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Making Cents of Bill Wirtz...Part 1 |
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by Al Cimaglia
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I will explain my views of Mr. William Wirtz, concerning his leadership as Chicago Blackhawk owner. I can not come up with exact reasons for the way the Hawks have been run over the years, but I have opinions as to why and also what the future may bring for Blackhawk fans. I have been watching the Hawks for a bit longer than Wirtz has been Club President, needless to say there have been many changes to the NHL since 1966. Unfortunately for Hawk fans the same can’t be said for Mr. Wirtz.
I will write about these issues in the following way; Part I will include some Hawk history and I will summarize some hot button issues. These issues will include the Bobby Hull WHA signing and Wirtz’s apparent stance on team payroll spending and the entire NHL. Part II will cover the “No Home TV” edict, the shrinking fan base and a summary of the last 15 seasons. I will also predict the Hawks course of action for the coming years.
When Bill took over from his dad Arthur in 1966 the NHL hierarchy was a close knit group. Many would say that the group of very strong owners back then gave a whole new meaning to the word collusion. Mr. James Norris who owned part of the Hawks when Bill arrived on the scene was also part owner of the Red Wings, and had an interest in the Boston Bruins all at the same time. So although the teams competed against each other ownership was seemingly aligned in various ways. Primarily all the club owners were on the same page as far as how players would be handled, as salaries were very much controlled. Effectively there wasn’t any competing for players; as teams owned their rights from an early age. By early I mean early teens, so one can understand how everything could be controlled efficiently by a small group of powerful team owners.
Mr. Wirtz took over as Chicago’s team President right before the NHL expansion. Although things changed somewhat in this period, there wasn’t much differences in players salaries just yet. Once again salaries were kept down even though there were additional teams and new owners. No one rocked the boat, and it is easy to understand how salaries didn’t escalate very much. There weren’t any bidding wars between owners and everyone still played nicely with one another. The owners knew they didn’t need to cut each others throat and spiral costs, so they didn’t, and team payrolls remained under control. The NHL went from 6 to 12 teams and the average salary before the WHA was still only about $25,000, to put things in some perspective.
So Bill came from a time in hockey of tight ownership control, and virtual total control over player salaries. The economics of the game changed a lot in the next couple of decades. The NHL kept expanding and players salaries finally began to escalate, but the Hawks were staunch about keeping that escalation under control. Make no mistake Bill Wirtz ran the tightest ship around when it came to operating the Blackhawk Franchise. I believe in the late 80’s and early 90’s the Hawks led the NHL in profitability. They were not the most valuable franchise, but in terms of net revenues in relation to gross revenues the Hawks were the leaders. The Hawks brought more money as a percentage down to the bottom line then any other Franchise in the NHL, as once again Mr. Wirtz had a tight grip on expenses. Wirtz owned almost all the land surrounding the Chicago Stadium as well as the building, and had a stranglehold on all supplied concessions. No one can question the ability of Bill Wirtz to run a profitable business, but many here in Chicago can constantly question his ability to run a competitive hockey franchise.
I can question his ability to differentiate between businesses that he operated. Owning a sports franchise is much different then owning and operating other types of business concerns. Wirtz has been very successful in real estate and owns a large lucrative liquor distributorship. He inherited much from his father and also took over a hockey team stocked full of talent and young superstars. The Hawks in the mid 60’s placed 4 of 5 starters on the 1st team NHL All Stars and had 1 player chosen for the 2nd team. So at that time the Hawks were in position for success. Although the Hawks had won the Cup in 1961-62 many thought they should have won a few more, including 1967 when they had a great regular season record. Those were some of the glory years, a far cry from recent teams of the last 15 years. Recent times have been full of disappointment and poor performance, and Bill Wirtz has been targeted as the main reason behind the fall of hockey in Chicago.
The first issue that Chicago fans always hold against Bill was the departure of Bobby Hull for the WHA in 1972. Of all the things that Wirtz has contributed to in Blackhawk history this one is really not all his fault. At that time Booby Orr was the highest paid player in the NHL. Rumor has it that Bobby Hull thought that he should make more money than Orr, as he had been a star player for much longer. Wirtz who always seemed to have his own self imposed salary cap would not pay Hull more then Orr. This is when the Hull/ Wirtz marriage began to sour, and may have contributed to the Golden Jet leaving for the WHA. Without fail Wirtz never wanted to be at the fore front of escalating NHL salaries.
In reality there was no NHL owner at the time that would have paid 1 million dollars to any player. Money should have been a big concern for Hull though as he played in the 50’s and throughout some of the 60’s for less then $20,000 a year. Salaries were on the upswing in the NHL in the early 70’s, but no one made anything close to a $1,000,000. When Phil Esposito scored 76 goals in the 1970-71 season I don’t think he was paid more then $30,000 that year. Although things were changing in the NHL, Wirtz didn’t, and he was a ripe target for the apparent WHA raid. Many say that the $ 1,000, 000 salary offered to Hull was part of a group effort by WHA owners. The story goes that much of his the salary was put up by the Winnipeg franchise but the rest was chipped in by the other teams in the newly formed World Hockey Association.
