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Thrashers fans rally during Select-A-Seat event, burn Winnipeg Jets banner

Thrashers Fans Rally To Keep Team In Atlanta

Atlanta Thrashers fans hold a rally to keep the team in Atlanta at Philips Arena on May 21, 2011 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Kevin C. Cox

While it’s far from official, conventional wisdom indicates that the Atlanta Thrashers will relocate to Winnipeg. This would be the second time that an NHL team left the Atlanta market, but that doesn’t mean that Thrashers fans are totally nonexistent.

About 200 Thrashers fans rallied* during the team’s “Select-a-Seat” event this afternoon, according to sources such as the CBC. Reporters described a scene tinged with resigned disappointment, but plenty of passion.

* - Although some are apparently calling it a “tailwake,” which I’m guessing is a mash-up between a wake and tailgating ... let’s just move on.

While the event captured some of the passion of Thrashers fans, there was also a sense of bitterness. SBN Atlanta featured this video of Thrashers fans burning a “Go Jets Go” banner to show how they feel about the team’s potential move to Winnipeg.
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The greatest source of derision and anger was The Atlanta Spirit Group, the owners of the Thrashers, Atlanta Hawks and Phillips Arena. Having Hawks mascot Harry the Hawk on hand might not have been the savviest PR move, either.

It hardly helped the mood that Harry the Hawk, the mascot of Atlanta’s NBA club that is also owned by the Atlanta Spirit, rode up on a scooter, hopped off and handed out some high-fives before stopping to put his mouth over the head of Zanna Huff, a bystander wearing a Thrashers jersey.

“Now he’s trying to eat my girlfriend’s head, which is disgusting,” said Bryce McNeil, a 33-year-old professor at Georgia State. “Having Harry the Hawk here — it’s not that I have anything against the Hawks, but it’s the Atlanta Spirit shoving their other asset in our face, which is just deplorable.”

Thrash, the hockey team’s mascot, didn’t make it out in the 90-degree heat until three hours into the event, but no players or members of the front office were in attendance. On the Internet, atlantathrashers.com didn’t mention the gathering, but salespeople were inside the arena processing credit card orders.

(snip)

“We’ve been like the redheaded stepchild of Atlanta sports,” [Thrashers fan Bill] Sengstacken said. "(The Atlanta Spirit puts) money into the Hawks, and I appreciate that for the basketball team, but hockey is a great game, too, and in this market in particular you’ve got to market.”


Want a better idea of the overall atmosphere at the rally/tailgate/last hurrah? Check out some photos taken by Kevin C. Cox of Getty Images. (Cox also provided this post’s main image.)
Thrashers Fans Rally To Keep Team In Atlanta

Atlanta Thrashers fans hold a rally to keep the team in Atlanta at Philips Arena on May 21, 2011 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Kevin C. Cox

Thrashers Fans Rally To Keep Team In Atlanta

Atlanta Thrashers fans hold a rally to keep the team in Atlanta at Philips Arena on May 21, 2011 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Kevin C. Cox

Thrashers Fans Rally To Keep Team In Atlanta

Atlanta Thrashers fans hold a rally to keep the team in Atlanta at Philips Arena on May 21, 2011 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Kevin C. Cox

***

Finally, John Amis of the Associated Press provides this photo of Thrashers fans burning that Jets banner.

Thrashers Flagging Fans Hockey

Atlanta Thrashers fans burn a sign hung by Winnipeg Jets supporters, which the Thrashers took off a nearby overpass, as they rally in opposition to the possible sale and move of the Thrahers, in a parking lot in front of Philips Arena, where the Thrashers play, Saturday, May 21, 2011, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Amis)

AP