It’s official: the Atlanta Thrashers are moving to Winnipeg.

True North Sports and Entertainment, the Canadian group that has been negotiating to buy the team since mid-May, made formal announcement of the move at news conference in Winnipeg at 12:20 p.m.

“Sometimes, we simply don’t have a choice,” [Commissioner Gary Bettman] said.

The Thrashers owners, Atlanta Spirit, negotiated the sale of the Thrashers to True North since mid-May. The Thrashers’ owners have said in court documents that the team has lost $130 million since 2005.

Sh**, and I just learned what a “Thrasher” was. Fun fact: Atlanta is the only U.S. city to lose a sports franchise to Canada, and they’ve done it twice. The first time was when the Flames left for Calgary in 1980. The Thrashers have been in Atlanta since the league expanded in 1999, and spent most of their time adding black players to the team to try and and get hockey over in urban Georgia. Steven Godfrey of SB Nation has a great retrospective on that little storyline coming to an end, and hopefully they’ll continue to put together the team with a racial bias and make their mascot a big affable flag-waving white guy.

No word yet on whether or not the move will rebrand the team the “Jets,” the franchise that left Winnipeg for Phoenix to become the Coyotes in 1996, but anything else would seem anticlimactic. Think of Cleveland getting their football team back and calling them the “RiverDogs” instead of the Browns.

[via AJC]

After months of speculation that the Sacramento Kings were about to become the Sacramento Kings of Anaheim, team owners The Maloof Family passed down word to the Anaheim Arena Management Company, and basketball will remain in Northern California for another year. That means the Kings and their awesome trampy dance team won’t have to worry about playing so close to the Clippers and the Lakers, which would drive their attendance down from 1% of California basketball fans to about a negative six.

From an article in the LA Times (website):

The decision to stay follows weeks of maneuvering by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, who mobilized more than $10 million in sponsorship and ticket support for the team in the capital, and gathered interest from Los Angeles billionaire Ron Burkle to help build a new arena downtown for the Kings.

The Maloofs (who may or may not be a family of beavers, I don’t know much about Pokémon) were fully prepared to move the team despite criticism from the league and NBA Commissioner David Stern, so who knows where they’ll eventually end up, but for now the Sack Kings are set. On a personal note, I’d like to express how hideously ugly the Maloof family (pictured, right) is, and how they are a Creature from the Black Lagoon poster and a couple of cowboy hats away from being a Rob Zombie movie. It’s not hard to see why these people want to live in Southern California.

With the NFL lockout looming, some of you might be scrambling to find different piles of laundry upon which to bestow your rooting interest. That’s what this flowchart is designed to assist you in doing. No cheating and going straight to the Red Sox logo and backtracking. Pigs.

Click the chart to embiggen, via Interpretation By Design.

It was reported last month that Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen had sold a considerable amount of stock (an epic buttload, I believe is the technical term) as a precursor to buying the Charlotte New Orleans Hornets and moving them to Seattle. While that story has seemingly stalled, it appears that another billionaire software developer also has visions of purchasing and moving the Hornets, and this time it’s Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. And right about now I feel pretty stupid for playing Number Munchers instead of paying attention in my middle school computer classes.

According to Forbes, Ellison is still motivated to purchase a NBA franchise and move it to San Jose, California, after his quest to purchase the Golden State Warriors failed last summer. Ellison also reportedly tried to buy the Hornets last month, but he was outbid by the NBA, which paid around $300 million for the team. Ellison is now apparently willing to pay $450 million. $150 million more. Must be nice.

Say it ain’t so, San Jose mayor Chuck Reed…

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