It's been a long way back for the Chicago Blackhawks. The franchise once revered among the greats in the NHL nearly hit rock bottom earlier this decade. Attendance was poor, home games were nowhere to be found on television, and the team was terrible.Rocky Wirtz, John McDonough, and Dale Tallon have done some marvelous work to help turn things around quickly. The Blackhawks are back in the playoffs, the games are all televised, and the United Center is full again.
Thanks to that full building, one of the Original Six is poised to set a single-season attendance record Wednesday night. When over 22,000 fans file into the United Center to watch the Blackhawks play the Columbus Blue Jackets, the 82-year-old franchise will smash their old mark.
To be precise, the record will be broken by the 8,547th fan who walks into the arena for the game. Not only do the Blackhawks have this planned out to the exact fan, but that fan is going to get the gold treatment.
The lucky fan will be available to meet the media in front of the Blackhawks locker room at 7:00 P.M., where they will be presented with a jersey signifying the history-making moment before performing the ceremonial puck drop.Imagine that. You're just going to a hockey game, and you end up getting a new jersey, meeting the media, and doing the pre-game puck drop.
The Blackhawks will approach a total season attendance of 850,000 with Wednesday's crowd. In case you're wondering, the total does not include the 40,000-plus that showed up at Wrigley Field January 1 for the Winter Classic.
