Iced Tea
5-11-07, 8:24 PM
'Hawks owner getting laughs
Wirtz whining again about losing money despite salary cap
Tony Gallagher, The Province
Published: Friday, May 11, 2007
Chicago Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz is causing some of the best laughter heard around NHL players these days with his comments about three weeks ago that he would consider selling his team if the NHL Players' Association hired anyone like Bob Goodenow as Ted Saskin's replacement.
He then went on to claim he lost $31 million US this season despite the salary cap that was supposed to cure all the NHL's ills, and in the bargain he flew in the face of commissioner Gary Bettman, who has proclaimed that most of the teams are now breaking even or making money, and the ones that are losing money are losing less.
One prospective possible replacement for Saskin said Thursday when contacted: "If Mr. Wirtz actually would undertake to fulfil that promise, I might actually consider applying for the job."
Wirtz was quoted as saying: "If the union hired someone like Bob, who just says you're lying whenever you say you're losing money, I'd put the team up for sale. And I think that might cause other owners to look at their own investments."
Right, Bill. That's why Tom Gaglardi and Ryan Beedie are spending millions in legal fees so as to try to lift the Canucks from Francesco Aquilini in a Vancouver courtroom as you read this. Surely it must be because it's such a bad business to be in.
If in fact the Hawks' owner would promise to sell, the players might consider bringing Goodenow himself back. Very few moves would help the NHL more than Wirtz getting out of the way in Chicago, the league's third-largest market. It has been such a laughingstock, you couldn't begin to describe what a true fiasco the team has become ever since Mike Keenan left after an expensive but successful tenure in the early '90s.
The team claimed an attendance of more than 12,000 fans this season, although many of those were frequently disguised as empty seats in the cavernous United Center.
Curiously enough, Wirtz owns a portion of the arena, which is well known for making a healthy profit.
At 77 years of age, Wirtz has essentially been running the team just over 30 years, having taken over from his father Arthur, who originally secured the Hawks back in 1954. And for 30 of those years, the man he has entrusted with running the operation of his team is none other than 71-year-old Bob Pulford, whom Alan Eagleson got into the hall of fame as a player on some of the most flimsy statistics imaginable.
Good old Pully has been making the decisions and during that tenure he has been GM a couple of times and coached the team on three separate occasions and remains the brains behind present GM Dale Tallon.
Pulford is a fellow who absolutely mocks the generally accepted contention that stability in NHL management is the key to success in the business.
The Wirtz loyalty to Pulford is nothing short of astounding, given his claims of losing money on a regular basis.
Most of the players laugh at the absurdity of it on one hand but cry on the other, knowing that Chicago's inept approach is hurting league revenues and therefore their pocketbooks.
No matter how poorly the team does on the ice or at the box office in Chicago, Pulford remains, as though he had some idea of how the business works in the modern era.
It's expected that the NHLPA will strike a committee to search out a new executive director at their summer meetings, and there's a lot of speculation the man selected will be someone with absolutely no ties to the game at present, someone capable of a completely new, unjaded look at the situation.
Sadly, that might mean Wirtz will continue his extended rebuilding plan.http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/sports/story.html?id=cc0dbc17-08a2-4dad-9843-bd55bb09d963
Wirtz's ownership brings back memories of the original Six owners when the league began. He is so out to lunch, the team could be making Leafs level of money if he got his act together but instead he's stuck in the past with all sorts of shiftiness with separate companies for the team and arena, the weird tv deals, the old boys network style of management, and the crappy team.
Wirtz was the number one owner driving for the salary cap and know he's crying poor. What a crock, he's making money hand over fist with shady accounting. He gives a bad name to all other owners but Bettman is too weak to force Wirtz out.
I bet all of Chicago would love if he sold the team.
Wirtz whining again about losing money despite salary cap
Tony Gallagher, The Province
Published: Friday, May 11, 2007
Chicago Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz is causing some of the best laughter heard around NHL players these days with his comments about three weeks ago that he would consider selling his team if the NHL Players' Association hired anyone like Bob Goodenow as Ted Saskin's replacement.
He then went on to claim he lost $31 million US this season despite the salary cap that was supposed to cure all the NHL's ills, and in the bargain he flew in the face of commissioner Gary Bettman, who has proclaimed that most of the teams are now breaking even or making money, and the ones that are losing money are losing less.
One prospective possible replacement for Saskin said Thursday when contacted: "If Mr. Wirtz actually would undertake to fulfil that promise, I might actually consider applying for the job."
Wirtz was quoted as saying: "If the union hired someone like Bob, who just says you're lying whenever you say you're losing money, I'd put the team up for sale. And I think that might cause other owners to look at their own investments."
Right, Bill. That's why Tom Gaglardi and Ryan Beedie are spending millions in legal fees so as to try to lift the Canucks from Francesco Aquilini in a Vancouver courtroom as you read this. Surely it must be because it's such a bad business to be in.
If in fact the Hawks' owner would promise to sell, the players might consider bringing Goodenow himself back. Very few moves would help the NHL more than Wirtz getting out of the way in Chicago, the league's third-largest market. It has been such a laughingstock, you couldn't begin to describe what a true fiasco the team has become ever since Mike Keenan left after an expensive but successful tenure in the early '90s.
The team claimed an attendance of more than 12,000 fans this season, although many of those were frequently disguised as empty seats in the cavernous United Center.
Curiously enough, Wirtz owns a portion of the arena, which is well known for making a healthy profit.
At 77 years of age, Wirtz has essentially been running the team just over 30 years, having taken over from his father Arthur, who originally secured the Hawks back in 1954. And for 30 of those years, the man he has entrusted with running the operation of his team is none other than 71-year-old Bob Pulford, whom Alan Eagleson got into the hall of fame as a player on some of the most flimsy statistics imaginable.
Good old Pully has been making the decisions and during that tenure he has been GM a couple of times and coached the team on three separate occasions and remains the brains behind present GM Dale Tallon.
Pulford is a fellow who absolutely mocks the generally accepted contention that stability in NHL management is the key to success in the business.
The Wirtz loyalty to Pulford is nothing short of astounding, given his claims of losing money on a regular basis.
Most of the players laugh at the absurdity of it on one hand but cry on the other, knowing that Chicago's inept approach is hurting league revenues and therefore their pocketbooks.
No matter how poorly the team does on the ice or at the box office in Chicago, Pulford remains, as though he had some idea of how the business works in the modern era.
It's expected that the NHLPA will strike a committee to search out a new executive director at their summer meetings, and there's a lot of speculation the man selected will be someone with absolutely no ties to the game at present, someone capable of a completely new, unjaded look at the situation.
Sadly, that might mean Wirtz will continue his extended rebuilding plan.http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/sports/story.html?id=cc0dbc17-08a2-4dad-9843-bd55bb09d963
Wirtz's ownership brings back memories of the original Six owners when the league began. He is so out to lunch, the team could be making Leafs level of money if he got his act together but instead he's stuck in the past with all sorts of shiftiness with separate companies for the team and arena, the weird tv deals, the old boys network style of management, and the crappy team.
Wirtz was the number one owner driving for the salary cap and know he's crying poor. What a crock, he's making money hand over fist with shady accounting. He gives a bad name to all other owners but Bettman is too weak to force Wirtz out.
I bet all of Chicago would love if he sold the team.