Atlanta Has Seen Two NHL Franchises Fold

Published on April 15th, 2025 12:07 pm EST
Written By: Dave Manuel


The city of Atlanta is often mentioned as a potential expansion location for the NHL.

This comes despite the fact that TWO NHL franchises have folded in Atlanta over the past 50+ years.

I guess the NHL must be gluttons for punishment.

In 1971, the NHL announced that they were expanding to two new cities - Atlanta and Long Island, New York.

The Atlanta Flames, owned by Tom Cousins (who also owned the NBA's Atlanta Hawks) was the new owner of the team. The Flames would play out of the newly constructed Omni Coliseum, which they would share with the Hawks. Seemed like a perfect match for the NHL as the league attempted to expand into the southern United States.

The Flames lasted eight seasons in the Atlanta market. The Flames were a decent but unspectacular team, and the fans in the area lost interest over time. Attendance dropped to around the 10,000 person mark and losses mounted.

Tom Cousins looked for a buyer for the team, which ended up being Nelson Skalbania, who moved the team to Calgary, where they remain to this day.

The NHL returned to Atlanta in 1999 as the city was awarded an expansion franchise.

The Trashers would last a little over a decade in Atlanta before being sold to a group based out of Winnipeg. The Atlanta Thrashers would become the Winnipeg Jets.

The story of the Thrashers was largely the same as the story of the Atlanta Flames - a minimal amount of success led to disinterest from fans and mounting losses. The ownership situation was a mess, with the owners of the team suing each other.

The Thrashers claimed to be losing $20 million a year, which made their situation untenable. The NHL desperately wanted to make the situation in Atlanta work, though it was soon revealed that Commissioner Gary Bettman had thrown his support behind the move to Winnipeg.

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The NHL has desperately wanted to make the situation in Atlanta work, as they feel that the city is a key market in their drive to break into the Southern United States.

This is why that a third attempt in breaking into Atlanta is more likely than not. Will the third time be the charm?