The new television frontier for the Blackhawks could include a package of games that air on free TV locally.
On a day Hawks general manager Dale Tallon termed “monumental,” the Hawks announced that they would air seven home games this season on Comcast SportsNet, beginning with Sunday night’s game against Detroit at the United Center.
It might be just the start for the suddenly TV-friendly Hawks. According to sources, the team will be looking to add a local over-the-air television channel to combine with CSN to televise perhaps as many as 70 games next season.
CSN still would show the bulk of the games, but a smaller package would be pitched to channels such as WCIU-Ch. 26 and WPWR-Ch. 50. WCIU already airs a limited schedule of White Sox, Cubs and Bulls games.
Another broadcast partner would allow the Hawks to avoid conflicts with the Bulls on CSN.
If the Hawks are able to land a deal, it will mark the first time they will have games on free television since the days when Jim West was announcing for WGN-Ch. 9 in the 1970s.
New team Chairman Rocky Wirtz didn’t get into specifics about the Hawks’ future TV plans, but thinking small definitely won’t be the approach.
“We’re looking at everything,” Wirtz said. “If this is a success and we do well and we bring people out to our games, we’d be crazy not to televise more games.”
Of course, people have long said the Hawks were crazy not to televise their home games in the past. The late Bill Wirtz was steadfast in maintaining an outdated policy. When Wirtz died, it was assumed his son Rocky would eventually bring the team into the 21st Century and air home games. To those surprised that Wirtz acted as quickly as he did, he had a simple explanation: Why wait?
“Let’s jump-start this thing,” he said. “It’s not going to be any different next year or the year after. The No. 1 criticism we had was, ‘Why aren’t home games on TV?’ It made a lot of sense for us to do it.”
As to why the Hawks won’t show more home games this season, Jim Corno, CSN’s executive vice president and general manager, said it was a matter of logistics. Television schedules are made a year in advance, and CSN already had commitments, including those with the Bulls.
Also, the Hawks and CSN want to make the home games special, airing them in high-definition. The network plans to pull out all the stops for Sunday’s game, with many special features planned.
But all that is really needed is for the Hawks to play well. The whole idea behind televising home games is to get people excited enough about what they’re watching to take a trip to the United Center. It’s a different vibe than showing a road game.
“Our goal is to try to capture the excitement,” Corno said. “It’s not the same as being there, but it will be as close as you can get. To see the Hawks score and have the fans excited and hear the horn go off, as opposed to winning in Dallas and not have anyone cheering … it’s going to be so much more fun for the viewer.”
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Rocky Wirtz seemed to relish the fact that he never will hear “the question” again.
“Jim DeMaria used to begin every press conference, ‘Do not ask any questions about TV home games,'” Wirtz said, referring to the Hawks’ longtime media relations chief. “Jim, do you pledge never to say that again?”
DeMaria responded with an emphatic yes.
Indeed, this is a new era for the Hawks. The home television questions have become: How many home games and how many channels?
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