The Chicago Blackhawks: Yet Again, They Get It

On Thursday, March 12, the Chicago Blackhawks announced that season ticket prices will not increase for the 2009-2010 season.

What?

The team has not made the playoffs in almost a decade and is on the cusp of hosting a first round series. Why are they not cashing in on their recent success?

The team has the lowest average age in the NHL, and an overwhelming majority of their young players will be needing new, more expensive contracts in the next two or three years. And they are not jacking their ticket costs to cover the new contracts?

The team that had the lowest attendance percentage in the league for the last five years is not raising the prices now that the United Center has sold out every home game, getting their payoff for all those spent marketing dollars?

Since when, in the world of high-priced, ego-driven professional athletics, does the trendy team in the third biggest market in the country not listen to the cash register now that they are "back"?

Over the past 16 months, the Blackhawks franchise has done almost everything right that a professional sports franchise could in an effort to bring one of the Original Six back to prominence.

They have put home games on television, signed big name free agents, and put exciting young players on the ice.

And now, at the moment when everyone cynically expects the team that is done everything right to "get theirs" at the expense of the starving fan base, they have now rewarded for almost one season.

The team leaves the cynics completely speechless by not raising season ticket prices for next year.

I have applauded the Blackhawks organization on multiple occasions this year. Again, and perhaps louder now than before, I rise to my feet and put my hands together.

Thank you Rocky Wirtz, John MacDonough, and the rest of the management of the Blackhawks. You have shown the fans time after time that you get it, and this is another example of your excellence.