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Thrashers' time in Atlanta could be limited
Attendance poor despite a winning record
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ATLANTA — Thirty years after losing the Flames, Atlanta's hockey fans are on the clock again.

The NHL wants the city to show better support for its winning team or the league make have to explore "alternatives." The Thrashers, blessed with young talent, have a winning record but rank only 28th among 30 NHL teams in attendance.

And if that doesn't improve, Atlanta fans could lose it's second NHL franchise — the Flames moved to Calgary in 1980.

"I can't tell you how close or how far away we are collectively from having to consider alternatives and make a decision," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told The Associated Press on Friday. "But it has not been the best situation for Bruce and as a result it has not been the best situation for the franchise or for the National Hockey League."

For now, Daly says the league has advised Thrashers owners to look only for investors who want to keep the team in Atlanta. But they have been hard to find.

One of the team's owners, Bruce Levenson, says he has had no luck while looking almost two years for investors.

Nonetheless, Daly said Levenson is not "exploring any relocation alternatives." However, the team's poor attendance has sparked persistent rumors about a possible move.

"His focus has been exclusively Atlanta centered and our hope has been and continues to be that he'll be successful in finding an alternative that will keep this team in Atlanta for the long term," Daly said. "That's our preference.

"Having said that, and this is what I'd say to any franchise, not just Atlanta, there comes a point in time where if there is no alternative in terms of ownership or in terms of support in a particular market, you have to look at alternatives. That is just the reality."

The reality has been winning hasn't resulted in sellouts for the Thrashers.

Atlanta had a chance to move into a first-place tie in the Southeast Division in Thursday night's home game against Carolina. Attendance was only 11,043, slightly below the season average and more than 7,000 below capacity, for Carolina's 3-2 win in a shootout.

Still, the Thrashers remain optimistic.

Team President Don Waddell says he expects attendance to pick up after the holidays. There could be an upswing on Saturday when former Atlanta star Ilya Kovalchuk returns to Philips Arena with the New Jersey Devils.

Levenson said in May he hoped he might be close to announcing a new investor. The talks with the potential investor, who was not made public, did not lead to an agreement.

"Wish there was something new but there isn't," Levenson said a recent e-mail to The Associated Press. "Know anybody interested in investing in a really exciting hockey team?"

Atlanta hasn't been able to locate investors, but after making only playoff appearance (2007) since the team's debut as an expansion team in the 1999-2000 season, the Thrashers have once again found success on the ice.

Atlanta is winning with a new collection of young talent assembled in drafts and through offseason trades.

A candidate to follow Kovalchuk as the new figurehead of the franchise is big defenseman Dustin Byfuglien, who was a star on the Chicago Blackhawks' Stanley Cup championship team last year. Byfuglien (6-5, 265) leads all NHL defensemen in scoring.

Another young star is goaltender Ondrej Pavelec, 23, who ranks among the NHL leaders with his average of only 1.80 goals allowed per game.

Byfuglien, Evander Kane, captain Andrew Ladd, Bryan Little and others have shared the scoring load. Atlanta is in position to contend for only the second playoff appearance in franchise history.

"I think it's very encouraging," Daly said. "I think the club has done some really, really good things personnel-wise in the last couple of years and I think you're starting to see some of those results on the ice. Hopefully that will translate to better support and Bruce will have better success in finding the capital he needs and hopefully we won't be in a position where we have to consider alternatives."

Any discussion of the team leaving Atlanta will have to start with the arena.

In 1999, Philips Electronics signed a 20-year, $182 naming rights deal for Philips Arena. The company can walk away from the contract, one of the most lucrative in sports, if the Thrashers or NBA Atlanta Hawks leave the arena.

"We all know hey, we have some challenges here," Waddell said. "But for three years now I've been talking about rumors.

Until we figure a way to move this building, I still feel it's going to be difficult for us to move this franchise because I haven't seen anybody move a building like this."

Community Events
Thrashers headed to Canada after team's sale
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WINNIPEG, Manitoba — The wait is over for Winnipeg hockey fans.

For Atlanta, it means saying goodbye to another NHL team.

True North Sports and Entertainment scheduled a news conference Tuesday at Winnipeg's MTS Centre to make "a significant community announcement."

True North has been in negotiations with the owners of the Atlanta Thrashers to buy the NHL team and move it to Winnipeg. The deal is reportedly worth $170 million, which includes a $60 million relocation fee that would be split by the rest of the league.

Winnipeg has been without NHL hockey since the Jets moved to Phoenix in 1996. The Thrashers entered the league three years later as an expansion franchise, but ownership problems, a losing team and dwindling attendance doomed the club. The team ranked 28th out of 30 teams this year with an average attendance of less than 14,000.

Assuming the deal goes through - it still must be approved by the other owners - Atlanta would become the first city in the NHL's modern era to lose two teams.
The Flames moved to Calgary in 1980 after eight seasons in Atlanta.

True North was making its announcement one day before the start of the Stanley Cup final, which begins Wednesday in Vancouver between the Canucks and the Boston Bruins.
While there was no prohibition on announcing major news during that series, the league preferred to get the Thrashers' sale off its plate before opening its signature event.

For weeks, the two sides had been working through complex legal details on the sale and relocation of the team, while leaving open the possibility that a local buyer would emerge late in the process. No one ever came forward with a serious offer, according to the Thrashers' ownership group, Atlanta Spirit, and the city's mayor, Kasim Reed.

"It is going to hurt the city but we will withstand it just fine and we will get through it," Reed said.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said on his weekly radio show that the inability to find an owner who wanted to keep the team in Atlanta was a barrier the league couldn't overcome.

"It would be one of those head scratchers where you say, 'Look at all of this great corporate opportunity, look at all of this grass roots hockey, why doesn't somebody want to own a team here?'" Bettman said. "And that would be a difficult, but unfortunate, situation to be dealing with if it has reached, or does reach, that point."

Bettman was asked if Atlanta had hopes of landing another NHL team if it lost its second franchise.

"The prospect of leaving Atlanta isn't something that I'm particularly fond of," he said. "So I can't even contemplate the notion of what would happen after that in terms of coming back. We respect the importance of Atlanta as a city. It's a big market, but this is a franchise that's got a problem in that market."

Team president Don Waddell says there remains some hope for a late development until a sale is made official and approved by the NHL board of governors, which is scheduled to meet June 21 in New York. But considering Atlanta Spirit, which also owns the NBA's Atlanta Hawks and the operating rights to Philips Arena, has been trying for years to sell the hockey team, that seems highly unlikely.

Also, any potential owner would have to agree to become a tenant at Philips Arena, a major stumbling block because it would cut into potential revenue from sources such as concessions, parking, luxury suites and other events.

"Ownership still is committed to selling at a greatly reduced price to anyone committed to Atlanta," Waddell said.