Oh, what a lovely time of the year it is for sports fans in Chicago.
There’s the Chicago Bears and their annual tradition of ridiculous draft choices. Then there’s baseball, with the White Sox ready to put the disappointment of last year behind them, and hopefully have another great start that will not end in the same disappointment. And, of course, there’s the team that has always been seen as lovable, the Chicago Cubs. However, after winning their elusive World Series title last fall, they are no longer under the influence of the “Curse of the Billy Goat.”
With that famous curse now in history’s dustbin, sports fans in Chicago might think life is all good in the city of Broad Shoulders. Or at least, it’s good if you aren’t a football fan. Or a soccer fan, what with Bastian Schweinsteiger and whatnot.
Well, something new in sports hexes has cropped up this time of the year. And it’s all thanks to an airline, which is based in the Windy City itself. Sponsors of a sporting venue that the Bulls and Blackhawks have called home for 23 years have been caught in the same kind of rut that plagued the Cubs for so many years.
The United Center had served the city’s winter season franchise tenants well since opening its doors in 1994. Carrying the nickname of “Madhouse on Madison,” which also applied to its equally cathedral-caliber predecessor, Chicago Stadium, there have been a handful of championship celebrations for their home teams taking shape here. There were the Bulls in the 1996 and 1997 seasons, and the Blackhawks in 2015, their first championship at home since 1938.
Since its opening, United Airlines, based in Chicago, has carried the venue’s sponsorship, signing a 20-year deal originally before its opening, followed by another 20-year deal at the end of 2013. On April 9, however, United encountered a PR nightmare regarding the way it handled an issue regarding four airline employees that needed seats on a Chicago-Louisville flight. This led to passenger David Dao being violently removed from his seat, and this incident brought negative publicity to the company that would impact their stock, their upper management, and their reputation with customers.
What hasn’t been talked about is the impact the incident has had on the two Chicago teams playing in the United-sponsored sporting palace. Since that incident, the Blackhawks were swept by the Nashville Predators in the opening round of the playoffs, on top of a six-game losing streak to end the regular season. While the Bulls did win their final two regular season home games and won the first two games of their playoff series against Boston at TD Garden, Rajon Rondo suffered a fractured thumb in the second playoff game. This forced him to miss the rest of the series, as Boston came back to win in six games.
In summary, this unfortunate incident couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Bulls and Blackhawks, two teams who have been through their own curses. For the Bulls, it was a lack of fan interest during their first years in the 1960s. For the Blackhawks, it was a cheapskate ownership with a local blackout on home games, as was the case under William Wirtz.
It might just be a coincidence as far as luck is concerned. The next several years are when the Bulls and Blackhawks, especially with the latter team still in championship prime, will really tell the story. If anything, the Bears now hold the main focus of scrutiny from the fans and the media. Thirty-one years after their last Super Bowl win, this has been the longest drought for the Chicago Five, now that the Lovable Losers tag is permanently retired from the sporting lexicon.
No matter what sport fans follow, they can’t wait for this fall to come sooner, nor can they wait to test these theories.
Maybe United could help out by pulling away their arena sponsorship before being associated with a curse, in the nature that has plagued the Cubs for 108 years. If I were a Chicago fan, I’d go.