Blackhawks Owner Bill Wirtz Again Hints At Selling Team

Blackhawks Owner Says He Might Put Team Up For Sale

After losing $31M this season and $191M over the past ten seasons on the Blackhawks, team Owner Bill Wirtz indicated that if the NHLPA “hires someone cut out of the mould of Bob Goodenow as executive director,” he will try to sell the team, according to Rick Westhead of the TORONTO STAR. Wirtz: “If the union hired someone like Bob, who just says [you’re] lying whenever you say you’re losing money, I’d put the team up for sale. And I think that might cause other owners to look at their own investments.” Westhead notes that NHLPA Exec Dir Ted Saskin is “on paid suspension and will probably not return to his job.” But Wirtz in ’03 indicated that he would “contemplate unloading the Blackhawks” before the lockout. The salary cap “doesn’t seem to be doing much to help” the Blackhawks, as they have lost a collective $59M under the new CBA (TORONTO STAR, 4/20).