Dolla Bill Y'All

They say you shouldn't speak ill of the dead. Well I don't know who "they" are so too bad, I'm going to anyway. Last week Chicago Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz died, he was buried this past weekend. It's a nice touch if you ask me, because the regular season is about to start and the farther the Hawks put Wirtz behind them, the better. No hockey team in Chicago has been this talented since 1992, and with Wirtz now gone it's almost a guarantee that the young core of this squad will stay intact.

Look, this entry is not going to be sugarcoated. I know first hand what kind of ruin a bad owner can do to a franchise, lord knows I've seen it done to enough of my favorite teams. Wirtz took over an original six team and made it a laughing stock. In 2004 it was named the worst franchise in all of sports. Wirtz did everything short of sitting atop the United Center with a sniper rifle to keep fans away, the man did nothing for the team he owned for over forty years. His penny pinching and ineptitude lead to the creation of such websites as wirtzsucks and killbillwirtz by fans outraged at what he did to their team.

Look, I can go back all the way to the 1960s with this one, but instead I'll focus on the last twenty years because frankly it was the last two decades that the franchise really went to hell. From closing Chicago Stadium to some of the most lop-sided trades ever made, the last two decades under Wirtz were some of the darkest days in a hockey teams history this side of Harrold Ballard.

It all starts with Chicago Stadium. One of hockeys great palaces, it featured incredible sight lines, a close, intimate atmosphere and one of the most raucous crowds you'll ever see. To top it all off, it was home to the fabled 3,663 pipe Barton organ. Don Cherry once said words cannot describe the feeling you'd get when the crowd would roar and the organ would be played. Sure it was an old building with plumbing and ice problems, but the fans didn't care. Players loved being in it, with it's trap-door entrance to the rink and long, dark tunnels, it gave you an incredible experience. Then it was all gone.

In 1994 it was replaced with the United Center. It was a new and more modern building, certainly with better facilities, but nothing more. There was no atmosphere, no feeling to the building. The fabled pipe organ was left behind and ultimately lost in the old Stadiums demolition(although the console still exists in Phil Maloofs Las Vegas home), and nothing of the old building was brought over. Sure the banners were still there, but what did it matter? To the fans it was just another all purpose building. In the decade that followed both the Montreal Forum and Maple Leaf Gardens would close, but both franchises made efforts to keep the intimate and traditional feel of the old buildings alive. To add insult to injury, the Gardens and the Forum still stand, while Chicago Stadium was demolished.

Following the move, Wirtz continued to kick at the franchise he owned. Despite going to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1992, Wirtz refused to spend money to augment the team. As a result, the Hawks remained stuck in neutral while other franchises moved forward. His refusal to match salaries with other teams lead to friction with many of his best players, all of whom would ultimately leave. He would go on to earn the title of "3rd Greediest Owner in Sports" by ESPN. Throughout the 1990s Wirtz' approach to his team lead to the departures of Ed Belfour, Jeremy Roenick and Chris Chelios, all of whom had been integral parts of Chicago's success earlier that decade. Both Chelios and Belfour would go on to capture the Stanley Cup(in Chelios' case, with hated rivals the Detroit Red Wings), while the players received in return for Roenick would be absolute busts.

Even after all that, Wirtz continued to damage the team. With fans staying away in droves due to the poor performance of the team, Wirtz stopped broadcasting games locally, instead having fans pay to see the games on TV. Coupled with the sudden massive spike in ticket prices, Wirtz almost guaranteed the true fans would stay away. As the team spiraled, things just kept getting worse. Pat Foley, the voice of the Blackhawks for 25 years, was suddenly and inexplicably let go, an unforgivable act to many fans. And while the Hawks suffered, the city's AHL team, the Wolves, was enjoying huge success. The Wolves took to using the slogan "We play hockey the the old fashioned way, we actually win" and hired Foley shortly after his dismissal.

The Blackhawks have not made the playoffs since 2002. They haven't won a playoff series since the mid-90s. The team hasn't won more then 31 games in a season in five years. Despite obtaining a vast amount of high draft picks, it is only recently with the arrival of Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane(along with trade acquisition Martin Havlat that the Hawks look like are on the verge of recapturing what had once been a vast young talent pool. Perhaps the death of Wirtz so close to the start of the new season can be taken as a sign that a new era has begun for the old franchise. I hope so. They deserve it.