Comments on: Despite Stanley Cup championship, Blackhawks were a financial loser last year

By: Little Tommy

Little Tommy — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 09:44:58 +0000

I don’t buy any of it. Do they want us to believe that raising ticket prices in a venue that seats 25-30,000 fans is all that stands in the way of profitability…hogwash.
It’s a load of crap.
He’s starting to sound like his old man already!

By: KMcD

KMcD — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:24:36 +0000

It’s actually a very good article and worth the time to read the whole story. Prior to this ticket increase they had the 21st most expensive season ticket prices…given the teams success and the fact that this is Chicago I don’t think there should be any suprise that they are going to get their pricing more in line with the major markets in the NHL. It’s also clear that he know a big part of the reason they aren’t doing as well now is due to the fact that his Dad did sucha poor job running the business prior to his death. They lost more money in his Dad’s final years than they do now, but it takes time to build up the advertising, merchandising and other revenue streams that were so neglected previously. The Wirtz’s will never have to worry about money and I pretty confident that Hawks fans wont have to worry about things going back ot the way they used to be when Dollar Bill was in charge.

By: KnowBetter

KnowBetter — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:14:30 +0000

Until ANY professional team cries poor first show me how much the owner, president, GM, Board of Directors, family members, etc earned. This has been a practice that has been going on for years with the professional teams just like CEO’s, Executives and Board of Directors of companies earned millions while the company stock loses it’s worth or goes belly up. Blackhawk fans will either suck it up and pay or stay home like they started to! Open the books then I will beleive you!

By: InTheKnow

InTheKnow — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:02:24 +0000

Pay attention to the article… Wirtz does not want one business to salvage the other. Yes Wirtz owns several business, including liquor distro, but as he stated, they are separate companies and he wants the Hawks to stand on their own. The UC, separate from the Hawks, Liquor distro, separate from the Hawks. The other companies do well thankfully or else Hawk’s fans would not be as committed as they are now… because there may not be any Hawks worthy to speak of.
Nobody owns a business to lose money… not even Mark Cuban.

By: SK

SK — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:59:27 +0000

I believe the Wirtz group also owns the liquor distributor that supplies the United Center.

By: Matt Reitz

Matt Reitz — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:16:37 +0000

Rocky Wirtz also owns half of the United Center… tell me that the money their arena made didn’t cover their expenses. They report the Blackhawks and United Center as two separate entites; but I’m sure at the end of the day the Wirtz group did just fine.
And if the Stanley Cup champions–who sold every game out (at 20,000+) for the entire season PLUS the playoffs cant operate at a profit, tell me how we’re not going to have a lockout in 2012.

By: J.J. from Kansas

J.J. from Kansas — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 10:33:30 +0000

It’s a complete smokescreen. Nobody would blame them for raising prices, but to say it’s because they aren’t making money is a lie and to further that lie by complaining about how they have to pay into the revenue sharing pot is even worse.