Despite some observers’ skepticism about a National League (NHL) team returning to Atlanta, Evander Kane, on the contrary, believes it would be a good thing.
One of the biggest criticisms of the Georgia-based city is that fan support has never been very strong. The Oilers forward believes that is absolutely not the case.
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“We’re talking about a great city to live in, a great city to be a part of,” he told Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. […]. Everyone talks about the lack of fans, but the fan base we had there was so great. They had a great passion for our hockey team. We always had fans at training.”
The 32-year-old athlete also recalled that Atlanta is a major metropolis in North America.
“There are four other major sports [présents dans la ville]. There is much to do. It is a hub from which you can go anywhere in the US or even internationally from Atlanta. There are so many good things I have to say about it. I would support it 100%,” Kane added.
The Vancouver native knows what he’s talking about. He was drafted by the Atlanta Trashers in 2009 and spent two seasons there before the team moved to Winnipeg in 2011.
No expansion is planned
As a reminder, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said the league has no plans to add a 33rd team but that it would cost nothing to unveil such a project.
“If someone came in and said, ‘Okay, we have a building, this is our market, this is our ownership group, we’d really like to go there.’ We’ll look at it and decide if we’re ready to expand at that point,” Bettman said at a news conference Wednesday.
The daily newspaper “Atlanta Journal-Constitution” announced in early September that investor Frank Ferrara wanted to build a huge entertainment complex including an arena for 18,000 spectators in the South Forsyth area for $2 billion, apparently with the aim of bringing back an NHL franchise.
Since moving the team to Manitoba, Atlanta has twice failed to attract a team back to the city.