CHICAGO (AP) -Chicago Cubs president John McDonough resigned Tuesday after a little more than a year on the job and became president of the Chicago Blackhawks.
“I do see parallels” between the jobs, McDonough said at an afternoon news conference. “We have a lot of work to do.”
The most striking similarity may be long championship droughts; the Cubs haven’t won a World Series since 1908 and the Blackhawks haven’t captured the Stanley Cup since 1961.
McDonough leaves the Cubs at a time when the team is up for sale.
“It played a role,” McDonough said. “But this was the right opportunity at the right time.”
McDonough told the Cubs’ staff Tuesday morning he was stepping down.
“Bittersweet,” McDonough said. “I want the Cubs to win the World Series. When I left there today, it was a difficult thing to do.”
Hiring McDonough is the latest move by Blackhawks chairman Rocky Wirtz, who took control of the team after his father’s death in September. He reassigned longtime vice president Bob Pulford and worked out a deal to have some home games televised – something his father, William Wirtz, long opposed.
McDonough said his priority will be to get the fans back to the United Center where crowds have dwindled for most of the past decade.
“We are adding one of the top talents in sports management and marketing,” Rocky Wirtz said.
McDonough took over as Cubs’ president on Oct. 1 last year after Andy MacPhail resigned. McDonough’s background is in marketing and he had been with the Cubs since 1983, serving long stints as the club’s marketing director and vice president for marketing and broadcasting.
“We have moved rapidly in the last several weeks to assemble a group focused on bringing the Stanley Cup to Chicago,” Rocky Wirtz said.
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