...Atlanta Thrashers

Actually I am not sure what their new name will be now that they have left Atlanta and are on their way to Winnipeg. Though we all knew this move was coming for a couple of weeks now the fact that it is actually here is sad. For the 2nd time Atlanta has lost a professional hockey team, both times to Canada. There were the Flames who moved to Calgary and now the Thrashers. My friend and a half on the team will be missed by me personally. No more games to go to to kill time or to freeze, which I did not mind. Maybe if they would have won more games or made it to more playoffs the team would have stayed... Who knows now though. In a letter from the former owners, Atlanta Spirit LLC, they said:

"Earlier today, we, along with our partners, signed an asset purchase agreement to sell the Atlanta Thrashers to True North Sports and Entertainment. If ratified by the NHL, Commissioner Bettman and the league's Board of Governors, this will result in the relocation of the Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg, Canada beginning with the 2011-2012 season.

It's extremely disappointing to all of us that it became necessary after all other options were exhausted. We want to express our gratitude to you, the fans, for the years of dedication you have offered to the Atlanta Thrashers.

As many of you know, for some time we have been seeking a buyer for the team or a partner willing to join with us in continuing to fund the team. We hired an investment banking firm to seek out potential investors with the express goal of finding someone who would keep the team here in Atlanta. In recent months, we openly indicated a growing urgency to secure assistance in off-setting our operating losses in hopes that our public plea would produce investors which, to that point, had eluded us.

After extensive effort, nobody has come forward. As a result, we had no choice but to explore the investment option presented to us by the NHL in the form of True North Sports and Entertainment.

Relocation of the Thrashers is not the outcome that any of us ultimately wanted. We knew when we purchased the club in 2004, that professional sports teams are seldom, if ever, money-making investments but rather vital community assets. We believed in the overall impact that the team had on the sports landscape of Atlanta, and over the past seven years, invested a significant amount of money into what we felt was an integral piece of the greater metropolitan Atlanta area. We are truly grateful to have been a part of this city's professional hockey history, to have made an indelible impact on the community through our players' outreach, our organization's activities and our foundation's donations, and most of all, to have been a part of paying tribute to you, our fans, each and every time our team stepped on the ice.

Thank you for the opportunity to be entertained, thrilled and inspired alongside you by Atlanta Thrashers hockey. None of this would have been possible without your support.

Sincerely,
Bruce Levenson and Michael Gearon"

I guess we will just have to rally behind our football and basketball teams to make sure they stay put. I am giving this news a Digit Down.

...NBA

The NBA season has just begun. Over the Summer everyone was talking about LeBron and Miami and The Big 3 and so on. I was watching every move because ti was good television. Now that the season has started I find myself not that into it...yet. Nothing matters at the moment so I am just not that into it. Even though my favorite team, The Atlanta Hawks, are perfect and unbeaten, I sometimes have no energy to sit and watch them play, live or on television. I do watch, even if I am flipping back and fourth or in a daze. I cannot wait for the season to get good, around Christmas time I guess. At the moment football has all of the drama and is leading the sports shows and grabbing all the headlines, especially since baseball is over. What makes it even odder is that I find myself watching more NHL than NBA and I have not been into hockey since the Lightning won the Stanley Cup way back in 2004. I would have kept watching but in 2005 they cancelled the season. So yes I do plan on watching the NBA when it matters and gets exciting. I do like what I am seeing, even Blake Griffin is playing well for his 2nd season as a pro, 1st in action. Until later I am giving the NBA a Digit Down.

...Josh Kroenke

Josh Kroenke is a lucky guy. His mother is a Wal-Mart heiress and his father Stan Kroenke just purchased the St. Louis Rams. The problem with that is in the NFL you cannot own more than one sports team. Easy, Stan gave his other teams, NHL's Avalanche and the NBA's Nuggets. Stan had this to say about his son, "Josh Kroenke, in my view, has been ready to take over the Nuggets for a couple of years. I just haven't put him in that position. He was and still is very young, but he's had his 10,000 hours, if you read Malcolm Gladwell. Josh is ready to do that." Josh played college basketball and I know for a fact when you grow up in a business family you learn things even if you do not want to. Stan is just 30 years old! He will be one of the youngest owners of a major sport ever I am sure. I do not know if I admire him or envy him. This is nepotism at its best, and I like it. I am going to give Josh a Digit Up. I thin he will better relate to the players sense he is closer to their age and I think, or hope, he will bring a fresher look on things into the basketball and hockey world.