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Jets4Life · 06-07-2015, 06:41 AM

"Under Wirtz, the Blackhawks’ business staff has tripled, to 75, while General Manager Stan Bowman sits in on marketing meetings to keep the business and hockey staffs in lock step. Coach Joel Quenneville has been known to ask about TV ratings after games.

The growth has been eye-popping. The Blackhawks had a paltry 3,400 season-ticket holders when Wirtz took over; now there is a waiting list of more than 13,000. The team’s two flagship apparel stores — one downtown and one in the suburbs — sold
$5 million in merchandise from last July to this past April. Forbes valued the Blackhawks at $179 million in 2007, 16th in the league. They are now ranked fourth, worth $825 million.

Last November, the research firm Nielsen Scarborough calculated that 50 percent of the Chicago market watched, attended or listened to a Blackhawks game the previous year, up from 8 percent in 2007. The head count was 3.7 million. (The Rangers were second among hockey teams in the United States, at 2.6 million.) Along the way, the Blackhawks leapfrogged the Bulls, the Cubs and the White Sox and now trail only the Bears here."

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/06/sp...ef=hockey&_r=1

And just to think, the Blackhawks were voted the worst professionally run sports franchise in North America," just a decade ago.

06-07-2015, 06:41 AM	#1
Jets4Life Lifetime Suspension Join Date: May 2004 Exp:	America's Team: The Blackhawks "Under Wirtz, the Blackhawks’ business staff has tripled, to 75, while General Manager Stan Bowman sits in on marketing meetings to keep the business and hockey staffs in lock step. Coach Joel Quenneville has been known to ask about TV ratings after games. The growth has been eye-popping. The Blackhawks had a paltry 3,400 season-ticket holders when Wirtz took over; now there is a waiting list of more than 13,000. The team’s two flagship apparel stores — one downtown and one in the suburbs — sold $5 million in merchandise from last July to this past April. Forbes valued the Blackhawks at $179 million in 2007, 16th in the league. They are now ranked fourth, worth $825 million. Last November, the research firm Nielsen Scarborough calculated that 50 percent of the Chicago market watched, attended or listened to a Blackhawks game the previous year, up from 8 percent in 2007. The head count was 3.7 million. (The Rangers were second among hockey teams in the United States, at 2.6 million.) Along the way, the Blackhawks leapfrogged the Bulls, the Cubs and the White Sox and now trail only the Bears here." http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/06/sp...ef=hockey&_r=1 And just to think, the Blackhawks were voted the worst professionally run sports franchise in North America," just a decade ago.