NHL open to another expansion franchise in Atlanta (Sandy Springs, Alpharetta: university, mall)

[SEAandATL]

Why not share State Farm Arena like the Hawks and Thrashers used to, back when it was Phillips Arena? Especially with the up and coming Centennial Yards, it might benefit them to be there after all.

[testa50]

More of this nonsense about Fort Meyers and Naples being added to the Miami MSA, which has precisely nothing to do with Atlanta potentially getting an NHL team...

This is one of the silliest arguments I've ever seen proffered on this website. Wrong in every way. Miami, for starters, barely even has higher paying jobs than Fort Myers or Naples. Weekly wages of $1,007 versus $993 and $929. Naples and Fort Myers are huge cities, with about a million people between them, and have high real estate prices. What in the world is going to cause a hundred-thousand-plus people to commute across Alligator Alley each day (in person!) to make this be part of the Miami MSA?!

https://www.bls.gov/charts/metro-are...y-earnings.htm

As an example, the reason Athens gets added into Atlanta's CSA (not MSA) is because of a much larger wage disparity ($846 vs $1,149), Athens is within easy commuting distance of some major Atlanta suburbs, and Athens is tiny (200k vs metro Atlanta's 6 million). So someone commuting the twenty minutes from a house West Athens to a hardware store in Barrow County is all you need for them to be considered an Atlanta commuter, and you only need about 10k of those. Yet Athens is STILL not in the Atlanta MSA.

[primaltech]

Originally Posted by SEAandATL

Why not share State Farm Arena like the Hawks and Thrashers used to, back when it was Phillips Arena? Especially with the up and coming Centennial Yards, it might benefit them to be there after all.

Because the golf shirt wearing 40-mile-OTP families might see a homeless person, or worse, a black person.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by SEAandATL

Why not share State Farm Arena like the Hawks and Thrashers used to, back when it was Phillips Arena? Especially with the up and coming Centennial Yards, it might benefit them to be there after all.

Mainly because both of the competing investor groups behind this current effort to attract an NHL franchise back to the Atlanta market seem to be mostly based in Atlanta’s Northside OTP suburbs and exurbs and very much appear to most desire that a potential future Atlanta area NHL franchise play its home games at a hockey-specific arena surrounded by a huge mixed-use development entertainment complex located in Alpharetta that will generate critically needed additional revenue/profit for the team.

Other significant reasons include that:

> The largest concentration of likely hard-core hockey fans by far appears to be located north of the I-285 Top End Perimeter in and through Atlanta’s Northern Crescent OTP suburbs and exurbs in Cobb, North Fulton and Gwinnett counties where about five local ice skating rinks are located that anchor and very actively support metro Atlanta’s robust amateur ice hockey scene… Much like the Atlanta Braves’ largely urban-averse suburban and exurban fan base, these likely hard-core (and highly hockey fans very likely would be more likely to want to attend home games in an upscale and (admittedly sterile) very decidedly suburban environment than they would in an urban environment…

> And that the hockey configuration was permanently removed from State Farm Arena when it was recently renovated in the late 2010’s to basically be a professional basketball palace… Something which very much appears to signal that the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks current ownership most likely has no desire to share occupancy of State Farm Arena with a professional ice hockey team…

> Not to mention that the Northside OTP suburban and exurban-based investors behind the effort to bring NHL hockey back to the Atlanta market most likely (if not most assuredly) have no desire to have an NHL team that they have invested heavily in share an arena with the NBA Atlanta Hawks in a decidedly urban environment in Downtown Atlanta… A decidedly urban environment that probably would turn off a largely affluent fan base that resides in Atlanta’s OTP Northside suburbs and exurbs.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

Mainly because both of the competing investor groups behind this current effort to attract an NHL franchise back to the Atlanta market seem to be mostly based in Atlanta’s Northside OTP suburbs and exurbs and very much appear to most desire that a potential future Atlanta area NHL franchise play its home games at a hockey-specific arena surrounded by a huge mixed-use development entertainment complex located in Alpharetta that will generate critically needed additional revenue/profit for the team.

Other significant reasons include that:

> The largest concentration of likely hard-core hockey fans by far appears to be located north of the I-285 Top End Perimeter in and through Atlanta’s Northern Crescent OTP suburbs and exurbs in Cobb, North Fulton and Gwinnett counties where about five local ice skating rinks are located that anchor and very actively support metro Atlanta’s robust amateur ice hockey scene… Much like the Atlanta Braves’ largely urban-averse suburban and exurban fan base, these likely hard-core (and highly hockey fans very likely would be more likely to want to attend home games in an upscale and (admittedly sterile) very decidedly suburban environment than they would in an urban environment…

> And that the hockey configuration was permanently removed from State Farm Arena when it was recently renovated in the late 2010’s to basically be a professional basketball palace… Something which very much appears to signal that the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks current ownership most likely has no desire to share occupancy of State Farm Arena with a professional ice hockey team…

> Not to mention that the Northside OTP suburban and exurban-based investors behind the effort to bring NHL hockey back to the Atlanta market most likely (if not most assuredly) have no desire to have an NHL team that they have invested heavily in share an arena with the NBA Atlanta Hawks in a decidedly urban environment in Downtown Atlanta… A decidedly urban environment that probably would turn off a largely affluent fan base that resides in Atlanta’s OTP Northside suburbs and exurbs.

