Atlanta Thrashers fans have scheduled a "Rally in Support of the Atlanta Thrashers" for Saturday, May 21 from noon until 4 pm at the Gulch next to Philips Arena, according to the group's Facebook page. As of this writing, it has 44 declared attendees and 16 Maybes. Oh man.
If people show up the team's Select-A-Seat event at Philips and then head down to join the crowd at the Gulch, those numbers might swell a little bit, plus it's still three days away. But with a Herman Cain rally going on at Centennial Park at the same time*, along with the 100,000 other things to do on a spring day in Georgia, I'm pretty nervous.
The last time Thrashers fans tried something like this, we urged them to pick the most opportune time and location; this time, there's really not much of a choice, as the team is likely to be sold next week. I wonder about holding it at the Gulch, a railyard that looks like a railyard and could make for some very lonely-looking photography, instead of a park where general passers-by might involve themselves. If attendance is in the low triple figures, this thing will end up hurting Atlanta's sports reputation for a long time**, especially with ESPN, the Associated Press, TSN and others already keeping a close eye on it.
* Most Georgia thing ever.
** Yes, I laughed while typing that.
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