Tonight's Stanley Cup completes a remarkable sport business turnaround for Chicago Blackhawks

When they began to serve notice they were on the rise and we saw the Chicago Blackhawks as one of the top-10 sport business stories of 2008, we noted that “new owner Rocky Wirtz understands spending money to make money is the way it works in the sport business and the way most successful franchises stay sustainable for the long-term.”

Tonight as they celebrate their first Stanley Cup in 49 years, the Blackhawks stand as a classic case study of a turnaround made possible by aligning ownership with both hockey operations and business operations and firing on all cylinders on the marketing front.

Rocky Wirtz understood what was required and pressed the button on hiring new Blackhawks president John McDonough in the fall of 2007. Just over a year later, the Blackhawks used the NHL Winter Classic on New Year's Day 2009 -- playing at iconic Wrigley Field -- as a metaphor for McDonough's approach to promoting your product and making it as accessible as possible.

They were still 18 months away from tonight's Stanley Cup victory, but the revitalized Blackhawks were an Original Six franchise that mattered again to Chicago and to the NHL.

We rated them as the hottest sport property in North America in Champions of The Sport Market 2008 and watched last fall as they confirmed their status as the fastest-growing hockey business in North America when they made a big move on Forbes Magazine's list of 2009 NHL franchise valuations.

Forbes valued the Blackhawks at $258 million U.S. in October, seventh among the 30 franchises in the NHL. No franchise increased in value more than the 26% bump enjoyed by Chicago, which climbed seven places from #14 the previous year; leapfrogging ahead of the Vancouver Canucks, whom they eliminated in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs each of the past two years.

There is no denying the engine of their make-over is winning talent; thanks to the work done by previous Blackhawks' general manager Dale Tallon and his successor Stan Bowman and epitomized by players such as Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Marian Hossa, Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook.

Yet equally clear is that the team's increased equity comes on the strength of the one-two punch of a better product and better marketing.

Bulls and Bears blog May 5th: http://thesportmarket.blogspot.com/2010/05/nhls-chicago-blackhawks-represent.html

The remarkable rise of the Blackhawks has been fuelled largely by a tremendous turnaround in ticket and sponsorship sales, which in turn has been supported by a new television strategy to repatriate and promote the Blackhawks brand throughout Illinois.

The Blackhawks gained 20 new corporate sponsors under the leadership of McDonough and the ownership of Rocky Wirtz, the son of the former owner, the late Bill Wirtz. Sponsorship quadrupled and season ticket sales tripled. As a result, the Blackhawks rose to the top of the league in attendance, rocking the United Center – the largest arena in the NHL -- and making it live up to its name as the Madhouse on Madison.

That in itself is an amazing turnaround from their second-to-last status in league attendance four years ago. Chicago has jumped from 29th among 30 clubs in 2007 to 19th in 2008 and first overall in the two seasons since then.

Rarely in the business of sport has a professional sport franchise gone so rapidly from such a lowly status both on and off the field of play, to a perch this high as one of the league leaders in business operations and, as of tonight, its overall champion.

Their "One Goal" slogan, a solid marketing mantra since 2008, has been reached, very effectively and ever so efficiently. The bottom-to-top turnaround: less than five years.

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NHL shows gains but NBA still wins 2010 television sweepstakes

Having game 5 of the NHL's 2010 Stanley Cup finals go up against game 2 of the NBA Finals Sunday night might have been unfortunate scheduling for both leagues and their fans but it did offer up a great chance to compare hockey apples with basketball oranges, so to speak, when it comes to television drawing power in North America.

Among the findings that stick with me are that NBA basketball is almost as popular among Americans as NHL hockey is to Canadians, at least when it comes to this spring's match-ups between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals and the Chicago Blackhawks and the Philadelphia Flyers in the Stanley Cup.

The head-to-head showdown showed that on a per capita basis, Canadians are this year 5.75 times as likely to watch Stanley Cup championship hockey than those living south of the border. It also demonstrated that Americans outwatch -- again per capita -- Canadians by 5.43 to 1 when it comes to NBA Finals basketball.