In my view Hull would have been dumb not to leave, the contract guarantee was a huge sum for that time. Even if Wirtz would have offered 2 times the money Orr was receiving it wouldn’t have been close to a million dollars. Wirtz and others in the NHL weren’t going to get into a gigantic bidding war at that time with the newly formed league. The NHL still controlled the contracts of many great players. Wirtz was on his own, and in a position that he would maintain for years to come. He wouldn’t help escalate salaries then, and in some ways the same can be said today. If he did pay Hull a million dollars back in the early 70’s what would Esposito and Orr have to be paid in coming years? The salary escalation would have been dramatic and Wirtz may have taken a bullet on behalf of all NHL owners at that time. So the blame for Hulls leaving has been hung on Wirtz, and probably this is one of the few things that he couldn’t have changed. In any event Hulls departure brought about the start of a difficult period in Hawk history.
What I would put more emphasis on is how Wirtz reacted to future changes in the NHL; this was his greatest down fall in my opinion. Although the NHL owners got very lucky that the WHA didn’t stay together for a few more years, as they had some great young talent there including Gretzky. Fortunately for the NHL they got some WHA teams to merge with them and the rest of the clubs dissolved. The complexion of hockey in many cities would have been vastly different if the WHA could have stayed together. Who knows? The environment could have been so different that Wirtz may have gotten out of the game decades ago. What stayed the same in Chicago was his unwillingness to change with the times, predominately concerning players salaries.
As I mentioned earlier Wirtz had his own salary cap management policy, he did not change although the League as a whole did move forward. When Wirtz got into hockey the owners were like cousins, they competed, but at the end of the day they were still a tightly knit group. In the 50’s and 60’s the owners adopted a one for all type of mantra. In my opinion Wirtz was the one of the leaders back then, but he was eventually left stranded by his peers. The world and the NHL would change, but Bill Wirtz never did. He would never ever want to be the owner who would have the highest paid player in the League on his roster. He would never ever want to be the cause of any salary escalation, so he stayed firm in his thinking. The main problem for him was that all other owners were more willing to change then he was, in essence he was somewhat ostracized in coming years in my opinion. There were a few teams that lagged behind in spending but no one stayed grounded to the old guard like Mr. Wirtz. He created his own competitive disadvantage, and employed a view that was abandoned by most others in NHL ownership. Wirtz was consistent to a fault; the times were changing in the NHL, but not with the Blackhawks.
By a competitive disadvantage I mean an unwillingness to change his management style and his apparent team salary structure throughout the years. Forget about not paying Bobby Hull an astronomical amount for that time, how about not paying Chelios, Roenick, Belfour and many others in the last 15 years? Simply put, who ever Mr. Wirtz valued as his most prized possession at a given time that player alone would be the highest paid Hawk. Everyone else’s salary would have to fall in line behind his chosen #1 star, and that player would remain on top of the heap even if better players were available. There was a time when Mario Lemeiux was making around $750, 000, and the most valued Hawk was Denis Savard getting paid some $350, 000 less. The disparity would go on and keep increasing dramatically, and times would get worse for Hawk fans. Any star NHL player who became available and made more money then the top paid Hawk player at that time would never wind up in Chicago. It would not matter if it was a player who the Hawks needed they would not be bidders. No matter how hard Wirtz tried to hold the fort down on salary escalation, the rest of the NHL danced to a different beat. He was abandon by a new more progressive group of owners, and this left the Hawks in a disadvantaged position for decades.
This new NHL hierarchy was not the same close knit group Wirtz knew; this was a much different group of “cousins”. The mantra for this more progressive group was not all for one, and one for all. No not in the least, the new doctrine was every team for itself first and foremost. Everyone else changed but Wirtz and thus he established and maintained his own competitive disadvantage.
If one looks back over the history of the Hawks from the 50’s on, there is a distinct pattern. The only real years of success were following the attainment of young cheaper talent. In the 60’s it was because of the acquisition of the St. Catherine TeePees of the Junior League. That young team was loaded with future Hawk All Stars, including Hull and Mikita.
The next successful run through the 80’s followed the drafting of Wilson, Savard and Larmer and the fortunate acquisition of Tony Esposito. The success of the late 80’s and early 90’s were largely the result of the following three events. The drafting of Roenick and the signing of an undrafted Eddie Belfour, and lastly the Savard for Chelios trade. A change in management with Mike Keenan didn’t hurt either.
The common thread throughout Blackhawk success was; no big free agent acquisitions, a few good draft picks, and some opportunistic signings of good young cheap talent. When the young inexpensive talented players matured and were ready to advance their careers many did it in other uniforms. The self imposed disadvantage of the Wirtz owned Blackhawks has continued on for many years. Fortunately for Hawk fans there were periods of great players and some very good teams. In a number of ways there were just enough good seasons to proliferate Wirtz’s self imposed disadvantage, just enough reason for him not to change. The success achieved by some Hawk teams gave Wirtz enough validation to stay living in the past, and Hawk fans have felt the consequences.
Part II will follow in a few days....
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