Chicago Blackhawks Stir Hope for All Professional Sports Teams, Fans

On Sunday afternoon, the Chicago Blackhawks took an enormous step forward as an organization by winning the NHL's Western Conference championship. They will now await the winner of the Eastern Conference to determine who will lift the Stanley Cup.

This story does not yet have its final chapter, but the reality it demonstrates should become not only an "Idiot's Guide to Building a Pro Sports Franchise," but also create a beacon from which hope should shine on every bottom-dwelling city in the United States.

Consider where this organization has come from.

The old owner of the team, "Dollar Bill" Wirtz, systematically did everything he could to tear one of the great franchises in all of sports down, brick-by-brick. Three seasons ago, the Blackhawks' home games weren't televised in Chicago. His regime traded away great players like Jeremy Roenick and Chris Chelios for garbage, and made the team a laughing stock.

An Original Six franchise was battling for last place in the standings, and the box office for the better part of a decade. Six years between playoff appearances, and over ten since they were relevant, the Blackhawks were the bottom of the barrel.

In fact, the Blackhawks were so bad that Fortune Magazine named them the worst run organization in all of professional sports on more than one occasion this decade. The team was averaging roughly 25 percent of capacity at the United Center, and season tickets were under 3,000.

For all of the fans of perennial losers in every sport, the Blackhawks were in that class (or lack thereof).

But the winds of change started to shift the organization in the early parts of this decade when Dale Tallon got his hands on player development, and talent evaluation. The Blackhawks started to draft well, and moved players through their system without the pressures of immediate success being a requirement for validity.

Slowly, quality started to pop up on the roster. Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook were a couple of Tallon's draft picks in the early parts of this decade that matriculated to the NHL, and started to develop a nucleus.

When Tallon became the General Manager, he began making moves to add quality character players throughout the organization. On top of elite talent like Keith and Seabrook, he made sound trades for players like Patrick Sharp, Ben Eager, and Kris Versteeg. The tunnel was long, but the thought of there being a light at the end started to appear real.

But the games were still only on the radio in Chicago, and the team couldn't seem to get elite players to come to the team that produced hockey greats like Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita, Tony Esposito, and Denis Savard.

Chicago wasn't a destination; it was where leftovers went to finish their careers.

So Tallon had to overpay some free agents to come to Chicago. He convinced Martin Havlat, Brent Sopel, and Nikolai Khabibulin to come to Chicago to fill holes on the roster. Tallon knew what he wanted, and was trying to find the right mix of players to make the product on the ice reflect his vision, even if nobody could (or would) see it.

Then the Blackhawks landed at the right place in the draft at the right time, and the wheels were in motion.

In 2006, the Hawks selected Jonathan Toews with the third overall pick. The following year, the first time the Blackhawks had ever selected first overall, they used their top pick on Patrick Kane.

Two superstars were in the fold. The wheels were ready to hit the pavement...

Then Bill Wirtz died.

I hate to make trivial of anyone's passing, but it is impossible to view the launch to prominence of the Chicago Blackhawks without seeing the death of "Dollar Bill" as the catalyst.

His son, Rocky, took control, and immediately began fixing things his father had done wrong. He hired marketing jedi John McDonough away from the Cubs, signed a deal to televise home games in Chicago, brought back Pat Foley to call those games, and began spending money on the roster.

Sure, the Blackhawks weren't "there' yet. After the 2007-08 season, the Hawks just missed the playoffs but showed some signs that there was life. They started drawing over 10,000 fans a night, and had both the Calder Trophy winner (Rookie of the Year), and the runner-up in Kane and Toews, respectively.

That summer, the team was finally able to convince a top free agent to come to Chicago. Yes, they still overpaid Brian Campbell to come to town, but his excitement to be in Chicago appeared to be almost split between the opportunity on the ice and the $7 million dollars he was being paid.

In 2008-09, the Blackhawks made a dramatic move up the standings. Watching the transformation, oddly, felt like watching the team grow up; when you consider they were the youngest team in the league with a 20-year-old captain, it's not a stretch to consider that the players were actually growing up before our eyes.

Also growing was the season ticket bandwagon; in one month, the team jumped season ticket sales from 3,000 to over 12,000. There was hype, and a whiff of something to believe in.

McDonough did his job as a marketing man, and not only sold the team to the 9,000 new season ticket buyers, but to Gary Bettman as well. Despite having achieved nothing, not even a playoff spot, the Blackhawks were awarded the Winter Classic for New Year's Day 2009.

The game, mirroring the Blackhawks season, was a smashing success except for the final score; they lost to the Red Wings at Wrigley Field.

The Hawks surprised two veteran teams in the organization's first playoff appearance in seven years, and made it all the way to the Western Conference Finals, where they were shown their place by the same Detroit Red Wings.

That series loss was easy to see coming, but the lingering lessons learned were equally predictable.

After last year, the dynamics had shifted in the NHL. The Blackhawks were now not only young, and talented, but were a destination. Now, the top free agent forward, Marian Hossa, wanted to come to Chicago. So did veteran John Madden, who took what could be seen as less-than-market value to be the Hawks' third or fourth center.

The hype was starting to build. There was now a legitimate team on the ice and a multi-year waiting list for season tickets. Toews, and Kane were among the top selling jerseys in the sport, and the team had the largest increase in revenues of any team in the NHL, growing by more than double the Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins.

Fast forward to Sunday. With their 99th consecutive sellout crowd shaking the foundation of the United Center, the youngest team in the NHL won the Western Conference, and the right to play for a championship.

Now, with Hall of Famers like Hull, Esposito, Mikita ,and Savard in attendance most nights, the Blackhawks are chasing a dream they haven't realized in 49 years, the longest drought in the NHL.

It took good drafting, patient player development, and the luck of the draw to get the ball rolling, and put incredibly special players in their lap for consecutive years. But, the Blackhawks have truly become a rags-to-riches story for the ages.

For more great coverage of the Chicago Blackhawks, check out Tab's blog: CommittedIndians.com!