As of Tuesday, you could go ahead and call them the Chicago MacHawks.

John McDonough is that perfect a fit as president of the Blackhawks.

You might remember that I didn't think McDonough was that good a fit as president of the Cubs. That was my story then, and I'm sticking to it now.

The Cubs didn't need to sell tickets. McDonough's expertise as marketing director already had filled Wrigley Field for more nearly a quarter-century.

Now McDonough leaves with the Cubs in a state of uncertainty. He wasn't likely to survive the Tribune's sale of the club and no one else might, either.

Ah, but as Hawks president? Man, we're talking an ingenious move by both McDonough and Hawks new patriarch Rocky Wirtz.

Odd as it sounds, it already seemed with the change at the ownership level that the Hawks were in better shape in and out of the arena than Chicago's other pro sports franchises currently are.

Adding McDonough is just another giant step in that direction.

"It's a great opportunity to join the Chicago Blackhawks, who I think are headed toward great things," McDonough said.

The United Center isn't Wrigley Field. With approximately half as many seats, half have been empty on too many nights.

When White Sox marketing director Brooks Boyer came over from the Bulls to the White Sox, it signaled the beginning of the Bullification of the Sox.

McDonough's move from baseball to hockey signals the Cubification of the Blackhawks, perhaps not in specifics but in Rocky Wirtz's willingness to embrace a 21st-century philosophy.

"I have a lot of ideas," McDonough said at his introductory news conference.

No, the Elk Grove Village resident probably won't drape the boards in ivy. But - who knows? - Donald Trump, Mike Ditka and Hillary Clinton might croon "Here Come the Hawks" between periods.

Anyway, a club president with marketing skills still needs something to market. You know, like the one McDonough had after joining the Cubs late in 1983.

There he had Harry Caray, a rediscovered Wrigley Field, a rejuvenated Wrigleyville, and the reach of WGN-TV's superstation. A year later he even had the Cubs' first playoff team in 39 years.

Now, again, McDonough lands as the right guy at the right time with the right team.

The Hawks are poised to recapture the Chicago area it squandered the past decade, just as the Cubs were with new ownership in the 1980s.

Actually, this is less a repeat of McDonough energizing the Cubs' fan base as it is the Bulls' fan base being energized in the mid-1980s.

The Bulls had Michael Jordan and a team on its way toward becoming a dynasty. Selling the product wasn't exactly like selling a gas guzzler to a tree hugger.

McDonough has Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and other talented young Hawks to market.

More important for McDonough, ownership will empower him to run the club, which the Cubs couldn't with their impending sale.

The Cubs never were John McDonough's team during his year as president. The Hawks will be.

Their successes will be his. So will the customers, new and old, who come to the United Center to see the Hawks play.

"All you Blackhawks fans out there," McDonough said, "it's time to come back."

Yes, you can start referring to them as the Chicago MacHawks.

mimrem@dailyherald.com