According to multiple reports, the controlling interests of the Hawks and Philips Arena are being sold by the Atlanta Spirit Group to California businessman Alex Meruelo... first thought I had? California!?!? and then I scrolled down the report and saw "staying in Atlanta"... okay... so what does this mean?
- The Atlanta Spirit Group is out of our lives... ever since they acquired the Hawks/Thrashers/Philips it's been one thing after another with these guys... the split over the Joe Johnson signing... cash flow issues... empty promises... failure to put a competitive hockey product on the ice, etc... so there's that...
- Just because there's a new owner doesn't mean the problems are solved... I'd LOVE to know Mr. Meruelo's net worth... that info isn't available right now, but he needs to be filthy rich... the chief issue with the ASG was lack of funds... they repeatedly pled "broke" in not spending in free agency, etc. and while they did put some money into the Hawks in recent years, they utterly refused to exceed the tax for any reason, and that was an obvious issue with how the roster was constructed (also their fault)...
- The Rick Sund/Larry Drew combo could be in trouble... well... at least Larry Drew could be... the ASG hired Sund and pay him reasonably compared to other NBA GM's... fine... but they also have hamstrung him from the beginning with restraints such as paying the NBA's low in terms of Head coach salary, HIRING the head coach without GM input because he was cheap, and again, refusing to spend excess money...
So there's all of that... I'm terribly excited... but I wanted to put the caveat in play that the issues may not be solved... here's hoping the "new guy" has some serious, serious money...
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