We've expressed our approval of the Nashville Predators looking to secure a greater portion of the Southeast by directly evangelizing their team to hockeyless Atlanta Thrashers fans. On The Forecheck, our Preds blog, shares some notes on the plan from the team's vice president of marketing that were paywall'd by the Nashville Post.
If you win Atlanta, you win much of the region. The Thrashers were never able to do that, but a well-operated team with postseason success just a couple hours north of Georgia's border is already putting in more creative effort in winning Atlanta than the departed team ever did.
One would speculate those Thrashers packages might include games against Ilya Kovalchuk's New Jersey Devils, the proto-Thrasher Chicago Blackhawks, maybe local villain Ben Eager's San Jose Sharks ... and definitely the Winnipeg Whatevers. If you want to convert snubbed sports fans, you have to invite them over to root against the team that broke their hearts.
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