Why Arthur Blank Should NOT Buy Everything Shy of the City of Atlanta

Tip of the hat to Jason's article on why Arthur Blank SHOULD buy everything forever in Atlanta. It comes complete with a Bon Jovi reference.

In a dream world, having an owner as awesome as Mr. Blank would, indeed, solve most of Atlanta's sports problems. His diligence, patience, and forgiveness (Vick) are what really separate him from most owners. In fact, someone of his character is indeed a rarity wherever you go, let alone someone as rich and powerful as he is. It's a true testament to his character, for sure.

However, since we don't live in fairy or mamby pamby land, we have to face the facts. As much as we'd like Mr. Blank to own all of the sports teams in Atlanta and resurrect them from the depths of failure, it won't happen, and here's why.

1) He gets involved. - This is probably the most important one and a big reason as to why he'd be unable to own multiple teams. He likes to interact with his players, and rightfully so. He signs their checks, after all. However, I think it's very cool of him to have a relaxed atmosphere with his players, even on the sideline. If he owns multiple teams, he won't be able to fly everywhere and interact with all the players, and I don't think he's the kind of guy that would do that.

Also, think about the lock out now. If the lock out goes into September and Mr. Blank owns the Hawks, Thrashers, Braves, AND Falcons, he won't have time for any of them! The lock out will keep on lock down, and that's not cool.

2) Football might be his specialty. It might seem weird that the owner of Home Depot would have a specialty in football. No doubt Mr. Blank has had to interview and hire many important people for his company and also for his football team, but there is a possibility Mr. Blank might actually have known a thing or two about football before he jumped on board with the Falcons. If that's the case, then bringing him on as the Thrashers owner might solve nothing for the team.

3) Quality of the product may decrease. I do believe Mr. Blank did his due diligence in selecting Dimitroff as GM and certainly played a part in Coach Smith's selection, but when you add more teams plus MARTA/etc. etc., things that were previously noticed will go unnoticed, and the quality of the product will likely slip. What if (God forbid) we need a new GM/HC for the Birds and Mr. Blank forgets an important question in the interview because he has meetings about the Braves and Thrashers that afternoon? A simple mistake like that could be a long term problem, if handled incorrectly. When you spread someone like Mr. Blank thin, the quality of the product can suffer.

I do think people should take what Mr. Blank has done and use it as a shining example for how to make their teams go right, but I think Mr. Blank should just stay the owner of the Falcons and nothing more (in the sports world) but maybe you think Mr. Blank should own everything including the entire city.

Your thoughts?