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Calgary Flames
File:Calgary Flames logo.png
Conference	Western
Division	Northwest
Founded	1972
History	Atlanta Flames 1972–1980 Calgary Flames 1980–present
Home arena	Pengrowth Saddledome
City	Calgary, Alberta
Team colours	Red, Gold, Black, and White
Media	Rogers Sportsnet West Fan 960 (960 AM)
Owner(s)	Murray Edwards (chairman), Harley Hotchkiss (governor), Alvin G. Libin, Allan P. Markin, Jeff McCaig, Clayton H. Riddell, Byron J. Seaman, Daryl Seaman
General manager	Darryl Sutter
Head coach	Mike Keenan
Captain	Jarome Iginla
Minor league affiliates	Quad City Flames (AHL) Las Vegas Wranglers (ECHL)
Stanley Cups	1988–89
Conference championships	1985–86, 1988–89, 2003–04
Division championships	1987–88, 1988–89, 1989–90, 1993–94, 1994–95, 2005–06

The Calgary Flames are a professional men's ice hockey team based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. They are members of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). The club is the third major-professional ice hockey team to represent the city of Calgary, following the Calgary Tigers (1921–26) and Calgary Cowboys (1975–77).

The Flames arrived in the city of Calgary in 1980 after spending their first eight seasons in Atlanta, Georgia, as the Atlanta Flames. The Flames spent their first three seasons playing in the Stampede Corral before moving into their current home arena, the Olympic Saddledome (now Pengrowth Saddledome), in 1983. In 1986, the Flames became the first Calgary team since the Tigers in 1924 to compete for the Stanley Cup. In 1989, the Flames captured the Cup for the first time.

Calgary is one of two NHL franchises in Alberta, with the other being the Edmonton Oilers. The cities' proximity has led to a famous rivalry, known as the Battle of Alberta. Games between the teams are often heated events.

Franchise history

Atlanta

The Flames were the result of the NHL's first pre-emptive strike against the upstart World Hockey Association. In December 1971, the NHL hastily granted a team to Long Island—the New York Islanders—to keep the WHA's New York Raiders out of the brand new Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. This came less than a year after the Vancouver Canucks and Buffalo Sabres joined the league. Needing another team to balance the schedule, the NHL awarded a team to an Atlanta-based group that owned the National Basketball Association's Atlanta Hawks, headed by prominent local real estate developer Tom Cousins. Cousins named the team the "Flames" after the fire resulting from the March to the Sea in the American Civil War by General William Tecumseh Sherman, in which Atlanta was nearly destroyed. They played home games in the Omni Coliseum in downtown Atlanta.

The Flames were relatively successful early on. Under head coaches Bernie “Boom Boom” Geoffrion, Fred Creighton and Al MacNeil, the Flames made the playoffs in six of eight seasons in Atlanta. In marked contrast, their expansion cousins, the Islanders, won only 31 games during their first two years in the league combined. This relative success would not translate in the playoffs, however, as the Flames won only two post-season games during their time in Atlanta.

Despite the on-ice success, the Atlanta ownership was never on sound financial footing. Fletcher said years later that Cousins' initial financial projections for an NHL team did not account for the WHA entering the picture. The Flames were also a poor draw, and failed to sign a major television contract.

In 1980, Cousins was in considerable financial difficulty and was forced to sell the Flames to stave off bankruptcy. With few serious offers from local groups, he was very receptive to an offer from a group of Calgary businessmen fronted by Canadian entrepreneur (and former Oilers owner) Nelson Skalbania. A last-ditch effort to keep the team in Atlanta fell short, and Cousins sold the team to Skalbania for US$16 million. a record sale price for an NHL team at the time. In May 21, 1980, Skalbania announced that the team would move to Calgary. He chose to retain the Flames name, feeling it would be a good fit for an oil town like Calgary, while the flaming "A" logo was replaced by a flaming "C". Skalbania sold his interest in 1981, and the Flames have been locally owned since.

1980–1985

Unlike the WHA's Calgary Cowboys, who folded three years previous, the Flames were immediately embraced by the city of Calgary. While the Cowboys could manage to sell only 2,000 season tickets in their final campaign of 1976–77, the Flames sold 10,000 full- and half-season ticket packages in the 7,000 seat Stampede Corral.

Led by Kent Nilsson's 49-goal, 131-point season, the Flames qualified for the playoffs in their first season in Calgary with a 39–27–4 record, good for third in the Patrick Division. The team found much greater playoff success in Calgary than it did in Atlanta, winning their first two playoff series over the Chicago Black Hawks and Philadelphia Flyers before bowing out to the Minnesota North Stars in the semi-finals. This early success was not soon repeated. After a losing record in 1981–82, General Manager Cliff Fletcher jettisoned several former Atlanta players who couldn't adjust to the higher-pressure hockey environment and rebuilt the ros

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11. Hanlon, Peter and Kelso, Sean (ed.). 2006–07 Calgary Flames Media Guide. Calgary Flames Hockey Club. pp. pg. 4. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
12. Donovan, Michael Leo (1997). The Name Game: Football, Baseball, Hockey & Basketball How Your Favorite Sports Teams Were Named. Toronto: Warwick Publishing. ISBN 1895629748. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
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16. Hanlon, Peter and Kelso, Sean (ed.). 2006–07 Calgary Flames Media Guide. Calgary Flames Hockey Club. pp. pg. 131. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)