While they did not make an immediate difference, two organizational moves - draft picks to be precise - stand out as rather brilliant in retrospect. While the franchise made far more blunders than good moves during the aforementioned freefall, a few positive events were actually put into motion before the miserable 2003-04 campaign. Blackhawks’ Gradual Escape From the NHL Cellar The franchise was in ruins, never having been less successful on the ice or less popular off it. If Chicago’s downward spiral of the early 2000s was a precipitous freefall, then the 2003-04 season was the calamitous crash. It was one of the most distasteful moments in Chicago sports history. His combination of penny-pinching and willing determent of local Blackhawks’ coverage elicited an unparalleled vitriol in the team’s fans, culminating in fans booing throughout his pre-game memorial following his death in 2007. Wirtz is widely regarded as the second worst owner in hockey history behind only the disreputable Harold Ballard. Among team supporters, the Wirtz name had been synonymous with melancholy for years, but it lost even this undesirable sentiment as Chicago hockey fandom continued to wither away. The prevailing attitude towards the team was one of apathy, having moved on from despondence and acrimony. 29, 2004 drew less fans than a Chicago Wolves (AHL) home game that same night.
Record-Low Game AttendanceĪs established, the Blackhawks’ popularity was in a major decline during the dreadful 2003-04 season. This was likely the most destructive of Wirtz’s policies, as it concurrently severely limited the Blackhawks’ exposure in the written and electronic media and alienated current and potential fans. There was speculation that Wirtz may have also believed making home games unavailable on television would increase live attendance, a consideration that – if actually held – drastically contradicted the Blackhawks’ floundering attendance numbers in the early 2000s.
27, 2007) Put differently, the Blackhawks’ owner thought televising home games was an insult to fans who consistently paid to attend them live.
His reasoning, as told by Chicago Bulls and White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, “Wirtz truly believed that it was unfair to the season ticket-holders to give away the home games on TV for free.” (from Chicago Tribune, Sept. Wirtz is perhaps most infamous for his seemingly archaic refusal to allow local broadcasts of Blackhawks’ home games. Related – 50 Years Ago in Hockey: FINALLY! Bobby Hull Breaks the Record!! Wirtz Blocking Broadcasts In the aforementioned 2004 season, the average payroll among NHL teams was $44,400,490, but the Blackhawks clocked in at a comparatively minuscule $30,867,502. Owner Bill Wirtz was unwilling to pay star forward Bobby Hull enough money to keep him with the Chicago Blackhawks. These problems reached their critical mass (embodied in the form of the ESPN report), and constituted the lowest point of the darkest period in Blackhawks’ history. At the time, Chicago was in the midst of an absolutely ghastly season in which the team would eventually compile only 20 wins and 59 points in 82 games.īut a bad team with a terrible record was simply the culmination of numerous colossal issues plaguing the organization. In February of 2004, an ESPN report ranked the Blackhawks as the single worst franchise in North American sports.
Rock Bottom: Blackhawks Named Worst Franchise In Professional Sports Can they reach the promised land once again? Before we attempt to answer that question, let’s take a look at the evolution. In the past six years, they’ve struggled mightily to maintain that dominance. From 2004 to 2015, a span of 11 years, the organization metamorphosed from an outright embarrassment into a near dynasty.
The Chicago Blackhawks have taken things full circle in recent history.