From the May 30th Chicago Tribune "Revitalized by a savvy owner and charismatic young stars, the Blackhawks' popularity is on the rise" by Teddy Greenstein.
By far, the biggest difference in the Blackhawks today is the new owner, Rocky Wirtz who in just three years has turned the Blackhawks Who? into Da Blackhawks. Back in the glory days of the 60s, it was Blackhawk Fever with Stan Mikita, Bobby Hull and others, but since then, it has been steady decline, especially in the 90s and early oughts.
He got John McDonough to come over from the Cubs, lifted the home game TV blackout and hired all those young exciting players. Bobby Hull, still extremely popular, was brought back to be Blackhawk ambassador.
In 2007, there were 3,400 season ticket holders and the 20,500 seat United Center was rarely full. This last Saturday marked the 100th consecutive sell-out and there was a waiting list of 7,000 even before this year's playoff run.
It is paying off, even with last night's loss to even the Stanley Cup at two. Regardless of the outcome of the series, the Hawks appear to be back to stay.
BUT, a major mistake was made when that Versus channel was the only place you could see the last two games (and probably the reason the Hawks lost). There is no way a cable channel should have exclusive rights to any series as big as the Stanley Cup.
Looking forward to watching the game Sunday at Margaritaville.
Nice Job, Rocky. --RoadDog
I Wonder: If Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why is there a stupid song about it?
Being an account of some things I'm interested in, what I'm doing, and reflections on my past, especially music.
Listen to this man. Seven years of college, you know. Trying to reason with 2020 and, now, 2022.
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