On this given Sunday, the NHL outscored the NBA on Canadian television by a 13:1 margin. In the U.S., however, the NBA beat the NHL by a ratio of 2.66:1 (approaching threefold). Hoops also won the continental battle by a margin of almost 60 per cent, with 16.0 million North Americans watching the Celtics beat the Lakers and 9.7 million tuning in to see Chicago move to within one game of its first Stanley Cup in 49 years (which the Blackhawks clinched in overtime tonight to win in six games).

The television scorecard Sunday looked like this...

                               NBA                              NHL
                               LA/Boston                                Chicago/Philadelphia
                               Game 2                                     Game 5


North America      16.0 million viewers         9.7 million viewers


United States        15.7 million viewers         5.9 million viewers
                              ESPN on ABC                             NBC

Canada                  291 thousand viewers     3.8 million viewers
                              TSN                                            CBC/RDS

The head-to-head comparison is particularly interesting in the U.S., where four of the top eight television markets in the country are directly engaged in the Stanley Cup and NBA Finals. This year's NHL and NBA championship series span the second-largest media market in the country, LA (5.7 million television households), #3 Chicago (3.5 million) and #4 Philadelphia (2.9 million), along with #8 Boston (2.4 million).

Sunday continued to show how heavily the NHL relies on the strength of its local markets when it comes to U.S. television ratings, with more than a third of those Americans tuning into Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final coming from either champion Chicago (where local market shares hit 40%) or Philly (almost 30%).

The New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls could theoretically drive larger combined local audiences if they found a way to return to the NBA Finals, but for ESPN on ABC, there is no stronger match-up in terms of national television interest than the NBA's two heritage brands, the Celtics and Lakers.

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With matchups like this, series sweeps are not what the leagues or their broadcast partners want

Seven-game championship series are always the cat's meow when it comes to driving fan interest and television audiences. But it's even more intriguing a proposition this year for the National Hockey League, the National Basketball Association and their U.S. broadcast partners.

That's why Claude Giroux's overtime goal in tonight's 4-3 win for the Philadelphia Flyers over the Chicago Blackhawks had to come as a relief for the NHL, Versus, NBC and anyone in all-sports television and radio who cares about hockey.

The clutch goal prevented the Blackhawks from taking a 3-0 stranglehold against the Flyers and likely reducing the length of this year's Stanley Cup final to five or even the minimum four games (which would have prevented it from gaining another second of air time on NBC).

The NHL and its broadcast partners are even more interested in a long series this year because the 2010 final can boast a direct local market engagement of almost 6.5 million television households. It pits the third-largest media market in the country (Chicago, with 3.5 million television households) against the fourth-largest (Philadelphia, with 2.95 million).

It's the best Stanley Cup showdown in terms of the Nielsen's ratings company's Designated Market Areas since 2003 when the New Jersey Devils and the Anaheim Ducks brought together the New York and Los Angeles DMAs and ranks third all-time in terms of television households (behind New Jersey/Anaheim in 2003 and New Jersey/Dallas in 2000).

Given that it showcases two American cities that actually care about hockey, it's the strongest U.S. hockey market match-up since Detroit swept Philadelphia in 1997 and -- if it lasts at least six games -- will drive the best American television ratings since the New York Rangers won the 1994 Stanley Cup in a seven-game thriller against the Vancouver Canucks.

Yet that's only part of the story. The Chicago-Philadelphia Stanley Cup final and the Los Angeles-Boston NBA final make this spring a high-water mark for sports television and radio, combining to make up one of the largest aggregate local market engagements in the history of the NHL and NBA championship series.

The 6.5 million TV households available to the NHL, Versus and NBC are joined by the more than 8 million households in LA and Boston that are being targeted by the NBA and ESPN on ABC. That's almost 15 million U.S. television households directly engaged with the Stanley Cup and NBA Finals and all of the sports television and radio news and talk shows that come along for the ride.

It might not be the biggest-ever local market combination in sheer overall capacity (Denver, New Jersey, LA and Philadelphia in 2001 and Detroit, Raleigh, LA and New Jersey in 2002 rated higher in terms of cumulative television households at north of 16 million each year). There's no denying, however, that this year's showdowns -- third overall in aggregate DMA size -- are anchored in a final four that includes two of the very best American hockey markets and arguably the two greatest big basketball markets in the U.S.

