Blackhawks To Televise Every Game Next Season

I know I haven't been covering them as much here, but you have to believe me when I tell you I've been watching and following the Blackhawks a lot more this season than I have in the previous five years. There are a few reasons for this, with the biggest one being that the team is actually pretty decent this season. They're going to miss the playoffs, but at least there's some real hope for the immediate future.

Another factor, of course, is that they started televising some home games this season, and it's a lot easier to follow a team when you can actually watch them play. Well, I'd be expecting a lot more Blackhawks posts next season because the team will be showing every game on television next season.

The Blackhawks plan to broadcast some very good news Tuesday—all 82 of next season's games will be televised.

The deal will be particularly satisfying to hockey fans who don't have cable TV. Industry sources say that as many as 20 games will go to WGN-Ch. 9, which carried the Hawks in the 1960s and early '70s.

The bulk will go to the Hawks' main partner, Comcast SportsNet, which televised 50 games this season, leaving about 30 unavailable to Chicago viewers.

Let me say this: It's about god damn time. It's pretty sad that it's 2008 and we're finally now able to applaud the Blackhawks for doing something any sports franchise with a brain has been doing for 25 years, but I'm not going to dwell on the idiocy of Bill Wirtz's reign of frugality.

Not only is this great news for all those die-hard Blackhawks fans (they still exist, it's true, I even know a few) who finally get to follow their team all season long, but it makes sense for the organization as well. The only way to build a fan base in a city like Chicago, one filled with so many other options for it's sports fans, is to allow them to actually watch the team play.

This should be a very large step towards making the Blackhawks and the sport of hockey relevant in this city again.