Despite the success, Kerner became weary of the Hawks’ longtime home, Kiel Auditorium. The 33-year-old arena seated only 10,000 people and was starting to show its age. The Hawks occasionally played at the larger St. Louis Arena, mostly against popular opponents, but Kerner was not willing to move the team there full-time because it had not been well-maintained since the 1940s. Even though it was being heavily renovated to accommodate the arrival of the NHL’s Blues in 1967, Kerner was still not willing to move to the St. Louis Arena. He wanted a new arena to increase revenue. However, Kerner was rebuffed by the city on several occasions.

Cable network entrepreneur and Atlanta Braves owner Ted Turner bought the team n 1976, Turner bought the Atlanta Hawks, partially to provide programming for WTCG. The Hawks were the only NBA team in the Southeastern United States, just as the Atlanta Braves were the only Major League Baseball team in the region for many years to come. Turner’s ownership was instrumental in keeping both teams in the region.

Around this time, it was decided that the Omni should be replaced by a new arena. The Omni was designed with weathering steel that was intended to rust into a seal around the arena so it could last for decades. However, the designers and architects didn’t reckon on Atlanta’s humid subtropical climate. As a result, it never stopped rusting, and looked somewhat dated despite being 25 years old. When Turner won an NHL franchise, the Atlanta Thrashers, one condition was that a new arena had to be in place before the new team took the ice for the first time, as The Omni was unusable even for temporary use. Eventually, it was decided that The Omni would be demolished and a new arena for the Hawks and the expansion NHL Thrashers would be built on the same area. Following the 1997 playoffs, the Hawks moved back to Georgia Tech’s Alexander Memorial Coliseum, with the Georgia Dome used for larger-capacity games, until Philips Arena opened before the 1999–2000 season.

Following the 1997 playoffs, the Hawks then moved back to Alexander Memorial Coliseum at the Georgia Institute of Technology, with the Georgia Dome used for larger-capacity games, until Phillips Arena opened before the 1999 – 2000 season. Philips Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in Atlanta, Georgia. It was completed and opened in 1999 to replace and occupying the former site of the Omni Coliseum, at a cost of $213.5 million. The arena seats 18,047 for basketball.

In March 2004, the team was sold to a group of executives by the name of Atlanta Spirit LLC by Time Warner, who inherited the Hawks and Braves upon its merger with Turner Broadcasting in 1996, along with the Atlanta Thrashers pro ice hockey team now the Winnipeg Jets, with which the Hawks shared the Philips Arena, which replaced the Omni. During the off-season, the Hawks sent Jason Terry, Alan Henderson, and a future first round draft pick to the Dallas Mavericks for Antoine Walker and Tony Delk. After the change in ownership, the Hawks still struggled. In the 2004 – 2005 season, the Hawks were the league’s worst team with a mere 13 victories, five fewer than even the expansion Charlotte Bobcats and the struggling New Orleans Hornets. It was also the year Josh Smith won the 2005 Slam Dunk Contest.