The city of Atlanta is a major transplant city, and that is a huge reason you don't have the number of supposed die-hard fans of these sports teams.  Sure, New York is also a transplant city, but they also boast many, many, many, MANY more people, of which more than enough are native New Yorkers.  The state of Georgia as a whole does a fine job of supporting the local sports teams; the problem is though that those fans aren't readily able to attend the games in person.  Within the confines of the city itself there is a void when it comes to those die-hard fans, and there are a couple of reasons as to why that is as well.

These "transplant" fans have their favorite teams from previous hometowns that they will live and die with.  However, they become Atlanta fans by default, if Atlanta teams are winning.  While they follow their favorite teams and support them through thick and thin, they only follow and support the Atlanta teams when it's the chic thing to do; in other words, when the teams are winning.  Since they aren't passionately devoted to these local teams, they are only willing to fork over dough for tickets and really get involved in the teams when they are winning.  Again, this problem isn't near as rampant in other areas of the state.

When winning though, the teams draw big crowds and garner plenty of support.  When the Falcons are winning, the Georgia Dome is as raucous and loud a place to play as any in the NFL.  Atlanta Fulton County Stadium was rocking nightly in the early 90s when the Braves were winning there.  The Thrashers fans were quite vocal during the playoffs, even if their efforts were in vain.  Lastly, you have to remember the largest crowd to watch an NBA game took place in Atlanta, and during the years of Dominique Wilkins, Mookie Blaylock and Steve Smith, the Hawks drew fairly well and were annually in the playoffs. 

If these sports teams played their home games 40 minutes away from downtown, in most any direction, I think you'd see attendance numbers increase, regardless of performance.  For example, I spent the first 12 years of my life in Gwinnett County Public Schools, living in a suburb just miles north of Atlanta.  Few of my peers were fans of all the Atlanta teams.  Everyone was a Braves fan, but not many were Falcons fans.  A few more were Hawks fans, since at the time the Hawks were consistently a playoff team, but the trend was obvious.

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