Best options/locations for an NHL Expansion Team Arena in Atlanta (in priority order):

1. Perimeter Center
2. Lindbergh Center
3. Atlantic Station
4. Downtown

[primaltech]

Originally Posted by aries4118

Best options/locations for an NHL Expansion Team Arena in Atlanta (in priority order):

1. Perimeter Center

Where specifically, though?

2. Lindbergh Center

That's another area that could/should be a transit hub (HRT/LRT/CRT), but I don't know where you'd fit an arena there. It's a pretty small area.

3. Atlantic Station

I could maybe see it at the 'Pinnacle Lot', just north of the theater. But they'd have to add some new road access/connections, or new direct freeway access there.

4. Downtown

Where the arena already exists. Seems like the best option, to me.

[ShenardL]

Originally Posted by primaltech

Where specifically, though?

Maybe right behind the State Farm office buildings and across the street from Dunwoody Station.

[primaltech]

Originally Posted by ShenardL

Maybe right behind the State Farm office buildings and across the street from Dunwoody Station.

That's already planned for the High Street development. I think under construction. I haven't been there in a while so I'm not sure what it looks like now.

[walker1962]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

Mainly because both of the competing investor groups behind this current effort to attract an NHL franchise back to the Atlanta market seem to be mostly based in Atlanta’s Northside OTP suburbs and exurbs and very much appear to most desire that a potential future Atlanta area NHL franchise play its home games at a hockey-specific arena surrounded by a huge mixed-use development entertainment complex located in Alpharetta that will generate critically needed additional revenue/profit for the team.

Other significant reasons include that:

> The largest concentration of likely hard-core hockey fans by far appears to be located north of the I-285 Top End Perimeter in and through Atlanta’s Northern Crescent OTP suburbs and exurbs in Cobb, North Fulton and Gwinnett counties where about five local ice skating rinks are located that anchor and very actively support metro Atlanta’s robust amateur ice hockey scene… Much like the Atlanta Braves’ largely urban-averse suburban and exurban fan base, these likely hard-core (and highly hockey fans very likely would be more likely to want to attend home games in an upscale and (admittedly sterile) very decidedly suburban environment than they would in an urban environment…

> And that the hockey configuration was permanently removed from State Farm Arena when it was recently renovated in the late 2010’s to basically be a professional basketball palace… Something which very much appears to signal that the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks current ownership most likely has no desire to share occupancy of State Farm Arena with a professional ice hockey team…

> Not to mention that the Northside OTP suburban and exurban-based investors behind the effort to bring NHL hockey back to the Atlanta market most likely (if not most assuredly) have no desire to have an NHL team that they have invested heavily in share an arena with the NBA Atlanta Hawks in a decidedly urban environment in Downtown Atlanta… A decidedly urban environment that probably would turn off a largely affluent fan base that resides in Atlanta’s OTP Northside suburbs and exurbs.

Such a sad indictment on an MSA over 6,000M when most of the existing NHL teams have arenas in urban cores - NY, Detroit, Dallas, LA, Chicago, Boston, Nashville, Raleigh and Minnesota to name a few.

[walker1962]

Originally Posted by wanderer34

It's going to be a tough sell to bring an NHL team in Atlanta. Never said that Atlanta didn't deserve an NHL team, but losing two teams just isn't a good omen. Plus, where will the visiting teams stay while they're in Atlanta? Will they stay in Atlanta or will they stay in Alpharetta? It's over an hour commute to Alpharetta from ATL and over 30 min to Alpharetta from downtown Atlanta with traffic.

At least with the new Truist Park in Cumberland, it's close enough to Atlanta where you can at least extend the MARTA system to Cumberland. I haven't heard MARTA extending to Alpharetta anytime soon. For me, as a former Philadelphian, it's a benefit to having all four sports teams play at one corner (Broad and Pattison) in the best Sports Complex in the nation. The Braves used to play in the old Turner Field and have moved out to Truist Park.

It's a loss for the city of Atlanta and a gain for Cumberland/Cobb County, but I'm hoping area leaders can actually turn what was once a negative into a positive by extending MARTA to Cumberland. As for the Alpharetta arena, the fan base is there, but what about tourists who have to travel over 30 minutes (a little over an hour in some cases) from Atlanta to Alpharetta just to attend an NHL game?

Since there's no rail link to Alpharetta, it's a huge negative. Even the Anaheim Ducks and the NY Islanders have options for mass transit while Alpharetta has no such rail link. If there's no rail link to Alpharetta from Atlanta, then it's just another pie-in--the-sky proposal that I can't take seriously.

It would suck to fly into AJA International Airport and the have to drive to Alpharetta to stay/play - 41 miles one way. Cumberland or the Perimeter Mall area should be as far north as the arena go.