New owner presser right now 6-25 11am

[atlhawks1]

Koonin is as important to keep around as Bud.  Glad they are all staying

 

[macdaddy]

Jeff Schultz sums it up pretty well in addition to addressing the thrasher issue

 

http://jeffschultz.blog.ajc.com/2015/06/24/ressler-a-step-forward-if-only-because-his-name-isnt-levenson-gearon/

 

 

Congratulations, Mr. Ressler: Here are the keys to your basketball team.

Now please change the locks.

The sale of the Hawks from the Atlanta Whining Toddlers on Parade to Tony Ressler was rubber-stamped by the NBA on Wednesday, thereby officially ending the reign of terror of possibly the worst ownership in the history of professional sports.

No more Washington group vs. Atlanta group. No more lawsuits. No more buffoonery, at least we hope.

There is no guarantee Ressler will be a great sports owner, or even a good one. But I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt, merely because his name isn’t Levenson or Peskowitz or Foreman or Gearon or Sleepy or Dopey. I’ve never really had a problem with partner Rutherford Seydel. He always seemed a harmless enough guy who just happened to join forces with the wrong used car salesmen.

The NBA has approved the sale of the Hawks to billionaire Tony Ressler (here with his wife, actress Jami Gertz). (Alexandra Wyman/Getty Images)

Nothing can undo the damage the Atlanta Spirit did. Atlanta lost its NHL team because those knuckleheads didn’t care about the sport, didn’t want the team, ran the franchise into the ground and then threw it onto the first northern-bound wagon they could find. Their actions before, during and after the Thrashers’ sale were nothing less than contemptible, right down to the day when Levenson — who orchestrated the whole thing — hid in his bunker when the team was moved to Winnipeg and wouldn’t deal with the backlash.

Nothing can reverse the blizzard of litigation between the two groups, or the backroom brawls or sandbox fights, or the fact that the Atlanta group — led by Michael Gearon Jr. — would have done anything to get former general manager Danny Ferry out of town, regardless of how many games the team won. Why? Because Ferry largely took his marching orders from Levenson, ignored Gearon as a major partner and burned bridges with Dominique Wilkins, Gearon’s pal and the franchise icon.

That’s not meant as a defense of Ferry — obviously he could have handled a lot of things better. But Gearon and his father have shown themselves to be spineless weasels with their actions. Never trust someone who when you shake hands with him, you only get four fingers back.

It’s appropriate that the unofficial end for the Spirit came because of shame — the Levenson email which played to racial stereotypes and use them as an excuse for small crowds. Among the wonderful excerpts:

“(The crowd is) 70 pct black … the cheerleaders are black … the music is hip hop … at the bars it’s 90 pct black … we are doing after game concerts to attract more fans and the concerts are either hip hop or gospel. … My theory is that the black crowd scared away the whites and there are simply not enough affluent black fans to build a significant season ticket base. … I think southern whites simply were not comfortable being in an arena or at a bar where they were in the minority.”

Strange. Crowds weren’t a problem this past season. Fans were white, black and every shade in between. Maybe because the team was winning.

But I don’t want to make a rash assumptions, like, “White fans won’t come to the game because they don’t like hip-hop.”

What a dolt.

The only mystery here is that Gearon will still  be a minority owner in this group, expected to retain about a one percent stake. Some New York-based Spirit partners also are expected to be “investors” in the new setup.

I don’t understand that. It would be better if Ressler started clean with all new faces and spines that weren’t the consistency of gummi worms. But if he’s really the only one with a vote in important matters and all of those dysfunctional conference calls among partners go away, it will be an improvement.

“We are pleased that the NBA’s Board of Governors has approved the purchase of the Atlanta Hawks by principal owner Tony Ressler,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement.

Atlanta should be pleased as well. Because while we don’t know what the next regime will bring, at least it ends the last one.

[Randy]

2 Most important questions.  1.)  Are they going to use muzzles or pacifiers to keep the remaining old owners from talking. 2.)  Are they going to spend money like no tomorrow and the luxury tax be damned.  

[Sothron]

The NHL is not coming back ... they tried twice and failed both times to attract people.  

 

Disagree, strongly. The one time the Thrashers were a playoff team the attendance was good and the playoff games in Atlanta were sell outs. An ownership that actually cared about the on ice product could make it big here.

[ATLSmith]

He sounds like the type of owner we've been looking for. But pretty much evading the question of keeping the team at Philips.

Putting all their support in Bud and Steve. That's good!

I wouldn't corner myself like that either. The Hawks might stay in ATL but to a new arena.

[macdaddy]

Disagree, strongly. The one time the Thrashers were a playoff team the attendance was good and the playoff games in Atlanta were sell outs. An ownership that actually cared about the on ice product could make it big here.

