Hockey in Chicago -- is it still a hockey town?

[deeman7]

Originally Posted by happynoodleboycey

The way I see it it's not the lack of wins that are hurting the Blackhawks the most, it's 'Dollar' Bill Wirtz. Once he's buggered off I think it will regain it's status as a great hockey town pretty quickly but until then 'Hawks fans are going to have to endure even more pain and misery. He's a leech sucking the franchise dry from the inside.

Nailed it

[SkylarkPhotoBooth]

Christ-- I read through the first page and half of this thread before I realized it was 12 years old, and I was *really* confused. I was thinking, "WTF, we just came out of a period of 5-8 years when people would not stop constantly talking about the Blackhawks (which seemed to happen out of nowhere to me), which included a Stanley Cup win, and now after one bad season we're already not a hockey town anymore?

Seeing that the article comes from 2007 now it makes more sense. (I really wish zombie threads had some sort of clear, bold, bright flag or tag indicating them as such!) That being said, it does seem generally true that the Cubs and Bears tend to be popular no matter how they are performing on the field, while the Sox, Bulls, and Hawks have to actually perform well to get the city to rally around them.

[slapshot1959]

As a long time Hawks fan, (over 50 years), am 59 now, I've been through the "wringer" so to speak. This thread threw me for a loop too, lol. I'm like, geez how soon they forget.
I had the same feelings back in 07, and I knew the team would never be popular or successful as long as the old curmudgeon was around.
I swear it was the happiest day of my life (not counting personal events of course) when I woke up and went online and saw that he had passed! I know, it sounds terrible, but thats how much hate I and countless other Hawks fans had for him.


To have won a championship in a short 3 years afterwards was a miracle. Something I thought I'd never see. Then to win 2 more in another relatively short time (5 years) is more than we could ask for.


To see them turn Chicago into a hockeytown was incredible, the media coverage, the parades with millions of people, a sight to behold. I know a lot of them probably couldn't tell you who the backup goaltender on those 3 championships but whatever, my home town was a hockeytown.


Now, they're not doing so great, as to be expected the trades and high salaries and salary cap issues makes things cyclical in certain sports.

I can see the general decline in interest, even among people I know personally who love hockey and the Hawks.
There's no "wow, did you see that game last night" kind of feeling we all had back in the glory days.


So I can see Chicago not being a great hockeytown, unless the team is winning. The Bears will always rule, I dont know why though. The Cubs to a lesser extent, maybe the Bulls next and god help the White Sox.


But in those years from 2010 to 2015, Chicago was THE Hockeytown!