I don't understand your argument. You don't think our attendance would be better if the stadium were downtown, even with the same crappy roster and management?
I think our attendance would be the same or lower due to the cost of coming into the city for many of the fans for a substandard product. Right now the Fire are a good value, a good bang for your buck. In the same way the Wolves are, I think the Wolves would also draw lower at the United Center. If we put a fantastic product on the field I think a city stadium could draw more fans, but we'd only see that as an issue if we had a 30k capacity. It's not like we couldn't move into Soldier Field if the demand was there, the way TFC does a few games at Rogers Centre and Montreal does at the Olympic Stadium.
I'm not sure I agree, but I get your reasoning now. I don't think the price increase would be dramatic enough to dissuade as many as those that are currently dissuaded by the commute.
I don't necessarily disagree with the placement on the list, but his reasons are half-baked. He cites the recent success: "The Fire don’t lack for relative season-for-season success. They made the playoffs as the 4-seed in 2012 and tied Montreal on points last year for the 5-seed." Which translates into: Making a play-in game, and losing it, and missing the playoffs in 2013. He also glosses over the utter failures vs. a team of amateurs [Michigan Bucks] and the statistically worst MLS team in league history [dcu] in the Open Cup. He also glosses over NE's lack of a venue and laud's dcu's stadium efforts, even though every mayoral candidate in DC has come out AGAINST a dcu venue, while gilette remains a shitty situation for the revs. And calling a venue that is 3 blocks away from the city limits "a stadium on the outskirts of the Chicago area" is the DEFINITION of Out-of-Town Stupid. If he wanted to point to incompetent management, a poor roster, or any other number of things, he could have easily come to the same conclusions, but for valid reasons.
I don't even think its the commute. Plenty of fans fought the "commute" to see Blanco. And yes, I can make it from the far NW side to Bridgeview in under an hour on weekends. IMO, its the utterly craptacular product, coupled with the tone deaf interaction with their customers.
As I said before, people will fill the stadium if it's worth it. Blanco and that strong team was worth it. My point is that the commute is enough of a hindrance that many who might be willing to watch a nearby, crappy team don't feel it's worth it to go to Bridgeview for crappy team.
Disagreed. I still would find some other way to spend my entertainment dollars, even if Toyota Park was at Lane Tech, given this team's shittiness. Or if the games were at Soldier Field, I still wouldn't waste money on this team. IMO, the key hindrance to me [and many other paying customers] coming to games is that the product isn't very good, not the commute.
It's also in the Chicago Area, just not in Chicago. The new soccer center is also not located downtown and TP is only 1 train and a bus from downtown. He doesn't really know the city that well but he seems to have a clear understanding of the f*** ups from Andy and his minions.
As I see it Hauptman has two major problems and neither is stadium location (not arguing that it couldn't be better though) 1. He may not spend on the level of Seattle, TFC, NY or LA, but he's not cheap relative to other MLS owners (there are many cheap MLS owners!). His problem is that he hired bad/incompetent people to run his team. As an absentee owner, you've got to get smart and talented folks like Mike Ernst throughout the organization. The Fire can win with the budget we have, we just can't spend foolishly. 2. He's needlessly involved in a tug-o-war with the supporters over the identity of the club. Whenever we've scored this season, I jump out of my seat and pump my fist in the air...then I see those navy jerseys and it's a stark reminder that it's not my club anymore. It's Andy's. And I sit down again, pleased with the goal but feeling more detached than ever before.
Up one spot to 13...... http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/artic...r-rankings-week-7-three-way-run-top-spot-poll
glass-half-full optimism: we're the highest ranked winless team, and higher ranked than two teams with wins. We are also outperforming our SS position, so obviously the editors think we are poised to rise.
Continuing the optimism in the wrong thread... I think we've played better than 5 pts this season and if we keep it up, the wins will come. On a side note, is anyone else having problems with bigsoccer not registering all of your keystrokes? This is wha a sentence loos like if i dn't go back and edt it.
Down to spots to 15th. http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/artic...eek-9-surging-seattle-sounders-take-over-no-1
Down one spot to 16th, we are going to wrong way. http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/artic...rankings-week-10-new-england-revolution-march #HauptmanOut
We tied Montreal, lost to Chivas and are the only team in the league yet to win a game. How is it we aren't 19th?
Don't forget we also have the ugliest primary jersey in the league. That has to help us move into 19th.