McDonough Looks for Another Marketing Hit
The last hockey player had barely stepped off the temporary ice rink at Wrigley Field Thursday afternoon following the 2009 NHL Winter Classic before Blackhawks team president John McDonough was in front of the reporters' microphones with another big idea.
In a reversal of sorts of the Blackhawks/Red Wings game at Wrigley Field, McDonough is proposing that the Cubs and Cardinals move their July 11th game from Wrigley to the United Center.
"If the Blackhawks and Red Wings playing at Wrigley Field was a grand slam, and I think everyone would agree that it was," said McDonough, "I think the Cubs and Cardinals meeting at the U.C. would be a...a...one of those things where a guy scores three goals in one game. And July can be hot as hell. I think all those moms and dads and boys and girls are really going to enjoy the air conditioning."
McDonough's proposal has yet to be vetted by officials from the Cubs, Major League Baseball, the Major League Players Union, or WGN-TV, which holds broadcast rights to the game, but the former Cubs marketing honcho doesn't forsee any major barriers to staging the event.
"Obviously the dimensions of the floor at the United Center vary a bit from what the baseball teams are used to," McDonough acknowledged, "but I don't think it's anything that can't be worked around. If the left field fence has to be 115 or 120 feet from home plate and 50 or 60 feet high, the players will adapt. Remember, these guys are professionals."
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