It's not just quantity this year, it's quality of market demographics for the NHL and NBA. Chicago-Philly for hockey and LA-Boston for hoops are dream television match-ups on both counts.

ESPN on ABC will bring the best-of-seven final between the NBA's two heritage brands -- the Lakers and Celtics -- to those strong local markets and to an interested national television audience. Meanwhile, the NHL is basking in arguably its best-ever U.S. hockey market match-up.

Now if only more Americans could find the mid-week Stanley Cup games on Versus.

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Business Tale of the Tape: Chicago and Philadelphia makes for solid Stanley Cup final

The end of the Montreal Canadiens' improbable run to the 2010 Stanley Cup finals means smaller Canadian audience numbers for CBC and dramatically lower ratings for RDS, but it makes for a solid showdown between two of the strongest American brands in the National Hockey League. And in that light, the championship round bringing together the Chicago Blackhawks and the Philadelphia Flyers is great news for the NHL's U.S. television rights holders, NBC and Versus.

It's a worthy follow-up to last year's Stanley Cup final between the eventual 2009 champion Pittsburgh Penguins and the 2008 winners, the Detroit Red Wings; the two most popular road teams in the NHL over the past three years.

There's no Sidney Crosby in this year's Stanley Cup final, but a quick look at the sport business tale of the tape pitting the Blackhawks against the Flyers suggests it might be the best U.S. match-up in at least a decade based on sheer hockey market strength:

Franchise valuation - According to Forbes Magazine, this Stanley Cup series showcases the fifth and seventh highest-valuated franchises in the NHL. Philadelphia is valued at $273 million US while Chicago comes in at $258 M (and rising as the hottest property in the NHL). In 2009, Detroit was fourth while small-market Pittsburgh was middle of the pack.

Overall revenues: It's a meeting between two of the top eight revenue-producing franchises in the NHL. After quadrupling their sponsorship sales since 2007, the Blackhawks are tied for sixth (with Boston) at $106 million US while the Flyers are eighth at $101 million.

Box office revenues: It's #3 (Philly) against #9 (Chicago), each driving well more than $50 million of their revenues at the gate.

Ticket prices: Philadelphia is top-five in the NHL (at $60.25) while seeing the Blackhawks at the United Center is still one of the best bargains in professional hockey at $46.80 (19th overall).

Home attendance: After ranking 29th out of 30 four years ago, the Blackhawks make the Madhouse on Madison the biggest building in the NHL, packing it with more 22,000 fans per game and leading the NHL in attendance for the second straight year. The Flyers average 19,503 at the Wachovia Center; sixth-best in the league.

Road attendance: This final brings together the seventh (Chicago) and 14th (Philadelphia) most popular teams on the road this season.

Media market size: In addition to Versus and NBC, the NHL's U.S.-based sponsors are smiling as they contemplate the third and fourth largest designated market areas (television DMAs) on the continent. Chicago is #3 and Philadelphia is #4.

Regional television audiences: Chicago and Philadelphia were two of the top five U.S. hockey television markets during the 2009-'10 regular season. The Blackhawks drew an average regional audience of 196,800 viewers on Comcast and WGN while the Flyers attracted 147,900. That's #6 and #11 overall in the NHL and #2 and #5 in the U.S.

Hockey market: Forbes Magazine's research suggests this is a clash between the fifth and seventh strongest hockey markets in the NHL and the third and fifth best in the U.S. (based on franchise value attributed to city and market size).

Simply put, the 2010 Stanley Cup final features two of the best marketed U.S. franchises in two of the best hockey markets in the U.S. When one considers both market clout and brand appeal, it's arguably the best U.S. match-up since the Flyers last reached the finals in 1997 against the Detroit Red Wings.

It also comes with important intangibles based on history and tradition: one is an Original Six franchise that hasn't won a Cup since 1961 and the other a first-wave 1969 expansion team that hasn't done so since 1975. It's that hunger -- shared by the respective organizations and their fans -- which will make for good storylines throughout the series beginning Saturday at the United Center.

And good stories make for good ratings.

