over his head was spotted in the stands a week ago. One anonymous grump has begun an e-mail campaign to protest what he called the Spirit group’s “running this franchise into the ground” with more paper bags and banners during a game with Montreal next month.
One of the most reliable clichés in sports states that winning cures all ills. That has never been truer than with this town and this team.
“Put a couple of winning seasons together, have a nice playoff run, then you build a following,” Thrashers defenseman Garnet Exelby suggested.
Nearly a decade after the NHL’s return to Atlanta, though, how much longer must fans wait for that promise to bloom? Or, more to the point of hockey’s future in Atlanta, how much longer will they wait?
Hockey in Atlanta on thin ice | ajc.com
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