Surprise! Thrashers fans get special ticket delivery
It was not an average lunch-at-your-desk day for Joe Wright.
The president of MetaFoods was in mid-bite Tuesday when Thrashers forward Jim Slater walked around the corner of his Atlanta office with a delivery. Slater handed Wright his 2010-11 season tickets.
“I was eating and they caught me off guard,” Wright said. “It was a good feeling to look up and see a face I recognized immediately. I looked up and there was Jimmy Slater and it was kind of exciting because he is definitely one of the hardest working players out there. You always know when he’s on the ice, he’s giving 110 percent and that’s pretty exciting.”
With the exhibition season just one week away, Slater was one of several Thrashers players who delivered season tickets around town. Eric Boulton, Ondrej Pavelec and Boris Valabik made similar stops around metro Atlanta on good will missions for the team.
“It’s fun to get out and meet our really supportive fans for our team and deliver their tickets for the upcoming season,” Slater said.
Slater stayed for 15 minutes, talking with Wright and company employees, signing autographs and posing for pictures. Wright showed Slater his computer screen saver, a picture of Boulton with Wright’s children after a game last season.
“Well, you’ll have to change that now,” Slater joked.
While at the office, Slater discovered that he knew the son of another employee, Henning Aagaard-Svendsen, who once served as a visiting locker room attendant at Philips Arena.
“Hockey is a small world,” said his father Knud.
Several NHL teams do similar ticket promotions. Slater related a story from several years ago when Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby stopped by the home of an elderly woman to deliver her tickets. The woman told Crosby that the Penguins would not win the Stanley Cup that year, but they would the next. The Penguins lost to Detroit in the finals that season and went on the beat the Red Wings for the championship the next season.
The Penguins brought the Cup back for a visit with the prognosticating ticket-holder.
“Let’s see if anyone makes a bold prediction like that,” Slater said.
Wright has had season tickets since 2000, the second year of the franchise. What started as a partial plan grew into a full plan and he’s slowly moved down closer to the rink.
“I just like the excitement of sports, but once I learned the game ... I just fell in love with it,” Wright said. “My daughters enjoy it. My son enjoys it. It makes for a good family experience and we let our employees enjoy the games with their families as well.”
About the Author
Chris Vivlamore is the sports editor at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He has served as reporter and editor at the AJC since 2003.
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