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Quebec Flyers, BC Blackhawks and Canada Sharks each have their merits, but only Montreal Canadiens register economic impact in Canada

The San Jose Sharks have more Canadians on their roster than any of the four teams remaining in the National Hockey League's 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs.


The Chicago Blackhawks have the biggest bevy of British Columbians while the Philadelphia Flyers boast the most Quebeckers.

Yet despite having fewer Canadians than the Canada Sharks and fewer Quebecois than the Quebec Flyers, only the Montreal Canadiens have a macro economic impact on their city, their province and, by extension, their country.

Nine unanswered goals in a 2-0 series lead might suggest the Flyers will limit the number of home games left in Montreal, but the Canadiens will drive box office revenues of more than $5.5 million per game night at the Bell Centre after earning $25 million in ticket receipts from their seven-game series miracles over the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins.

Add a half-million dollars in concession and merchandise sales per game and you have a winfall not only for the Habs, but for their official suppliers, licensees and the federal and provincial tax agencies.

Each televised game fills restaurants, pubs and brasseries in Montreal; each home game moreso. The beer flows and wings fly at sports bars throughout Quebec and across Canada, expanding the economic impact beyond the confines of the second largest city in the country.

The buzz is also economically palpable for CBC and RDS, who are generally doubling their audience numbers on the strength of having a Canadian team in the conference finals. When a combined average audience of more than six million Canadians watch Hockey Night in Canada and RDS -- almost one of every five Canadians -- it's good for those broadcast companies. Radio rights holders glean similar upside.

More eyeballs and ears following a Canadian team in the final four also means -- at least theoretically -- more returns on investment for domestic advertising sponsors such as Scotiabank, Tim Hortons and Golf Town.

So whatever your take is on what makes a local franchise take on national team status or whether the Montreal Canadiens have any right to your spring allegiance, make no mistake that they are the only team left registering an impact on the Canadian economy.

The Sharks, Flyers and the Blackhawks have varying degrees of fan equity in Canada, but love them or hate them, only the success of the Canadiens on and off the ice makes a tangible, financial difference for Canadians, Canadian broadcasters and other Canadian companies.

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The NHL's Chicago Blackhawks represent a remarkable turnaround...both on and off the ice

The on-ice turnaround scored by the National Hockey League's Chicago Blackhawks over the past three years is impressive. A five-season exile from the Stanley Cup playoffs ended last year and the Blackhawks red, black and gold colour palette is likely to be a going concern for much of the new decade.

Adept drafting, smart trades and a couple of prized free agent acquisitions have given Chicago fans a few reasons for both short and long-term optimism. After all, in the business of sport, nothing is more fundamentally important -- in most markets -- than the business of winning.

Yet the on-ice makeover is matched -- if not exceeded -- by the remarkable turnaround the Original Six franchise has achieved off the ice. In Chicago, product and marketing have met to create a one-two punch as balanced and lethal as that of any NHL franchise in the U.S. (See NHL Composite Power Rankings 2009-'10 http://www.facebook.com/thesportmarket?v=photos&ref=ts#!/photo.php?pid=3724749&id=280702824731)

The combination has taken the Blackhawks from second-to-last in NHL attendance in 2006-'07 to first overall the past two years.

The marketing part has been handled brilliantly by Blackhawks' president John McDonough (hired in November of 2007); fully-empowered by second generation owner Rocky Wirtz (who took over from his dad, the late Bill Wirtz the previous month) and complemented over the past two years by business operations senior vice-president Jay Blunk (January of 2008).

The Blackhawks are back and they're back on the strength of comprehensive, brand-based marketing; an integrated strategy in which the NHL's Chicago foothold is firing on all of the most important cylinders in business operations. Blackhawks marketing has at least 10 streams, none more important than the first three (product promotion, broadcast platform and sense of history):

1. Product marketing: Chicago has a good, young team and Blackhawks marketers make sure everyone knows that;

2. Broadcast marketing: McDonough and company understand the best way to expose their new product is through television and radio. WGN-TV, Comcast Sportsnet and WGN Radio are key partners in the off-ice turnaround because they've put the team back on the Chicago sports map. Regular season games draw sellouts of 21,000 plus to the United Center and almost 10 times that on television;

