Meltdown

Town hall meetings work one of two ways. Either you stack it with stooges, or you prepare to answer any and all questions that come your way. Last night, the Blackhawks failed stunningly, breathtakingly, on both counts. For reasons the front office must wish must be regretting bigtime, the team held a hybrid virtual/in-person events. Fans were able to watch on-screen the meltdown of team owner Rocky Wirtz caused by questions from two reporters in the audience. Wirtz, without stooges in attendance, turned into one himself. First, he went after Mark Lazerus of The Athletic for bringing up the Kyle Beach situation. Lazerus wanted to know what the team had done to prevent any repeats of sexual abuse as happened to Beach. Wirtz responded with, among other comments, a finger-wagging, “That’s none of your business!” When Lazerus asked why, Wirtz responded, “Because you don’t work for the company.” Next up was the Tribune’s Phil Thompson, who repeated Lazerus’s question. “I told you to get off the subject,” Wirtz shot back. Thompson then tried to bring up the subject of the resale value of tickets on the secondary market. Thompson said season-ticket holders had told him they were having a hard time getting a decent return, to which Wirtz replied in super snit, “Is that fact? I didn’t realize you were in our ticket department.” A bull in the proverbial china shop would have caused less damage. The team website posted the interview, dividing it up into four parts; of course, the good stuff went into the last part. The story included an apology offered by Wirtz for “my response to two questions [that] crossed the line.” And that was it. Wirtz said too much during the event, and now the team was saying too little. I figure by now Jerry Reinsdorf has called with this advice—If your stooge isn’t asking the questions, don’t talk to the media.