As a lifelong hockey fan, parent of a travel league player, USA Youth Hockey coach, and ardent supporter of the Atlanta Thrashers, I give up. I get the message. We don’t really count, and I’m done with the NHL and professional sports in general.
The mantra spouted dozens of times by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman that “we have a covenant with our fans” now only seems relevant when such a “covenant” is advantageous to the almighty balance sheet.
To continue to speak such fantasy is perhaps even more insulting than the disaster wrecked upon the Atlanta hockey community by the incompetent tenderfoots of the Atlanta Spirit Group, or ASG.
I am simply dismayed that an organization as prominent as the NHL would permit a group as dysfunctional as the hobbyists in the ASG to run a franchise out of Atlanta, and break the hearts of fans who have been more than patient and loyal to a perennially substandard product.
There is an implicit understanding between any sports franchise and its fans that, in time, loyalty will be rewarded. Perhaps through a championship, but more often through at least moderate forms of success — or good faith efforts to achieve success.
Time and time again, the ASG failed hockey, and the city miserably, and the NHL sat back and did nothing, knowing all along that one of the weaker franchises would need to be sacrificed to appease the Canadian fan base, and to line the coffers of NHL owners. Their lack of advocacy in the sale of the team and utter disregard of loyal fans while the franchise withered away is tacit approval for the neglect of the ASG and forever disgraces both.
Hockey fans did what they could and held up their end of the bargain with passionate (albeit not unconditional) support, but the ASG and NHL have abandoned the city in a shameful move that is veiled in cowardly finger-pointing, legalese and big-business drivel.
The lesson here for my kids, all die-hard Thrashers fans including one 14-year-old hockey player, is that rich men can bend rules, twist words, sacrifice loyal followers and essentially do what they want — all in the name of profit and business. That is a horrible way to run a self-proclaimed “community asset” and a horribly cruel lesson thrust upon kids with jerseys, helmets, gloves, shirts and rooms covered in Thrashers and NHL logos.
Real leaders put aside ego, honor commitments, make difficult decisions, and do what is right despite dollars or prevailing sentiment for trouble-free solutions.
I lived in Denver when the Colorado Rockies were moved to New Jersey in 1982, and as painful as that was, now that I have a family of my own that has grown up supporting the Thrashers, this relocation feels very personal. It will be a long time before I ever attend an NHL game (in another city, of course); I will not renew my Center Ice sports package and XM Radio subscription; and under no circumstance will I support any business associated with the ASG, including the Atlanta Hawks and Philips Arena.
I already had plans to have a Stanley Cup party at my house for Game 1 of the finals, and will abide by that as a courtesy to my guests, but that will be the last game I watch. Of course the NHL will survive, and the ASG might do quite well without the Thrashers anchor weighing them down, but not with help of this former fan.
The covenant I abide by is the one I have with my family, where I vow to protect and teach each of my kids the proper, ethical way to conduct themselves. That is a promise that I will not break. Thanks, NHL and ASG, for providing me with a real-life example to use as a teaching point.
Brian H. Gedeon, a youth ice hockey coach, lives in Lawrenceville.
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