Museus Campus + Downtown has been there forever and the Fire still couldn't draw more than 18k per game in any year they where there. Even in their first two years....with the novelty and 2 championships. I just don't think Chicago is a *soccer town. Too much competition with 5 major sport league teams. * Sure .... the Mexican National Team can fill SF and probably America vs Chivas... but for the most part that is an outlier. And no... actually having all that crap downtown makes it harder for families ... IMHO...at least families with kids under 10, they don't (and neither do the parents quite frankly) have the stamina (or time) to loiter around downtown Chicago and then decide to catch a game. Maybe millennials....but not families....that shit needs to be scheduled and planned to minimize the amount of meltdowns and tantrums (and also to manage the kid's behavior)
Absolutely preposterous. Chicago is one of the peak markets in the entire country for every level and aspect of interest in the sport, with the lone and sore thumb exception of the Fire.
Plus, I think one of the early MLS's bigger miscalculations was over-expecting what the market actually is for pro sports as family entertainment. Ironically, the Fire were one of the first teams to figure out that you needed to generate a fan following beyond the minivan and SUV crowd.
I think that the Fire should take the time to rebrand as the Chicago Blue Stars and wear the sky blue uniforms
The last playoff game at SF drew more than the first playoff game at Bridgeview. Soccer kind of grew big time in popularity shortly after the move to Bridgeview.
Certainly they should draw better at SF than at Bridgeview. Will this be enough to offset the higher rent I don't know. They better be thinking to spend some real money in getting better players.
We're living in a world soccer draws 35k in Cincinnati. Metro Chicago is 4x the size. Toyota Park maxes out at 22k? Obviously there is room for expansion. If they spend the money to improve the team and it's visibility could we expect to at minimum draw 30k on weekends at Soldier Field? Imagine signing someone off the polish or Mexican national team to draw support from the local communities established here? Promote Bastian to head coach when he retires and give him a minor % of the team. Obviously ownership is cheap but a winning team in the city could have higher profit margins than a maxed out TP? Just a possibility
They just wrote off $65 million to explore other stadium opportunities. At this point, the things they're neglecting point to stupidity, not cheapness.
True. It is not the same as minor league baseball or hockey. The whole attempts to differentiate MLS from other soccer leagues (the shoot out, the clock winding down, the stupid team names-Wizards/Wiz/Clash/Burn/MetroStars, etc.) were attempts at going after the family crowd. Fortunately, MLS figured it out. Peter Wilt figured that out on day one. The current regime spent the last several years pissing all over that fan following.
The stars on the Chicago flag are red, not blue. "Blue Stars" does not mean anything. Just "blues" would have made sense, as an homage to the music of Chicago.
So far everything I've seen reported is that it's ownership and not the league. And beyond that, it's not like the team isn't spending money on the roster. It's just we're spending it in the stupidest way possible with a garbage defense but a centerback making 6M/year.
One of the original name ideas was the Blues https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&sou...aw0bSrJtP4UGu8iMIpNryChl&ust=1562979134641033
Lets face it, Mansueto is the reason money is getting thrown around but so far the money spent hasn't been wisely spent. I have faith in Mansueto, the dude got rich from research. He will eventually get it right and Pauno will be a distant memory .