 

Agree totally and it was similar with the Flames.  From the Schultz article about this pretty much sums it up

 

 

 

nothing can undo the damage the Atlanta Spirit did. Atlanta lost its NHL team because those knuckleheads didn’t care about the sport, didn’t want the team, ran the franchise into the ground and then threw it onto the first northern-bound wagon they could find. Their actions before, during and after the Thrashers’ sale were nothing less than contemptible, right down to the day when Levenson — who orchestrated the whole thing — hid in his bunker when the team was moved to Winnipeg and wouldn’t deal with the backlash.

[Dejay]

The NHL is not coming back ... they tried twice and failed both times to attract people.

That isn't what lost them the Flames and Thrashers. It was bad ownership both times...

As a kid, I attended Flames games with my dad. The Flames sold out when they were here but were ran by Tom Cousins, who nearly lost his shirt when real estate went bust in the '70s. He had already sold the Hawks to Turner but tried to hang onto the Flames because they were a much better draw. But it was no secret to anyone in business that he was bleeding $$$ and once word got around, the Calgary folks (Nelson Scalbania, to be specific) sent him a Godfather offer (around $17M, which bailed him out of his debts) under Ted Turner's nose and the Flames were a lame duck headed to Canada.

As for the Thrash, c'mon. They were gone the instant after the Joe Johnson fiasco went down. To be really honest, they were gone the second after the group that shall not be mentioned sent a check to AOL/Time Warner. They knew little about hockey (or basketball for that matter) and wanted nothing to do with the sport, much less the team. Under their watch, the Thrash was always among the lowest in payroll and did little in terms of scouting, marketing, and player development. They made the Hawks look well-run in comparison, which was saying something considering that Babs and BK were the ones in charge; how else can you explain them keeping Don Waddell for so long? The one year they halfway pulled things together (the only year they went to the playoffs and won the division), they sold out on cue; sounds familiar, doesn't it? And even then, their first playoff game WASN'T SWOWN ON TV. And to top things off, the former group initially lied about putting the team up for sale, was found out about and recanted, only to refuse to listen to local offers because they didn't want to ruin talks with the pizza guy; the same pizza guy they never bothered vetting.

If it wasn't for the real estate collapse (and Cousins not packaging the Flames alongside the Hawks to Turner for more $$$), the Flames would still be selling out the joint here every night and we would've had our first ticker tape parade in 1989 (maybe even 1987) when the Falcons and Braves were losing to college and high school teams. If they went to three Stanley Cup Finals in Calgary, how many more would they have gone to if Turner had taken over with his $$$ to fund them? Oh well...

Edited June 25, 2015 by Dejay

[ATLSmith]

Hoping Wilcox becomes the next Ferry in this and next few years and launches himself as one of the better GMs in the league. And not the next Rick Sund.....

Wilcox has big shoes to fill but he's been given the chance. Let's see what he can do.

[ATLSmith]

2 Most important questions. 1.) Are they going to use muzzles or pacifiers to keep the remaining old owners from talking. 2.) Are they going to spend money like no tomorrow and the luxury tax be damned.

They are trying to get the franchise out of debt, so I doubt #2 happens. This isn't necessarily bad though.

[NineOhTheRino]

The team has always been in good hands.  No matter what happed you cannot say the ASG didn't put a competitive product on the floor.  Sometimes we fans paid too much attention to the negative stories being leaked about inner workings of ASG.  Me, I could have cared less as long as I felt they were working in the best interest of the product.  

[Randy]

Guys we now have 2 hockey teams in Atlanta.  Just FYI.  :-)

 

http://na3hl.com/news/story.cfm?id=14979

[Dejay]

Guys we now have 2 hockey teams in Atlanta. Just FYI. :-)

http://na3hl.com/news/story.cfm?id=14979

That's like Bakersfield saying they have a pro basketball team in town. The little leagues don't really count...

[JETSET]

Hoping Wilcox becomes the next Ferry in this and next few years and launches himself as one of the better GMs in the league. And not the next Rick Sund.....

I know we shouldn't judge a book by it's cover but Wilcox lacks a no-nonsense hard bargainer vibe.  I wonder if he will be as successful as Danny when it comes to shaving every last penny off of a contract.

[AHF]

The team has always been in good hands.  No matter what happed you cannot say the ASG didn't put a competitive product on the floor.  Sometimes we fans paid too much attention to the negative stories being leaked about inner workings of ASG.  Me, I could have cared less as long as I felt they were working in the best interest of the product.  

We've not been in good hands.  We have had some success in spite of the many difficulties created by our ownership -- not because of the support of that same ownership.