On Atlanta’s Potential Move To Winnipeg
By Fetch
So this is completely unrelated to college hockey but the college hockey landscape has been pretty quiet lately, so a good FJMing will have to suffice.
Our Blues site, Bleedin’ Blue (seriously I had no idea we had a Blues site), decided to take sides in this Atlanta vs. Manitoba battle, so I will provide the factual side.
First off, this writer cites the fact that USA Hockey Southeast has 60,000 registered members as some proof that the Southeast is a great market. To start, I am going to pretend that is true, because there was no source given. USA Hockey southeast covers 11 states plus the District of Columbia. Those 12 entities contain 4 NHL markets. The total population, using 2010 Census figures, is 78, 568, 471, meaning the percentage of people playing hockey is a whopping .08%. Now obviously demographics come into play here, but the Southeast is much younger than the Southwest, and if there is one thing Phoenix and the like should be commended for is producing actual hockey players. For the record, Hockey Manitoba says it registers 30,000 members per year, (hey look a source!) and has a population of 1,232,654. Obviously growing the game is a big goal, but let’s not grow the game at the expense of people who enjoy it.
This next quote is just for shits and giggles:
"One of the Thrasher’s bigger names, who came to them via Stanley Cup winners Chicago Blackhawks, Dustin Byfuglien recently signed an extension with the Thrashers and has said that he enjoys the trust placed in him by the Thrashers organization, who has given him the chance to realize his potential as a leader for the team"
Dustin Byfuglien is awful and I hope the first thing that happens is that his contract is jettisoned. And smart people agree with me.
Next she talks about Winnipeg not deserving a team because they already had their shake, then brings up how you can’t point out that Atlanta has now failed twice. Ok then.
She then talks about being very educated on this issue, yet cited one fact in the entire post, and zero facts supported by evidence. This is what happens when I try to FJM a post before I read the whole thing: I thought this was going to be an awesome rip job, but instead this Save the Thrashers post is ridiculous drivel and I actually feel sorry for the writer rather than feel angry at her.
Hopefully something happens in college hockey soon.