Hawks, Thrashers Plan Caravan To Stir Fans’ Interest

The Hawks and Thrashers, both owned by Atlanta Spirit, “plan a preseason promotional caravan that will start with a visit” to Athens on August 30 and include stops in Chattanooga, Tennessee; Birmingham, Alabama; Greenville, South Carolina; and Macon, Columbus and Rome, Georgia; according to Tim Tucker of the ATLANTA CONSTITUTION. Atlanta Spirit CEO Bernie Mullin said that stops “typically will include visits by Hawks and Thrashers players, coaches, executives, mascots and/or dance teams to school assemblies, civic groups and malls.” Tucker noted clinics, autograph sessions and media availability “are on the agenda.” The caravan will be a “first for the Hawks and Thrashers.” Mullin said the teams’ “focus will be essentially on a 100-mile-or-so radius. From our market research, we’re selling quite a lot of tickets already in these markets, and we think we can increase that by increasing visibility and connecting better” (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 8/20).

FRONT-OFFICE SPACE: In Atlanta, John Manasso noted Thrashers GM Don Waddell, whose contract runs through the ’07-08 season, “is the only member of the team’s front office whose deal does not expire at the end of this season — including coach Bob Hartley.” When Thrashers Dir of Player Personnel Jack Ferreira earlier this month “signed a multiyear contract as special assistant to [Kings President & GM] Dean Lombardi, Waddell said he did not feel as if he were in a position to go to ownership and ask to keep Ferreira.” Ferreira said that he had received “multiyear deals in the past and was under the impression that Waddell could not give out a multiyear contract because of the legal dispute involving the team’s ownership.” However, Manasso noted a court order that “once prevented the team from entering into contracts of longer than one year has been amended.” The 61-year-old Ferreira, “citing the need for job security at his age,” said, “Probably the biggest factor (for leaving) is because Don can only give one-year contracts to everybody” (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 8/19).