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=399165796504&comments&ref=mf#!/photo.php?pid=3769385&id=280702824731

3. Heritage marketing: The repatriation of Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita and Tony Esposito was not only long overdue, it brought back a generation of 'hawks fans who were as estranged as the former stars were over the span of three decades;

4. Partnership marketing: An NHL team in an American market can only benefit from aligning itself with the other professional franchises in the city. McDonough linked the Blackhawks with the Cubbies (his alma mater), White Sox, Bears and the Bulls, their United Center partners owned by Jerry Reinsdorf. The partnership approach culminated in the 2009 Winter Classic at Wrigley Field and made special event marketing part of the mix for the Blackhawks;

5. Cross marketing: The partnerships also set the stage for creative cross-promotions with the city's top stars in other sports. Even the campaigns that didn't make it to television -- most notably the 2009 series featuring the Blackhawks and da Bears that was banned by the NFL -- caused a stir on the web and in chat rooms, demonstrating the NHL team was prepared to ride the air baloon of their more famous football cousins;

6. Personality marketing: The Blackhawks are ultimately selling a team brand, but they know that team brand is defined in large part by the personal brands of their players. The team's star tandem on the ice, Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, are the star tandem in television, radio and print advertising. Phase 2: Making Hollywood celebs such as Vince Vaughn part of the personality of the franchise;

7. Theme marketing: The simple and hockey-themed tagline One Goal, crafted by global ad agency Ogilvy Mather, has served as the Blackhawks' mantra for the past two years;

8. Entertainment marketing: The new Blackhawks have made hockey cool again. From opening anthems to goal celebrations, the United Center is the Madhouse on Madison. Just ask visiting teams stabbed with the Chelsea Dagger after every Chicago goal. Is there a more distinctive goal celebration song in the NHL right now? (See and hear The Fratellis http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEXHeTcxQy4)

9.  Social media marketing: In the hometown and state of Barrack Obama, the Blackhawks are all over Facebook, Twitter and YouTube;

10. Cause marketing: The Blackhawks have always made money in Chicago. Now they're sharing the wealth and investing in causes that matter to the community. Just more reasons for Chicago to care about the Blackhawks.

Add it all up and you've got the best marketed franchise in the United States and one of the top three in the NHL. The Blackhawks have already been acknowledged as among the fastest-rising sports properties in the United States (see Champions of The Sport Market 2008 http://www.thesportmarket.biz/pdf/Champions_of_Sport_2008_International.pdf). With a solid on-ice product and dynamic off-ice marketing, don't count on them going away anytime soon.

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Salary cap helps raise the roof on NHL attendance

Attendance in the National Hockey League has grown each year since the lockout of 2004-'05, reaching an all-time high of a league-wide per game average of 16,458 in the 2009-'10 regular season which ended last Sunday.

Many would point to raucous big buildings such as the United Center in Chicago (21,356) and the Bell Centre in Montreal (21,273) as driving the league-wide average and they'd be at least partially right. Some would suggest new rules and an emerging crop of young superstars a la Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin have peaked fan interest and they'd also be right. Still others would point to shootouts and three-point games and how they pump up team point totals and compress the point differentials between contenders and pretenders.

Yet if the numbers have grown consistently since the lockout, isn't it also true that parity -- pure and simple --has gone a long way to keeping the turnstiles moving? What better way to sell tickets and drive attendance than on the promise of hope: with no clear Stanley Cup favourite, more fans from more markets can dream longer about their own team's prospects of making the grade.

The numbers would suggest the bull market for NHL tickets is the result of the perfect storm of all of these factors, but none more important than team balance.

Check this out: almost half of the 30 teams in the NHL (13) are drawing more than 18,000 fans per game...more than a third (11) of the league's teams are selling out every game...five of Canada’s six franchises are at 100 per cent capacity and the sixth is not far off at 98.8 per cent...six northern U.S. markets are playing to full houses.

Most impressive is that four-fifths of the NHL is north of the magic number most people in the business covet as a sign of franchise strength; with 24 of 30 teams at or above 80% arena capacity.

Despite the bull market for NHL tickets north of the border and in northern U.S. markets, the league clearly still has its work cut out for it in the southern U.S, where seven of its eight lowest-drawing teams are currently located...five of them in sun belt markets.

