The Chicago Blackhawks chose to keep the team name after multiple sports teams continue to choose new names.
Blackhawks CEO Danny Wirtz said the team has spent the last several months “expanding” and “deepening” its partnerships with the native community, according to Sports Business Journal reporter Mark J. Burns.
Chicago Blackhawks are sticking with name/brand, per remarks by CEO Danny Wirtz on yesterday’s media call: pic.twitter.com/4kf7ouqQow
— Mark J. Burns (@markjburns88) December 18, 2020
“We continue to deepen our commitment to upholding our namesake and our brand,” Wirtz said. “The work we’ve been doing over the last several months in expanding and deepening conversations and partnerships within the native community, we continue to feel really positive about the types of works we can do, the way in which we can be better stewards of the namesake and the history, and to use our platforms to be educators, not only for our fans, but for our internal teams and making sure that we provide that reverence and respect that we talk about that we want to see come to life in everything we do across so many dimensions, both from a marketing standpoint, from a learning and education standpoint and by all means a community standpoint, in the ways in which we integrated native voices into a lot of those efforts.”
“We’re going to continue down this path and continue to hold our brand up in the highest levels of honor,” he added.
The Blackhawks have chosen a different path than other professional sports organizations. (RELATED: After 105 Years, Cleveland Will Drop ‘Indians’ From Team Name)
The Cleveland Indians chose to change the name of the organization, according to a report published Sunday by The New York Times. It is unclear exactly what the change will look like, but the outlet reported that the announcement could come this week.
The Washington Redskins also changed the team name to The Washington Football Team over the summer following calls for a name change.