Lol so bad. Just wait for when the Caps are in a total rebuild and the only reason to play games is to get Ovie the record. He’s gonna take Alexi Kovalev length shifts, with zero energy exerted beyond shooting. It’ll be magical.
was shocked to see him above Dahlin and Fox in the odds, but I guess his point total is just too much for people to turn away from.
So are we really doing expansion talk again? Marek and Friedman mentioned it yesterday, saying Houston and Atlanta (lol) are candidates. It sounds like Houston is absolutely getting a team at some point but the arena issues have to be addressed. What they didn’t know is whether Houston gets its team via expansion or relocation. Friedman also mentioned Kansas City as a city of interest. Enough, please.
As a KC resident, I don’t think the city could support another pro franchise, unfortunately. (As much as I would love it) The Chiefs and college sports dominate fandom here.
Giving a city a third try, especially when it has barely been a decade since they lost a franchise because literally no one wanted to own them there, is embarrassing. More embarrassing than continuing to prop up the Coyotes.
I get why the NHL wants Atlanta to work. Finally breaking into the African American market would be massive for the league's popularity. But it's been tried twice already and it hasn't worked either time. Though to be fair, the Thrashers were garbage the entire tenure outside of like 1-2 years.
I get why everyone here would be a bit hesitant on the NHL coming back here to Atlanta, I really do. That being said, I think that there wasn't enough information about just how shitty their old ownership was and how detrimental they were to anyone who even considered owning the team before they left for WPG. The Atlanta Spirit Group never wanted the team from the beginning and only wanted the Hawks & Philips Arena but the sale was all or nothing from the previous owners (Time Warner). When they were finally able to offload the hockey team (after many years of suing each other) they poisoned the well for any groups looking to keep the team in town by forcing them to find their own arena deal somewhere else or paying them astronomical rent to continue playing at Philips. Even with the influx of cash from the Thrashers deal they were so comically bad at owning a NBA team that they only kept them for less than four years (spring of 2015). I don't love the Alpharetta location and would prefer something somewhat closer to the perimeter highway that goes around Atlanta (and is on the train line) but understand why they'd like that spot (a 90's era mall that has seen better days). I'm not saying that this would ever be a top tier market in the league, but between the Flames in the 70's and the Thrashers I'm not sure that a team here has had 5 straight years of sustained ownership that gave a shit so I'm not completely convinced that we are as much of a lost cause as some might assume. Also, as some of you have mentioned, the team was truly terrible for all but 1 or 2 seasons so we never got the excitement that Vegas and even Seattle have already experienced. I know it's anecdotal, but I've talked to more people at Atlanta United soccer games over the past 6 years who also were massive hockey fans and we've certainly showed the mls what a mistake it was for ignoring this market (and region) for so many years. I know that I'm very biased but if we got another team and had even a base level of competent leadership that this market could be just as good as others around this general region (Nashville, Carolina, and Dallas) if given the time to grow, which has never happened in their previous attempts.