Atlanta Spirit, LLC

Atlanta Spirit, LLC was a partnership headquartered at 101 Marietta St., Atlanta, Georgia. They owned the NBA's Atlanta Hawks and the NHL's Atlanta Thrashers, as well as the operating rights to Philips Arena. The nine partners who comprised the group were Steve Belkin, Michael Gearon, Jr., Bruce Levenson, Ed Peskowitz, J. Rutherford Seydel, Todd Foreman, J. Michael Gearon, Sr., Bud Seretean, and Beau Turner. These nine businessmen are divided into three groups, each headquartered in Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and Boston, and each group shares equal voting power within the group.

On May 31, 2011, Atlanta Spirit sold the Thrashers to True North Sports & Entertainment Limited for US$170 million ($60 million of which went to the league as a relocation fee), and True North relocated the franchise to Winnipeg, becoming the current incarnation of the Winnipeg Jets. Following controversy surrounding a racially sensitive email from majority-owner Bruce Levenson, Atlanta Spirit sold the Hawks and the operating rights to Philips Arena to a group led by Tony Ressler for US$850 million on June 24, 2015. Unlike the NHL and the Thrashers, the NBA mandated that the Hawks were to remain in Atlanta as a condition of their sale; additionally, the Hawks were bound to a 20-year lease agreement with the city of Atlanta and Fulton County and moving the team out would have incurred a $75 million early termination penalty. Ressler would subsequently sign a 30-year extension with the city and county in exchange for a $192 million renovation to Philips Arena, since renamed State Farm Arena. After the sale of the Hawks to Ressler, the Atlanta Spirit ownership group was dissolved.