Arthur Blank Sells Shares Of Atlanta Falcon Franchise To Four Others

by Dave Choate on Jul 15, 2009 10:00 AM EDT in Falcons News

Whew, that was a lengthy title.

Intrepid reporter D. Orlando Ledbetter tells us that owner Arthur Blank has sold partnership shares in the Falcons to four others, which sounds like big serious business until you realize that he still controls better than 90 percent of the team's shares. It sounds to me as though Blank's just trying to ease his own financial burden a bit, and I'm fine with that.

This does give me a chance to revisit Arthur Blank as an owner. He caught a lot of flack for his seemingly preferential treatment of Michael Vick, a lot of which was justified. That doesn't change the possibility that we may see our first back-to-back winning seasons under his reign, nor does it change the fact that the hiring of Thomas Dimitroff as general manager was a masterstroke. He's sometimes been too visible and too involved in the team for the franchise's own good, but he also appears to have learned from that. As far as owners go, it doesn't get a lot better than what Blank's been able to do for a historically terrible team.

Still, it's interesting to see more names involved in the franchise so high up. Whether it has any actual effect on the product the Atlanta Falcons put on the field is debatable.

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Comments

I don't mide him on the sideline as long as he's just there for the show.

If I paid 550 million for something, I’d wanna enjoy it, too…

I have six locks on my door all in a row. When I go out, I only lock every other one. I figure no matter how long somebody stands there picking the locks, they are always locking three.

Elayne Boosler

by NaGaNole on Jul 15, 2009 10:17 AM EDT reply actions

Absolutely

Blank is Grade A class and I’ve never been turned off by him being on the side line. Trust me, he’s not anywhere as bad as Jones or Davis.

As for selling the shares, I can only hope that it doesn’t become a trend. I despise multiple ownership groups in pro sports and I don’t think the city of Atlanta could survive another ASG running around.

by Jesse28 on Jul 15, 2009 1:20 PM EDT up reply actions

I don't really care for him on the sideline...

but I understand it. As NaGaNole said, I’d want to enjoy it too.

Blank has been great with wooing free agents too, so you’ve got to give him credit there.

by TomQ on Jul 15, 2009 1:50 PM EDT reply actions

He's on the sidelines

celebrating and high fiving, what is wrong with that? The players respect him and joke around with him, I see it as way more positive then an owner glaring from the box or one that simply doesn’t care.

by Cracker! on Jul 15, 2009 1:57 PM EDT up reply actions

As long as he is celebrating and high fiving ...

then I don’t care. But when/if his presence starts to blur the hierarchy, I’ll have a problem. Not that we would know anyway.

I mean, sure he’s high fiving and celebrating, but maybe Smitty really does have an issue w/ him being there … I doubt we’ll ever know, but at this point, I’m fairly sure Smitty is cool w/ it.

Reporter: How will you address all of the dropped passes?

Mike Smith: I don’t think that we were as sharp as we have been catching the football. It’s something that is very fixable. It’s VERY fixable.

by FrankyWren on Jul 15, 2009 4:22 PM EDT up reply actions