Former Flames Home Gets Second Chance

ATLANTA — The NHL is the ultimate second-chance league.

Three times this decade, a city that lost its hockey team got another one. The latest reclamation project is Atlanta, where the Flames are still remembered fondly but the Thrashers are ready to make their own mark.

“The Flames did a good job establishing hockey down here,” Thrashers coach Curt Fraser said. “I guess the people missed it and wanted it back.”

Taking the name of the Georgia state bird, the league’s 28th franchise opens a new era in Atlanta’s hockey history on Oct. 2 against the New Jersey Devils.

While the Flames lasted only eight seasons before moving to Calgary in 1980, the Thrashers have all the fundamentals for being a long-term success: Ted Turner is a committed owner with deep pockets; the season-ticket base is around 13,000 for the inaugural season; and the new $213 million Philips Arena is a spectacular venue with plenty of luxury boxes and club seats.

“I moved from Florida just for this,” said Joel Saunders, adorned in a Thrashers jersey as he waited outside the team’s new training complex to collect autographs. “I wasn’t happy with the way Wayne Huizenga treated his pro franchises.”

He spoke with bitterness about how billionaire businessman Huizenga built the Florida Marlins into a World Series champion, then dumped all the best players and sold the team. Huizenga still owns the Miami Dolphins and Florida Panthers.

Turner has a similar sports empire in Atlanta. The Braves are one of baseball’s most successful teams, playing in a stadium that bears his name, while the Hawks have been a consistent playoff contender.

“Ted Turner treats his teams differently,” Saunders said. “You’re not going to see Greg Maddux and Chipper Jones playing down in Florida. Here, they spend the money to keep their best players. I came here to see this team actually get built.”

While almost a dozen former Flames still live in Atlanta, Bobby Stewart is the only official link to the city’s NHL past. An equipment manager with the Atlanta Flames for seven seasons, he now holds a similar position with the Thrashers.

“It’s incredible how much the city has grown,” said Stewart, who spent the past 19 years in Calgary.

Indeed, the population of the metropolitan Atlanta was around 1.4 million when the Flames joined the league in 1972. Today, it’s an estimated 3.5 million (the nation’s 10th largest television market) and still growing.

While the Flames were an anomaly--the first major league hockey team in the Deep South -- the NHL now has an entire division devoted to Southeast teams, with dozens of minor league teams sprinkled throughout the region.

Even with a smaller population base, the Flames averaged more than 10,000 per game during all eight of their seasons at the 15,000-seat Omni, outdrawing the Hawks every year but one. Rather than a lack of fan support, the team was hurt by poor marketing and underfinanced ownership.

“We had a very good core of fans with the old Flames, real good fans,” Stewart said. “The people in Calgary didn’t know the story. They assumed that no one was going to the games. That always bothered me a little bit. There were other circumstances here that I didn’t even understand.”

Already in the 1990s, Ottawa and Denver got second chances from the NHL, with varying degrees of success.

The Senators, following the team of the same name that played in the early part of the century, finished last in their first four seasons. Now, after building one of the league’s better teams, they are threatening to move because of financial problems.

On the other hand, the Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in their first season after transferring from Quebec and play before sellout crowds. That was in contrast to Denver’s first team, the Rockies, who were a financial disaster before moving to New Jersey in 1982.

Like the Senators, Atlanta is starting from scratch with an expansion team rather than a transplanted franchise. Translation: Expect few wins and plenty of low-scoring games.