Well, if the quality of the rebranding is any indication, "a reset in the worst way" is precisely what's being achieved.
The only person I see bitching about "purity" tests and attacking other fans is you. Yes, the club needed a reset, nobody is denying that. A shitty new badge that virtually everybody loathes (save for you and one other person) is not a reset. Lame ass logos and a nonsense corporate-speak "back story" will not cut it. I weak "name change" to Chicago Fire FC does not cut it. "We Stand for Chicago" does not cut it. “The Club’s pillars – Be Chicago. Be Football. Be a Club. – are fused into the new badge,” does not cut it by any stretch of the imagination. A new owner was part of that reset. The move to Soldier Field was part of that reset. Firing Paunovic was part of that reset. Instilling a winning attitude must be part of that reset. Building a new team MUST be part of that reset. The sense of optimism for this new reset was palpable. That all looked good, until the entire conversation was sucked up by a pathetic oval of blue and yellow and red. What the hell are you even talking about when you say "patting themselves on the back"? If you mean me and the couple of dozen original season ticket holders who have stuck through thick and thin, including the total mismanagement on and off of the field, for the past 10 years, I totally appreciate Mansueto offering complimentary season tickets for 2020. I accept them in the spirit they were offered and I have personally thanked the powers that be for them (to the extent I have been able) . Beyond that, I do not know what you are saying. I do not think nostalgia is toxic, especially when we have seen the continual denigration of the team since 2007. Our collective self-deprecation is a defense mechanism, of course. As was our talk of raccoons, rubber dicks, Hauptman farting in elevators, etc. In your previous post, you went after fans are concerned about marketing to millenials. Here is my take: If the Fire want to market to millenials, that would be just fine with me. I suspect that would require a decent team, with a few "big names," to keep the fans coming back. It would also require decent beer. It would also require decent activities off the field. I see no downside to it. Hell, when I started as a Fire fan in 1997, I was the age most millenials are now. The Fire marketed to me back then, although I really did not to be marketed as I was a fan from day 1. As for Peter Wilt, we will be forever grateful for his contribution to the building of the team. It is important to remember that the ONLY MLS Cup finals we have been to in our history, the ONLY Supporter's Shield, and the ONLY US Open Cups we have won, have been under his tutelage. We have won nothing since he was let go. Yes, I am a fan of Peter Wilt, fan and I would be thrilled to have him return to the Fire in some capacity. Of course, I also know that it is likely that his time has passed in MLS and the Fire. Again, it is nostalgia more than realism at this point. When the Fire have a competent front office and bring a winning attitude and a winning team, then Peter Wilt will be celebrated in history, but forgotten in the present. When we forge a new path, when we write a new present, our history 1997-2007 will be a component of our history, 1997-present.
It's really fun to watch you use words you don't understand, like "gatekeeping". You're the one slagging on the broad swath of actual fans that show up. I am slagging on you specifically and nowhere did I say it's not possible for you to be a fan, it'd just be a lot better if you were. Being a fan is about being excited and positive about something. Your comments are pretty consistently showing that your investment is in other people's sadness. At the end of the day, that's not a positive thing. Investment in the negative doesn't make you a fan, it makes you a dick. I still see faces that I have seen at pretty much every match since 1998 and all those people sure look to be friendly and open to anyone that shows up. The fact that we get pissed off when the FO *shits* on us to chase people that *have not shown up despite being courted for decades* makes us *reasonable human beings*. There's this childish thing where you think you have to build up your credibility by crapping on something. It was old before you were born. Grow up.
This conversation is just weird. Do you need attention @CMeszt? I mean, glad you’re here but you obviously have a beef with someone. Maybe you should talk with them about it directly?
This is the same tired argument about Hawk fans. I guess instead of courting the old Hawk fans and repairing the damage by Bill , they should have changed the name and colors and get rid of the Indian Head to bring in the urban hipsters. Guess what they changed nothing about the club and the hipsters still came because they won.
They did, however, radically change the business and marketing practices of the club, as well as the hockey side of the operation obviously. And they did so by embracing best practices around the league and around the sports business. Embracing and centering the history of an Original Six team was the obvious well-practiced playbook, they just executed it very well. Root-and-branch rebranding (or at least *new* branding) is, to an extent, the best practices playbook in MLS. So one could see the analogy there to what the Hawks did once Rocky took over. The difference is just the shambolic execution. The big season ticket push closed yesterday. We're still led by the face of the failed old regime, we have no coach, a rag-tag squad of literally like 8 players, none of whom anyone has ever heard of, a logo everyone is making fun of, no uniforms, and just total crickets in the market, even places like here and reddit where fans of the team congregated. It beggars belief.
Who exactly is the current base? Masochists? Hey man the knew logo looks like a cool Ubuntu screensaver
it's so weird to see this getting fvcked up in a town that has had two professional sports teams completely relaunch their brands during the Fire's lifetime.
the new logo sucks and the hardheadedness of the ownership around it is off-putting, but damn, some of you guys are being pretty dramatic about this whole thing
This exactly. It's not a big deal IN A VACUUM but it isn't in a vacuum. It's just another tone deaf misstep from this organization which will double down and call people names (Wallowers, Complainers, etc) because certain elements of the fan base prefers the club to treat them like human beings, with respect and courtesy instead of just paying customers. The decade of losing, the mismanagement, the lack of investment, the under staffing, the editorial, the attack on Sector Latino, the firing of staff with institutional history of the club, the attacks on media critics and withholding of press passes, the corporate doublespeak, the failure to accept criticism for things that deserve criticism and a failure to accept responsibility and have an open line of communication and transparency all are individual straws that break the camel's back. The LOGO is just another thing on that pile and we can only hope this new owner is not like the last a**hole.
I liken it to the Mike Glennon signing/Trubisky draft by the Bears. Again, in a vacuum, no big deal, really just dead cap space for a couple years of teaching the draftee, and you didn't have a QB anyway, so whatever, right? Except the Bears need a QB, and the guy who just drafted your QB of the future decided Mike Glennon was worth $18 Million. So it makes you worry about Pace's fundamental abilities as a GM. Now you've got Mansueto letting a guy who alienated the entire fanbase continue to make decisions, we've got a laughable reranding. We're two months from preseason and we don't have a GM. it makes me worry about Joe's fundamental abilities as an owner.
All of these, except the lack of investment and the 'Editorial' can be laid (at least partially) at the feet of Nelson Rodriguez. This, exactly.
Watching this from the outside, the biggest issue I see is a total lack of any consideration for the negative fan feedback. The front office just follows the script without any sort of recognition that people are upset. Even their one attempt was more of a "yeah, we hear there's some fans upset. Oh well, deal with it." While the FO should have involved supporter groups for input, the real thing is that they just keep spouting the same scripted talking points. There's no attempt to even make it look like they are listening to the fan base. If it weren't so tone-deaf, it would almost be funny to keep seeing this. It's almost like their marketing and social media teams have these posts set to auto-load, and then they just walk away and don't worry about any backlash. I get that the Fire front office may not (and probably will not) change the logo or the colors. But at least acknowledge that your fans are clearly upset at this. Don't keep following the script while everything around you is heading south.
I kind of feel like NRod's defining personality trait is an inability to listen. Only slightly farther behind seems an actual loathing of the fans the Fire have.
A day or two after the logo came out and the fans spoke, the team issued a corporate-speak statement that basically said, “We are keeping the logo. We know the fans have spoken, but the beatings will continue until morale improves.” OK, that last sentence was hyperbole. However, the team did issue a statement basically saying, “We are keeping the logo no matter what has been said.”