Posted by chicagomedia.org on October 12, 2008 at 12:09:45:
Hawks sell brand, but focus on wins
For a decade or so, as the Chicago Blackhawks racked up losses on the ice and in their ledgers, their iconic Indian-head logo was as likely to evoke the memory of Iron Eyes Cody's famously rueful response to litter and pollution as any of the storied pro hockey franchise's past greats and glories.
The team Rocky Wirtz took control of last fall, less than two weeks after the death of his father, Bill Wirtz, had made the playoffs only once since 1997, and its season-ticket base had dwindled from a high of more than 13,400 in the mid-1990s to around 3,400, despite the elder's insistence he was protecting "reservation holders" by refusing to market the Hawks by televising home games.
Public goodwill wasn't all that had been squandered by clinging to old business practices as much as tradition. The team was said to have lost $191 million over the previous decade, and the 82-year-old franchise risked failing to make its payroll unless it could come up with an infusion of $34 million.
But like another Rocky before him, albeit a fictional one, W. Rockwell Wirtz put up far more fight than anyone had any right to expect in re-energizing his franchise and reviving its near-moribund brand this past year.
The Hawks, whose home opener is Monday against Nashville, aren't your father's Blackhawks. But they're not his father's either.
"What's surprised me is how many people have thanked me for bringing the team back," Wirtz said the other day as the Hawks prepared to open their 2008-09 campaign with more than 13,500 season-ticket holders, a new team record, and every single game, home and away, televised. "It's like the team left the city. … People were angry with us."
Wirtz has mended relations with estranged older fans who might have forgotten how much affection they once had for the Hawks by mending relations with alienated old greats such as Bobby Hull and one particular voice in play-by-play man Pat Foley, a longtime fan favorite who spent the previous two seasons calling Chicago Wolves games.
With young stars Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews to build a competitive team around, the Hawks reached out to younger fans as well.
Wirtz immediately moved to televise a handful of home games last season, then cut a deal to put the entire 2008-09 schedule on Chicago TV. He also signed a radio deal with Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co.'s WGN-AM 720.
In recruiting former Chicago Cubs boss John McDonough, he landed a proven sports exec to overhaul business operations and help generate fresh money not just through surging ticket sales but a 40 percent increase sponsorship revenue despite an economic slump.
"Marketing the Blackhawks has been a little like fishing," Wirtz said. "You know there are fish there and you put your lure in the water, but you don't know if they're going to bite. But the interest we had just by announcing we were looking at putting home games on TV was overwhelming."
McDonough, whose marketing and business savvy helped make Tribune Co.'s Wrigley Field and Cubs a win-or-lose draw, has his staff selling the team as if it were winless while doing everything possible to win.
Last season's failure to make the playoffs clearly rankles McDonough, and he wants fans to know it nags at everyone involved with the Hawks. "The interest is back," he said. "We're at the earn-it phase."
Despite selling out the last 10 games last season. Despite selling out the first-ever off-season Blackhawks convention. Despite the 10,000-plus new season-ticket holders. Despite making the Hawks' Jan. 1 game at Wrigley Field a seemingly impossibly tough ticket before they've even gone on sale.
"Quite frankly, I don't think we've really accomplished much yet," McDonough said. "Those are important elements to this story, but we finished three points short of the playoffs, so now really to validate all of this, we have to win, we have to make the playoffs and see what happens."
The Hawks spent a half-million dollars on locker-room improvements and will charter better planes this season to create a first-class environment for players and foster success.
To benefit from the success of the Cubs and White Sox this season rather than fall victim to it, the hockey team cut unprecedented marketing deals with the baseball teams to reach the crowds they were drawing.
"But I don't ever want it to get lost, as people are gushing over the attendance numbers, that what matters is what happens on the ice," McDonough said.
"Everyone's focused on the Stanley Cup," Wirtz said. "I don't know if we said it enough as an organization in the past."
It's enough to make the Indian-head logo on the Hawks' sweaters smile.
(Phil Rosenthal, Chicago Tribune)