Former NHLer and current analyst Anson Carter is part of a group looking to bring the NHL to Atlanta's metro area. Adam Proteau reacts to the news with the advantages and risks.
Atlanta Thrashers left wing Andrew Ladd high-fives teammates on the bench after scoring an eventual shootout-winner back in March 2011.News that former NHLer Anson Carter is part of a group intending to bring an NHL team back to Atlanta has some observers wondering about the list of cities looking for an expansion team, and where Atlanta ranks.
From this writer’s perspective, the Atlanta group – which stated its intent of building a state-of-the-art new arena – is at least third among cities that want an NHL team. Ahead of Atlanta are Houston and Salt Lake City, and depending on who you ask, Quebec City is also ahead of Atlanta.
Indeed, the optics of Atlanta getting its third crack at hosting an NHL team while Quebec sits patiently on the sidelines are not great optics for the NHL. Two Canadian cities – Calgary and Winnipeg – got their NHL teams after they failed in Atlanta. Who's to say another Atlanta team won't pan out as well?
This is not to say Atlanta can’t acquire an NHL team. Carter’s potential ownership group is looking at a plot of land in suburban Atlanta – approximately 55 minutes outside Atlanta proper, and the land also includes an entertainment complex, all of which would be built using private money. That’s important in this day and age when cities in North America aren’t excited to use public funds to construct arenas for billionaire team owners. Carter’s group is aware of this, and that’s why the group’s announcement made it clear it would provide all capital to get this new arena done.
As we’ve said on THN.com before, we do expect the NHL will be green-lighting a new round of expansion, but it will probably approve just two more teams. If Houston and Salt Lake City get those two expansion teams, that will leave Quebec and Atlanta to either pick the bones of a current team struggling or bide their time until the league decides to expand again. But that wait might be decades, so Carter’s group might have to be aggressive to position itself ahead of the Salt Lake and Houston groups.
Carter’s public profile as a former NHL star and a current well-known broadcaster is helpful to the Atlanta group’s goal of landing a team, but he can only do so much. But with that said, Atlanta’s status as a major American market might tempt the NHL to once again try for the third time to succeed in that city. But rest assured, the NHL will take its time to pick out the two markets that have the best chance of succeeding. That means Atlanta could very well get one more shot at being an NHL city.
Time will tell what the league wants, but no one should be shocked if Atlanta does get another team. Atlanta does have the right size of a major city, they have an interested business partner, and they have well-known figures backing the bid. That could be enough to get them accepted as an NHL town once again.