Thrashers gone...Schultz sums it up exactly

[macdaddy]

Schultz

This is exactly how i feel. Plain incompetence.

[lethalweapon3]

Yep, not a bad market. Just a poorly-handled product.

~lw3

[DrReality]

Will not miss hockey one bit. Hope it helps the Hawks.

[Beelzebob]

I fired off an email to the ATL Spirit and let them know I will not attended any event at Phillips until they are gone. If fans don't take a stand against this kind of mismanagement we will all be rooting for the Vancouver Hawks soon.

[Deeman]

It sucks that the fans are gonna take their anger out on the Hawks by boycotting the games. Other than that I could care less about the Thrashers honestly.

Edited May 31, 2011 by Deeman

[Sothron]

I fired off an email to the ATL Spirit and let them know I will not attended any event at Phillips until they are gone. If fans don't take a stand against this kind of mismanagement we will all be rooting for the Vancouver Hawks soon.

Amen. I will not spend a penny on the Hawks or that arena until they are gone. They refused to sell to local owners and used the "exclusivity" deal with the SD guy to keep local groups from discussing a lease deal. Screw you ASG. Die in a fire literally.

[jhay610]

The Thrashers were failed by the ASG, Don Waddell and Bettman. ASG for saying it was committed to the city while it was trying to offload the team behind closed doors. Waddell for running the team into the ground for a decade and ASG again for refusing to pay its top players market value. Bettman for being a sleazebag -- saying the NHL was committed to the Atlanta market and then shifting blame to the fans when it became clear that a $60m check was due to the league.

For all of the fans around the continent that are taking up this opportunity to blame this on the city: go back and look at the initially sterling attendance figures and their steady decline over a decade. The facts are that this was one of the most poorly run, if not the most poorly run, franchise in the league for its entire existence.

Atlanta fans are duly discriminating when it comes to supporting professional sports franchises. This is professional sports – everyone is in it for the money and as a fan, if something is wrong, the only way to lodge your dissent is by withholding your investment in the team.

Atlanta provides an electric atmosphere that would rival any when there is a superior product on offer or a compelling storyline – see Hawks vs Celtics in 2008, the Braves of the early 90’s and the Falcons during the Vick era and to a lesser degree of late with the emergence of Matt Ryan.

Atlanta provides unconditional support for its amateur athletes, the most salient example being college football. For fans of other cities that take a measure of pride in blowing thousands of dollars a year on inferior teams year-in and year-out, I see only fools that are easily parted with their money.

I will miss the Thrashers but refuse to put the blame on the city. If you can’t drum up enough support to fill the seats of a state-of-the-art 20,000 seat arena when you are drawing from a population of 5.5 million people, that’s a ‘YOU’ problem.