Thoughts about Atlanta

[MississippiWing 14]

Hey Ladies and Gents,

just returned from Atlanta with some friends for Spring Break. Got to catch the Wings vs. Thrashers game there. Detroit fans were very impressive. They outnumbered the Atlanta fans. While walking through the CNN center the Atlanta fan behind me remarked "this is ******* ridiculous. There is more red and white than blue. It's like the rangers game last year but 10 times worse." The best part was watching highlights hearing the wings score and the cheers were as loud as if they were the home team. That being said the Atlanta fans are pretty good. They were very respectable and many of them seem to be buying into the idea of being a good knowledgeable hockey fan. Heard a few of them that were saying they hope the owners learn that to be competitive they have to put out some more money to keep good players like Hossa in Atlanta. One guy remarked to me while leaving how pathetic he felt it was that Atlanta fans were booing Hossa. Said it made them all look like ignorant band wagon fans being he didn't ask to be traded. He said good luck to the Wings in the playoffs. All in all it was a good experience. I was impressed by the number of fans that are really buying into it and working to make hockey in Atlanta popular.

[jjd06e 10]

i went through atlanta a year or two back and went to a Thrashers game and a Hawks game back to back nights. Playing in the same arena and both on weeknights(Tue and a Wed iirc) the thrashers played in front of an almost full stadium that was pretty loud and the next night the Hawks game was less than half full and dead.

[XxGoWingsxX 0]

It's always good to hear about respectable, mature fans when you go to an away game. I went to the Winter Classic, and on one side of me was a group of about 5 VERY KNOWLEDGEABLE and nice hawks fans who were very nice, and I had a great time talking and partying and enjoying the game with them. Unfortunately, on the other side was about 3 Ignorant, drunk, trash talking, immature hawks fans who at one point when the wings scored told me to shut up in "their house" and that if I didn't, they'd beat the s*** out of me. I then proceeded to show them the tattoo I have on my leg of the winged wheel in front of the stanley cup, in front of the detroit "D", with each year they've won it in my lifetime, which infuriated them even more so I said, if you're so tough do something and stood up with my buddy Kyle.

We're both 6'4 and 6'5 and built quite well at 230 and 245 pounds. It shut them up for a while before the wings scored again and while I stood to cheer, one of them had the nerve to throw a nacho with cheese at my WC Zetterberg jersey while telling me "sit down zetterqueer", too bad he won't be a wing next season....so you wasted your money on the jersey (ha, little did they know he'd sign a lifetime contract soon after), but before I could stand up to say or do anything, the nice hawks fans on the other side dove in and threw a few punches for me and told me to consider it a friendly gesture between REAL hockey fans, then they bought both my buddy Kyle and I a beer and apologized on behalf of the ignorant fans of chicago. After the punches were thrown, the guys literally sat quitely until the end of the game not saying another word and suprisingly security saw the stain on my jersey and let the whole thing go lol.

All in all it was a great game to be at, and for the most part the chicago fans were very welcoming and the rivalry was in place al-beit friendly for the most part, save for the few jackasses who started static. I still talk to the nice people who sat next to us (4 guys and 1 lady) from time to time, and We all bought tickets together in the same sections for the 2 final games of the season (one here, and one in chicago), and I frequently play against a few of them in NHL09 on my 360.