A local radio station is holding a “wake” for the Atlanta Thrashers and their fans.
Sports radio station 790 “The Zone” will hold a gathering for Thrashers fans at Stats restaurant in the shadows of the Philips Arena/Georgia World Congress Center campus at 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday.
All of Atlanta’s mascots will reportedly be in attendance to say goodbye to the Thrashers’ mascot Thrash. Thrashers fans that show up in team gear will receive a free lunch buffet compliments of the radio station and Stats.
790 “The Zone” will also apparently have an open casket available for viewing on Marietta Street.
Contrary to an AJC report, the Thrashers Fan Club is not helping to organize the event. Their involvement was limited to just sending around an e-mail to their membership.
Former Atlanta Flames player/coach Tim Eccelstone will be in attendance and will talk about the loss of Atlanta’s second hockey team.
790 “The Zone” was the flagship station for Thrashers hockey in the team’s first five years of existence. 680 “The Fan” took over as the team’s flagship station since then.
It will be interesting to see what turnout is at the event. Choosing to do this wake in the middle of a work day on a vacation week doesn’t seem like it would draw the Thrashers’ core group of fans into the downtown area.
Thrashers petition continues: One thing the Thrashers Fan Club is continuing to do is to circulate an online petition to the Board of Governors asking the NHL’s powerful group of decision makers to reject the Atlanta Spirit’s sale of the Thrashers to True North Sports and Entertainment, Ltd. of Winnipeg.
The group has collected over 2,300 signatures over the past day-plus. Fans that are interested in signing the petition can do so by clicking here. No donation is required to sign the petition.
Happy Birthday Gary Bettman? NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman turned 59 on Thursday and Thrashers fans set up their own little special hashtag on Twitter to commemorate the day with some gift ideas for the Commissioner who took the Thrashers away after a six month legitimate sale process in the eighth largest television market in the United States.
Not surprisingly, most Thrashers fans do not buy into that happy Canadian narrative that Bettman is not a villain, but is rather just the Commissioner of the NHL as the National Post seemed to suggest on Tuesday.
Thrashers fan Greg_Mann suggested that the Commish should receive a “Wall of non-working standard definition 65” Philips TVs,” the same broken models that adorn the lower level at Philips Arena.
Mann also suggested, “Weekend naked time with (Atlanta Spirit owner) Bruce Levenson in a pile of cash.”
While AJC columnist Jeff Schultz suggested a new mirror, before adding: “Oh wait, the soul-less can’t see their reflection.”
The complete list of Bettman birthday gifts can be seen by searching the #bettmanbirthdaygift hashtag on Twitter, or just clicking here.
Feel free to add your own gift ideas, because as you all know, it doesn’t quite matter if your gift late to the cowardly NHL Commissioner who broke his so-called “covenant” with Atlanta fans. You can do so by just adding #bettmanbirthdaygift to the end of any Tweet.
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