The Chicago Blackhawks have been the Bengals of the NFL for decades - constantly losing, stadium half-empty, and a longtime owner who just didn't care about winning - valuing profits over performance. Much like the previous post on the Rams, sound familiar?
Then the tightfisted owner, Bill Wirtz, died last year and his son, Rocky Wirtz, inherited the team. And you know where this story is going - among his first tasks was hiring a Team President to run all NHL operations for the team who has turned around the team in a year, adding 10,000 season ticket holders, hiring longtime coach Scotty Bowman and landing a few key free agents. And as this ESPN the Magazine article shows, the steps implemented by new Team President John McDonough read like the WDR Manifesto to the left.
WDR Manifesto #1 and #6, in McDonough's words: "...there has to be the idea that there's never enough winning you can do. There's never enough you can do for your fans. There's never enough times you can get to the playoffs or win a Stanley Cup. There's never enough you can do to market your team. To do that, we had to embrace change."
WDR Manifesto #2 and #4, in McDonough's words: "...we spent a bunch of money and got elite guys like Brian Campbell and Cristobal Huet, but we also added maybe the best mind the game has ever known in Scotty Bowman."
The rest of the article talks about innovative ways to get fans excited about the team again, including a fan convention (which the Reds do hold but the Bengals do not).
Another example, like Jim Irsay in Indy, of a longtime owner passing the team to their son through inheritance - and the owner making big changes.
In Cincy, however, the Bengals lose and nothing changes. Join the Revolution today.
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