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Scratch Lil’ Jon off your list of potential Atlanta-based investors for Thrashers

Lil' John

The agonizing saga continues in Atlanta for the Thrashers in their search for a last-minute hunt for a local buyer for the team. While one name that has come up was investor J.B. Smith it was found out that Smith has some financial troubles of his own that would make him a less-than optimal candidate to try and keep hockey in Atlanta.

One name that has surfaced as a person of interest given his ties to the city and overwhelming support and fandom for all things based in Atlanta is none other than rapper Lil’ John. If you don’t know who Lil’ John is, chances are you’ve seen Dave Chappelle do a killer impersonation of him on his old Comedy Central show. Lil’ John is colorful, boisterous, and engaging and after a successful rap career and follow up beverage distribution side job he’s got a little bit of money.

But would he help invest in the Thrashers to help keep the team in town? Well... Not exactly as Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal Constitution discovered.

“I love the Thrashers, but I’m not investing in them. The one good thing about that rumor is that it’s stirring up a lot of people talking and saying we gotta keep them here, it brings awareness to it. But I’m not investing. That’s a lot of money to buy a professional hockey team! I’ll help then out with some awareness, though.”

What?! OK!

Yes, that is a lot of money to plunk down to keep a team in town and sadly for Thrashers fans there’s a lot of other Atlanta-based interests saying the same thing as Lil’ John. The team’s been a continual financial loser in the city and fan interest in the team isn’t exactly sky high. While the same can be said of all the other pro sports teams in Atlanta at one point or another during the season, the Thrashers aren’t exactly giving fans reasons to go to the games either.

Meanwhile, the main interest to buy the team remains Mark Chipman and David Thomson’s True North group out of Winnipeg. I don’t suppose there are any entertaining rappers in the River City that we could count on to spice things up in Manitoba are there? Just a thought. After all, the idea of getting crunk in Winnipeg sounds like it’d be ideal.