Hockey's Blackhawks Take Another Major Step Forward

Chicago sports teams are sharing the wealth, with hockey's Blackhawks now about to reap some long-awaited rewards.

In a move that could signal as much frustration with the impending sale of the baseball club as well as potential in Chicago's pucks squad, Cubs President John McDonough agreed to a multi-year deal to work in the same capacity with the Blackhawks.

New Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz told the Chicago Sun-Times the Hawks have "had enough shocks. What we need now is fans. We're going to grow this business, and that means fans."

McDonough, who is "known for his innovative marketing efforts that included the Cubs Convention and celebrity singers during the seventh-inning stretch, ... promised things would change." McDonough: "To all you Blackhawk fans, I say: 'It's time to come back. You're going to be very proud of the direction we're heading.'" Wirtz added the deal "was my idea. I hadn't discussed it when [late Blackhawks Owner Bill Wirtz] was living. I reached out to John. I never wanted to be in front of the cameras."

Chicago's United Center - AP Photo/Jeff Roberson

McDonough last Tuesday resigned from the Cubs and was introduced as the Blackhawks President three hours later, and the move "caught all but the [Cubs'] highest-ranking insiders by surprise."

In Chicago, Chris Kuc writes in the Chicago Tribune that McDonough "was widely credited with developing the Cubs' surging fan base and attracting sponsorships despite often losing teams."

Paul Sullivan writes in the Chicago Tribune that instead of promoting Exec VP/Business Operations Mark McGuire or GM Jim Hendry to Interim President, the Cubs have "decided to leave McDonough's job vacant for the next few months while Tribune Co. proceeds with its plans to sell the club."

Photo of Wrigley Field by Rob Tringali/SportsChrome

And Jay Mariotti writes in the Sun-Times: "Even McDonough doesn't have enough patience to wait out an extraordinary lengthy ownership swap between the outgoing, discombobulated Tribune Co. and An Owner To Be Named (Much) Later."

The moves is a rare one, an executive leaving the almost always lucrative world of baseball for the unknown terrain of hockey.