Well ladies and gents, as most of you know, it was announced today that the sale of the Atlanta Thrashers to True North Sports and Entertainment is final assuming that the sale is approved by the NHL board of governors on 21 June but let's face it, when you have the NHL Commish there with both parties involved on the announcement of the sale, smiling like a cheshire cat, what are the chances of the sale not going through? Atlanta becomes the only city to lose two NHL teams to other cities during the modern era. I have prided myself in being a supporter of the Thrashers since my family and I have lived in Atlanta. Heck, my little boy's first sporting event was a Thrashers game and if you know Kate and I, that is saying something! I have also prided myself in never being an avid supporter of the ownership of the Thrashers, the Atlanta Spirit. Frankly, I always thought that the name for the ownership group was such a joke considering the "spirit" they put into putting quality players on the ice and KEEPING them in a Thrashers uniform. These jerks basically went into this business venture to either, (1) make money, which let's face it folks if you've ever spent more than a couple of minutes looking into sports ownership and your prime reason for getting into it is profit, you'd be better served opening a hot dog stand at the corner of 10th and Peachtree! Secondly, if it wasn't for profit I'm guessing it was to woo those of the opposite sex (or maybe same sex/ or both) by getting their Glamour Shots photos put into the program as one of the owners. "Hey honey. Ya know, I'm one of the owners of the Thrashers. Wanna go back to my place?" I don't know. Maybe some of you might can shed some light on it for me?
While watching the actions of ownership was like watching the actions of the clowns at a three ring circus, the players gave us something to be proud of. We have had some of the top players in the NHL play for our franchise. While they were here, they gave everything they had on the ice to make this team a winner. This team has never been deep but from night to night, they could go toe to toe with any team in the league. Especially when Blueland got to rocking and unfortunately, the longer the Atlanta Spirit had the team, the less and less of those "rockin'" nights came along. If you look at our team right now, you have some great young talent and I'm just guessing that it won't be but a couple of years and we will be hearing about the Winnepeg franchise making a push in the Stanley Cup playoff. While I really hate to see the Thrashers go and hockey leave Atlanta (AGAIN), these players that we have called ours deserve better than what they had gotten here in Atlanta. The loyal fans might have been few, but they laid it out there every home game. Sadly, without ownership being as dedicated to the players and the fans as they were to themselves, the end to the Thrashers was inevitable.
I hope that I am not the first Thrashers fan to say this but if I am, so be it. I'd like to wish the players good luck in their move to Winnepeg and I hope to see them in the playoffs next year with an ownership group that is dedicated to winning and a fanatic fanbase that will be there to lift them up when they think they have nothing else in the tank. We (your Thrasher fans) will be watching and we will STILL be proud of you!
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