Danny Wirtz makes a substantial announcement involving the Blackhawks organization: He's rich
Photo credit: Matt Marton-Imagn Images
The Chicago Blackhawks Chairman and CEO Danny Wirtz announced great news for the organization and their fans amid the start of the 2025-26 NHL season.
The traditional media landscape is changing all over the world, and sports leagues aren't safe from those changes.
People don't watch games the same way they used to, with more and more people turning to streaming services over traditional cable.
The Chicago Blackhawks made some changes in that regard in the past year, and it's already paying off.
Good News For The Chicago Blackhawks
Last season, the Blackhawks had to go through one of the worst seasons in their history in terms of viewership.
On Chicago Sports Network, the local TV viewership dropped 78%, but now, after another agreement with Comcast reached last summer, the numbers are back up, in spite of the overall NHL viewership dropping.
Indeed, in the first two games of the season, viewership has been about three times higher than last year.
Danny Wirtz, the team's chairman and CEO, opened up in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times:
"We knew that Comcast was a very important piece for Blackhawks fans, who over-index as Comcast subscribers. It was important that we found a deal that was fair and made it work... I think that really opened up the door for more of our fans to watch our games this season."
He added that with the way things are evolving, going back to working with the Bulls and White Sox brings a lot of power:
"Look, we've been in business with the Bulls and White Sox for decades, working together. The power of all three teams and brands is really valuable. The timing is just at a time when so many things are in flux in the media world and so many things are changing.
Unfortunately, the status quo is not going to be an option. So it was a timing issue with the way both consumers and fans are interacting with sports and those packages, as well as [with] the media companies themselves. At the end of the day, we believe in the value of our content across all three teams, and I think we're in a better spot this year than we were last year."
Unfortunately, the status quo is not going to be an option. So it was a timing issue with the way both consumers and fans are interacting with sports and those packages, as well as [with] the media companies themselves. At the end of the day, we believe in the value of our content across all three teams, and I think we're in a better spot this year than we were last year."
As of now, things are going well for Wirtz, but Wirtz surely hopes to see the Hawks finally reach the next step of their rebuild to bring results to Chicago.
Then, the numbers are likely to be drastically higher.
Previously on Hawks Insider
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