The Blackhawks’ business side has emerged from the pandemic arguably just as changed as its player roster and front office.
Danny Wirtz and Jaime Faulkner’s 2020 takeovers as CEO and business president, respectively, ushered in a lengthy period of internal review and reorganization. As the 2022-23 season begins, the organization is finally reaching a new era of relative stability during which the changes made will ideally begin yielding fruit.
“We’re really excited about the team we have in place,” Faulkner and Wirtz told the Sun-Times on Wednesday.
Five of the six vice presidents who form the Hawks’ new business operations leadership group — Eryn McVerry (brand), Jamie Spencer (revenue), Matt Gray (strategy and analytics), Marcus LeBeouf (general counsel), Shara Meisinger (people and culture) and TJ Skattum (finance) — joined the organization in either 2021 or 2022.
Even structurally, the Hawks have made changes. Their April 2021 purchase of the Rockford IceHogs integrated their longtime AHL affiliate’s management into their own. They’ve also merged the operations of Fifth Third Arena, their community ice rink and practice facility, into their corporate structure.
“[In doing so], we identified even more talented people, but we also identified we had some duplication in what we were doing, and areas of opportunity and gaps where we didn’t have enough resourcing or capability,” Faulkner said.
The Hawks did make significant layoffs in some areas this summer, sources have confirmed, but Faulkner said much of the staff turnover was natural and voluntary.
“We also had a lot of incredibly talented people who were with us through those three [Stanley] Cups, who were part of the first build of this organization, who said, ‘I’ve been there, done it, and don’t have the energy to do it again,’” she said. “We have several who said, ‘Hey, I don’t have the skills and competencies that you need.’ COVID also [prompted] a lot of people in sports to rethink what they wanted to do.”
On the other hand, the Hawks substantially expanded certain departments, such as the strategy and analytics team Gray oversees.
The analytics team within the hockey operations department has grown from two to six employees, bolstered by several additions from the Cubs. The analytics team in business operations has grown just as much, working with some of the same data and technology the hockey analysts use — such as the new “NHL Edge IQ” data set that includes player and puck tracking — but analyzing it in different ways.
“I think we went from having the smallest analytics and strategy team in the league to the largest,” Faulkner said. “There was not a team [previously]. There were maybe one or two people that weren’t even given the right resources they needed to do their jobs very well.
“Now, any major decision we make for the organization, they’re involved in. [Their data has] informed the new ticketing packages we offered. It informed the pricing decisions. ... It has informed how we think about corporate partners, how we identify brands that share the same values where we complement each other’s business.”
On the sales front, the Hawks are pleased with the response to their new season-ticket membership program, which included ticket price reductions for 84% of seats, greater flexibility with full- and partial-season plans and more side benefits for members.
While crowds at the United Center will be smaller this season than they’ve been in more than a decade — the Hawks’ anticipated on-ice struggles make that unavoidable — season-ticket renewal rates did exceed expectations.
And the extra space will allow the Hawks to invite more large groups to attend games together, having designated seven sections (306 to 312) on the shoot-once end of the 300 level for group sales and special promotions.
“That’s something we haven’t been able to offer in the past,” Faulkner said. “If a youth hockey association wants to bring their families and their kids, which can sometimes be up to 1,000 people, we’d have to sprinkle them all over the place. That’s not as much fun as when we can seat them relatively close together. ... We’re hoping it’s more noticeable because there [will be] a lot of noise happening in that section.”
The end result is the Hawks are “not worried” about their organizational revenue outlook, even as they enter a long-term rebuild.
“All the metrics look really good,” Wirtz said. “It’s an investment stage for us, too, so hopefully over time, revenues grow and our profit picture looks a little better.”
