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Another Atlanta Thrashers lawsuit: Owners allege that faulty contract blocked sale, team lost $130M since 2005

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The Atlanta Thrashers are opening a new chapter on the ice thanks in a large part to the changes made by general manager Rick Dudley, but they still face some problems off the ice.

That’s evident in a new lawsuit filed by the Atlanta Spirit, an ownership group behind the Thrashers as well as the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks (although the Hawks aren’t mentioned in the new suit). The Atlanta Spirit filed a $200 million malpractice suit against law firm King & Spalding today, arguing that a “fatally flawed” contract made it impossible for the group to sell the Thrashers in 2005. In that time, they claim that the team accrued loses of more than $130 million, according to Kristi Swartz of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

They claim that the franchise’s value has dropped $50 million since ’05, when the Spirit convinced partner Steve Belkin to sell his 30 percent stake in the team.

It seemed like the franchise and ownership group might turn the page when a lengthy lawsuit between the Spirit and Belkin was finally settled, but that apparently isn’t the case. We’re far from legal experts here at PHT, but we’ll pass along updates when some of the bigger news drops, especially if this means that the blossoming young team ends up with new owners.

After all, everyone might want to cleanse their palate after some painfully expensive years.