Chicago Blackhawks, still in the red, will raise ticket prices

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Chicago Blackhawks fans now have been warned: They will see an increase in the price of season tickets ‘by an average of 20%’ this coming season because making a serious Stanley Cup run doesn’t guarantee a team will stay in the black.

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune’s Melissa Harris, Chairman Rocky Wirtz said the Blackhawks ‘ran out of cash several times last season’ despite winning the Cup.

Each time there was a cash-flow problem, he said he ‘received a memo, known as an internal capital call, in which the team requested money from Wirtz Corp., the Blackhawks’ parent company, to cover operating expenses,’ Harris writes. ‘And at the end of the season, Wirtz said he double-checked that the playoffs did not cover those losses; the franchise remained in the red, the team’s accountant told him.’

Wirtz said the team was losing less every year and pledged he would never revert to the penny-pinching ways of his father. But he also told the Tribune that ‘fans should expect ‘more modest’ increases in the future.’

-- Debbie Goffa