Looking back at Rocky Wirtz’s legacy as conductor of Blackhawks’ late-2000s turnaround

The Blackhawks franchise Rocky Wirtz inherited in September 2007 was bleeding money, struggling on the ice, drawing few fans and epitomizing dysfunction.

Within a few years, the same Hawks had entered the most decorated dynasty era in modern hockey history.

Looking back at Wirtz’s legacy after his abrupt death Tuesday at 70 — albeit a legacy complicated by the sexual-assault scandal we now know occurred on his watch — that remarkable turnaround stands out as the crowning achievement of his 16-year tenure as the Hawks’ chairman.

The changes he made to initiate the team’s renaissance cemented his reputation as a well-liked owner, savvy businessman and personable leader.

‘‘Rocky was going to run the Blackhawks like he ran the other [Wirtz] businesses that were so successful,’’ former Hawks player and broadcaster Eddie Olczyk said this week. ‘‘Nothing was too expensive. He wanted to be the best. From the people in the front office to just the way they conducted business, it changed dramatically.

‘‘There was just a belief. When you were around Rocky, he made you feel good about yourself and appreciated the job you did, regardless of what it was.’’

Largely forgotten in many retellings of the Hawks’ resurgence is the fact that most observers initially assumed Rocky’s brother, Peter, would inherit the Hawks upon tyrannical father Bill’s death. Peter had worked for the team under Bill; Rocky had not.

That meant Rocky took over with little prior institutional knowledge, adding to his shock when he ultimately saw the degree of disarray.

‘‘I didn’t think they’d lost as much money as they had,’’ he told the Sun-Times in July 2008. ‘‘We had to make payroll, and two weeks after my dad’s passing, we had gone through our season-ticket money.’’

Wirtz later disclosed that the Hawks had operated at a roughly $30 million annual loss in the final years of Bill’s reign and that the season-ticket base had dwindled to 3,400 — contributing to a meager average attendance of 12,727 in 2006-07, ranking second-to-last in the league. They only had about 40 employees left in the front office, recalled Olczyk, whom Bill had hired as a broadcaster in 2006.

Sun-Times file photo

Wirtz’s response was to pour investment into all areas of the team, further worsening the short-term financial situation but doing so with the prescience to realize it would pay off in the long run.

‘‘You sell your way out,’’ he said in July 2008. ‘‘You have to mention your top line, and with the Blackhawks that’s ticket sales. And we can’t have ticket sales here unless we have a good product.’’

The change for which many fans still appreciate Wirtz most involved finally airing home games on TV.

A last-minute deal with Comcast SportsNet (now NBC Sports Chicago) got seven home games on TV in 2007-08; all 41 aired starting in 2008-09. Wirtz also brought back Pat Foley as play-by-play man starting in 2008-09 and switched the Hawks’ radio broadcasts to WGN Radio.

The broadcasting equipment got a much-needed upgrade, too. They were no longer ‘‘using TV monitors from 1974,’’ Olczyk said.

‘‘Being that three-hour commercial 82 times a season, that part of it was so important to sell the brand, to sell the players, to market the station, to connect with the new generation [of fans] and also connect with the past generations,’’ Olczyk said.

On the road, meanwhile, Wirtz upgraded the Hawks’ standards for charter flights, charter buses, hotels, catering and so forth from among the worst in the league to among its best, creating an extra appeal to free agents that remains the case today.

In the front office, John McDonough was hired away from the Cubs to become the Hawks’ new president in a bold, earthshaking coup. While McDonough’s name has been stained forever by his failure to protect Kyle Beach and Brad Aldrich’s later assault victims, no evidence has suggested Wirtz knew about McDonough’s cover-up, and the marketing and sales campaigns McDonough created — which Wirtz did know about — were smash hits.

And on the ice, Wirtz at last pushed the Hawks’ player payroll up to the NHL salary cap. He made two huge splashes by signing Brian Campbell to the richest contract in team history ($57.1 million) in 2008, then signing Marian Hossa to an even-richer contract ($62.8 million) in 2009.

Sun-Times file photo

The response to the all-encompassing wave of investment validated Wirtz’s belief that spending money eventually would make money.

By the winter of 2009, the Hawks touted 13,500 season-ticket holders — up by more than 10,000 from a year and a half earlier. Many of those fans were able to meet Wirtz, who enjoyed sitting in the stands, in person.

The team’s 2008-09 average attendance of 22,247 led the league and started a sellout streak that eventually would span 535 games and more than a decade until the COVID-19 pandemic.

‘‘Merchandise is flying off the shelves, and the Hawks jerseys are in the front of the stores,’’ Wirtz said in January 2009. ‘‘People are talking about us. TV ratings are up, and radio ratings are up. Those that knew about us are excited, and the rest are curious. The games are becoming a neat place to go. People want to see this team.’’

By 2010, Forbes estimated the Hawks’ franchise value at approximately $300 million — up nearly $100 million from only two years earlier.

The same year, the Hawks won their first modern-era and fourth all-time Stanley Cup title. By 2015, they boasted six total Cups — matching the Bulls’ total of NBA championships, which Wirtz had cited as a wildest-dreams type of goal when he first took over as chairman.

Wirtz’s decisions — and their impact — became less tangible once the Hawks’ machine was running smoothly, and his public appearances became less frequent as he aged.

But in a city filled with unpopular owners, he managed to avoid much of the public disdain that often inherently accompanies the role for the vast majority of his tenure. Not until Beach’s lawsuit in 2021 — and Wirtz’s town-hall fiasco in 2022 — was his reputation dented.

And whoever inherits the Hawks now — most likely his son, Danny, who has served as CEO the last three years — will take over a franchise with one of the most recognizable brands in hockey and a valuation (by Forbes last year) of approximately $1.5 billion.

There is some rebuilding to do — the Hawks no longer sit on the mountaintop of the 2010-to-2015 era — but there is a strong foundation upon which to build. Wirtz unquestionably achieved the overarching goal he once described to the Sun-Times in June 2010.

‘‘What I do is for the family, not for myself,’’ he said at the time. ‘‘It’s something you sign on for the first day: You work for the next generation. Thirty years ago, it was [for] me. The idea is you do it for your children.

‘‘I’d like to leave the business in better shape than I got it. And I hope, from there, they can take it and be a better businessman than I am.’’