He called Bill Wirtz a drunk and a cheapskate, and for 6 1/2 years he made a living at it.
But a month ago Mark Weinberg decided it wasn’t a good enough living and he shut down the Blue Line, the irreverent unauthorized program that gave Blackhawks fans the giggles and gave team management fits.
Just in time for holiday gift-giving, the Blue Line is back–not back in business, but back on sale outside the United Center for the first two games of the upcoming Hawks homestand Thursday and next Sunday. Demand for copies of the farewell issue, a “greatest hits” collection, was so intense that Weinberg had extra copies printed.
“How come everybody loves us now that we’re dead?” asks Weinberg.
For those who have never picked up a copy of Weinberg’s “alternative” game program, it can best be described as a cross between Mad magazine and Hockey Digest, with a touch of Hustler’s perverse and crude humor.
And Weinberg wonders why it never found its niche.
“We did some of the best sports satire around,” says Weinberg. “If everybody who read it bought it, we’d have a business. But you get four or five people who come to a game and they buy one copy and pass it around.
“We were always more popular than profitable.”
Which, as usual, put the Blue Line at the polar opposite position of the Hawks.
Weinberg is still involved in a lawsuit against the Hawks, who denied his request for full media credentials. That would seem to be a moot point now that the publication has ceased printing, but Weinberg wants to see it through.
The Hawks did not consider the Blue Line part of the “traditional” media–OK, maybe the naked centerfold photo illustration of Bill Wirtz on top of a bar was a little bit over the top–and the team did not want to legitimize Weinberg’s program by issuing him credentials.
“That’s the whole basis for our refusal,” says Hawks attorney Howard Voeks. “We really don’t want to discuss it any further. We’re preparing a motion for summary judgment that we think will dispose of the case.”
Weinberg bemoans the so-called traditional media for being too conservative and timid when it comes to criticizing sports figures. He says that his lampoons of Hawks players and management were no different than Jay Leno’s nightly jokes on Bill Clinton.
Often, however, Weinberg’s humor went places that would have sent Leno’s NBC censors into seizures. But when he stayed above the belt, Weinberg’s satire could be bitingly cogent.
The Hawks, to their credit, icily tolerated the Blue Line’s presence, drawing the line only when Weinberg wanted to get full and free access to games and practices.
“We’ve got nothing to do with them going out of business,” says Hawks public relations director Jim DeMaria.
At least not directly. Weinberg claims that the recent slowdown in attendance at the United Center hurt him more than anything else.
“When there’s 20,000 people at a game, there are maybe 10,000 true hockey fans,” Weinberg says, “but when there are only 15,000 total at a game, you’re lucky if there are 5,000 real hockey fans. The other 10,000 people got the tickets from their boss or their brother-in-law and are only going because it’s a free night out.”
In the meantime, Weinberg is still operating the Blue Line Web site (www.mcs.net/(tilde)blueline/home.html) and planning his next move.
“How many battles can you fight?” asks Weinberg. “We never lost money–we just didn’t make enough. Who knows? Maybe this will be the steppingstone to something bigger.
“I’m 35 years old. I have a lot of friends making real money–and there’s nothing wrong with making money.”
Bill Wirtz would be proud.
