SEAN GALLAGHER HAS THOUGHTS

The Atlanta Thrashers have been gone for more than a decade, but it feels as if the ghost of the franchise has resurfaced in the city where it relocated.

It’s odd to hear that a Canadian franchise is struggling to, as they say in Shoresy, “put bums in seats”. That’s apparently the case for the Winnipeg Jets.

The team’s owner recently addressed concerns about attendance and how it doesn’t bode well for the Jets’ future. There are over 3,500 fewer season-ticket holders compared to three years ago, and average attendance ranks near the bottom of the NHL for an arena that is the smallest in capacity if you don’t count the Coyotes playing at Arizona State’s Mullet Arena.

Fair to say the pandemic played a part in this, with the team’s lack of success in the playoffs perhaps making fans feel like a full-season ticket package isn’t worth the investment.

The move by ownership sounding the alarm comes for a city that already knows the pain of losing a franchise to relocation. The original Jets moved to Arizona back in 1996 created a pro hockey desert in Manitoba that had fans urging the NHL to give them a future expansion team or a relocated franchise. The latter happened in 2010 when True North bought the Atlanta Thrashers and moved them to Winnipeg, creating a new version of the Jets, as if the old team never left.

Hearing that the smallest market in the NHL can’t draw fans to games at the league’s smallest arena makes you wonder why Commissioner Gary Bettman would flirt with a third attempt at an Atlanta expansion.

Sure, having a team in a top 10 U.S. sports market is tantalizing, but the Flames and Thrashers are cautionary tales, and Atlanta’s track record with hockey can’t afford a third failed team since the first was awarded in 1972

The Winnipeg situation could also be used by Bettman as a defense for why the NHL isn’t ready to go back to Quebec City after the Nordiques relocated to Colorado in 1995.

For the league, the desired outcome here is to see the Jets remain in Winnipeg and avoid another relocation. Hopefully, the NHL also realizes throwing Atlanta’s name into the expansion ring is a bad idea.