That includes Phoenix. Despite a fourth-place finish in the NHL's overall standings last week, the Coyotes closed the regular season dead last in attendance, averaging a reported 11,989 at Jobing.com Arena.

Yet Phoenix and the NHL's other weak links would be even weaker were it not for the elephant in the room; a salary cap implemented in 2005 and one which has to be given at least some props for helping drive these record levels of game attendance and fan interest.

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NHL's own Coyotes spin Slap Shot-like tale

Whether it's called Flight of the Phoenix, From the Ashes of Bankruptcy or simply Believe It or Not, the Phoenix Coyotes are the closest thing the National Hockey League has to a Hollywood script in its 2009-'10 season.

In fact, despite not featuring the Hanson brothers or anything close, the Coyotes invoke the cult movie storyline of the Charleston Chiefs of Slap Shot fame.

Barry Riz of TSN.ca channeled the 1977 flick, the most popular hockey movie of all time, in a blog Monday night as the Coyotes occupied -- albeit temporarily -- a share of first place in the western conference of the NHL.

Instead of the Federal League, it's the NHL...it's not Reggie Dunlap (Paul Newman), it's Shane Doan...Jobing.com Arena in place of War Memorial Arena...stories of relocating to southern Ontario (last summer) and now Winnipeg or Kansas City instead of Florida...instead of a new, aggressive team fronted by the Hanson brothers, it's a new, stubborn team fronted by head coach Dave Tippett.

What would be more unlikely: The Chiefs' league title in Slap Shot the movie in 1977 or the Coyotes winning the Stanley Cup in real life in 2010?

Two things for sure: 1. The Phoenix Coyotes are the NHL’s story of the year for their surprising on-ice performance and position near the top of the western conference. 2. They continue to be its off-ice dog in terms of ticket sales and sponsorship revenues and hence, its most troubling sport business story for the third or fourth year in a row.

With a franchise record 98 points, the Coyotes are fourth overall among the 30 teams in the NHL and tied for second in the western conference – just one point behind the Chicago Blackhawks and knotted with the San Jose Sharks.

They are making the most of a season which they began in bankruptcy protection before being bought and taken over by the NHL itself in the Bettman-Balsillie-Moyes love triangle and sport business soap opera of last summer.

Yet despite being a lock to make the playoffs for the first time in seven years, the Coyotes are playing dead at the box office, despite impressive walk-up sales this month by spring break visitors from Vancouver and transplanted Chicagoans.

Phoenix is dead last among NHL teams in terms of ticket revenues earned per game. It is almost certainly also last in sponsorship revenues and tied for last in local television audiences. It is in the bottom five in the league in merchandising.

Going into this weekend, the Coyotes are averaging just north of $425,000 US per game at the box office. That's $125 K less per game than the next weakest NHL ticket machine, the Tampa Bay Lightning. Even perennial losers such as the New York Islanders -- in danger of moving out of an outdated arena and perhaps out of New York altogether -- and the Atlanta Thrashers -- out of the playoffs and in and out of court in a lawsuit among its owners -- make at least $225 K more every night out than the Coyotes. That's $9 million a year and change.

The Coyotes need an entire season to make as much box office revenue as the Vancouver Canucks do in a quarter-season Ice Pak of 11 games. Conversely, the Toronto Maple Leafs need only eight dates at the Air Canada Centre to outperform a 41-game regular season of Phoenix home games.

The Maple Leafs are the opposite of the Coyotes. Poor on the ice. Solid at the box office and in every category of off-ice hockey business: sponsorships, television revenues and merchandising.

Unless they reach the third round of the playoffs, the Coyotes will still lose at least $20 million US this year. That's a third of the losses they suffered last year but it's still nowhere near long-term sustainable.

Considering that the Coyotes have more points than any Canadian team, even the Northwest Division-leading Canucks, the only question NHL commissioner Bettman should be asking and imagining is what the Coyotes' sport business performance -- ticket sales, sponsorship sales, television and merchandising -- would be in a Canadian market such as Winnipeg or Southern Ontario or in even any northern U.S. market.

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