Sports Stuff: Atlanta Thrashers

I don't fancy myself a sports guy, you can tell by the way I just used the word fancy to describe my affection for sports. However I'm not totally oblivious to sports either, I like the NHL and the Green Bay Packers, and I can pretty much get behind any Wisconsin team that's doing well. So every once and a while if something sports relevant comes up I'll throw up a post in regards to America's favorite pastimes. This first post regards the threatened existence of the Atlanta Thrashers.

Yeah it kinda looks like that one Pokemon

Those of you who know me, know I played hockey for six years during grade school. It is hands down my favorite sport. I could never understand the aversion people had to hockey. It's as hard hitting as football, it's as face paced (if not faster paced) than basketball, and it isn't soccer. Yet people never really seem to take the sport seriously, and throughout the 2000's the NHL has been struggling to find a wider fan base.

Word coming out of Atlanta today suggests that their NHL team, the Thrashers (it's a bird), is in dire need of investors or they risk being sold and moved. This is especially sad news for me. Living around Milwaukee the closest NHL team was the Chicago Blackhawks, I had to get my hockey fix from the Milwaukee Admirals, the city's minor-league team. The only NHL game I have ever been to was in Atlanta during the Thrasher's 1999-2000 inaugural season. Now I really wanted to go to this game because they were playing my favorite hockey team, the New Jersey Devils, so I wasn't really there to root for the home team. Nonetheless it is so far the only NHL game I have ever been to and it holds a special place in my heart.

Atlanta has been robbed of a hockey team before, in 1980 the Atlanta Flames left the city for Calgary where they remain today. Some might think Atlanta is an odd city to host a professional hockey team, and they might be right, but it's certainly no stranger than a city like Phoenix or Sunrise, Florida. However with Atlanta's attendance ranking 29th out of 30 teams, and owner's that have been trying to sell the team for over six years without success, maybe Atlanta no longer wants a professional hockey team.