U.S.A.
Everyone Else
Health
Science
Business
Technology
Sports
Video Games
Entertainment
Future
Humour
NEWS > SPORTS > ATLANTA THRASHERS FAN STAGES PROTEST OVER LIKELY MOVE TO WINNIPEG
ATLANTA THRASHERS FAN STAGES PROTEST OVER LIKELY MOVE TO WINNIPEG
May 21 2011
Atlanta, GA – No one knows exactly where it began, but somewhere along the line professional sports teams became one of the principal defining factors in the identity of cities. What began as a hobby, the watching of sports, somehow became a part of
cultural identity, tied to cities and their inhabitants in a deep and almost religious way. That connection is certainly felt more deeply in some cities, say New York for baseball or Green Bay for football, but all cities seem to garner a great deal of their cultural cache from their particular sports franchises.
In turn, those franchises rely on that passionate connection to the city in which they are placed in order to sell tickets and t-shirts. Sports teams and their cities work together, forming a kind of symbiotic relationship that benefits both sides as long as both stay healthy. Sometimes though those relationships go sour, resulting in one side or the other pulling away, which inevitably creates a great deal of tension for the partner left behind. Such appears to be the case in Atlanta where the lowly and much-maligned Thrashers appear on the verge of moving away, to a city that once experienced its own loss. However, the team isn’t going quietly with the one remaining fan of the franchise vehemently opposing the move, along with help from a few of his friends.
“The Thrashers are our team and they should stay here. This corrupt NHL leadership is allowing these people to take away our team for solely monetary reasons. We have
a passion for sports here in Atlanta and we’ve shown that every day the franchise has been here. Why else would we partially fill an arena for a losing team,” said Mike Calvert of Atlanta. “We sit in that empty arena, screaming our heads off trying to compensate for the lack of people. I scream myself hoarse every night, if that isn’t fandom I don’t know what is. The team needs to stay here.”
Calvert has begun a protest outside the Philips Arena, joined occasionally by friends and his wife who has been bringing him sandwiches.
“Look, we know how the people in Winnipeg feel. They had their team taken away from them, but that doesn’t mean they should be taking ours away. They know better than anyone what it feels like and they shouldn’t be doing this to us. They need to leave our team alone,” continued Calvert. “I will be here every day to protest this. It’s totally crap that they would allow the team to move and I won’t allow it. If I have to be here night and day to prevent the move I will do that. There is nothing more important than this and the people of Atlanta deserve them.”
While not yet a done deal, it’s expected that the team will announce a sale and move to Winnipeg as early as next Tuesday.
“Sports teams don’t belong to cities, as much as people would like to believe they do. Sports teams are businesses and they have to go where the dollars are. Obviously, the current ownership doesn’t believe that the dollars in Atlanta are sufficient for their needs no matter the passion of this fan,” said Scrape TV Sports analyst Mark Marvins. “Unfortunately for him, teams really do need to fill an entire arena every now and then. They’ve floated other options like renting out the empty seats to religious groups or leasing the space to flea markets, but that hasn’t panned out. The only real option is to move, no matter the ferocity of this fan’s protests.”
Calvert has apparently also recruited a handful of homeless people to fill out the sit down, though at least two have wandered away mumbling to themselves.
Alexi Orton, Sports Correspondent
NEWS > SPORTS > ATLANTA THRASHERS FAN STAGES PROTEST OVER LIKELY MOVE TO WINNIPEG
LINK IT! http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Sports/pages-3/Atlanta-Thrashers-fan-stages-protest-over-likely-move-to-Winnipeg-Scrape-TV-The-World-on-your-side.html |
TWEET IT! http://tinyurl.com/3wy5hln |
BOOKMARK IT!  
|
|---|
Scrape Store
