Just a few hours before the Blackhawks’ 5-2 win over the Ducks to extend the Western Conference Finals to a Game 7, Blackhawks President & CEO John McDonough spoke at the '15 Brand Engagement Conference in Chicago. McDonough touched on a variety of issues during a one-on-one interview with SBJ/SBD Exec Editor Abe Madkour. He said of the team's consistent on-ice success, "It doesn't get any easier. Once you win a Stanley Cup, there is the insatiable appetite to keep on winning. The foundation is humility. We are not entitled to one more fan or viewer or anything, and that is the approach we take every day." The following are excerpts from the interview:
* On breaking down the wall between hockey and business operations within the franchise: "We are all in the same meetings. I need our general manager to understand what a TV rating point is. I need them to understand why we have a 12-month marketing cycle. I don't ever want one side of the operation to weigh more than the other."
* On turning around the organization after he was hired by the team in '07: "We needed to makes changes. We had to make some really unpopular decisions on popular people. People always talk about changing culture. You need to really understand what that means. There has to be mutual respect. My role is to orchestrate what is going on, take a step back and get engaged when necessary."
* On changes he would like to see in the industry: "Our fan base is very young. This is not your mother or father's Chicago Blackhawks. But the one thing I'd like to see changed is that if you are in the arena, you have little information. That has to change at some point."
* On the Blackhawks brand in the market: "Our players look like people they went to college with. Hockey players are more relatable. They really get it."
* On local hockey media rights: "I see the local rights growing dramatically. In some ways the NHL is a bit regional. What might be true in Chicago might not be true in other markets. We are fortunate enough that our numbers that we have been able to hit during the conference finals are close to NFL numbers.”
