I come in peace. Fire Nelson Rodriguez and fvck Andrew Hauptman I wanted to get Chicago fans perspective on this. We were having a debate over in the Crew forum, about who our biggest rivals were. The names Chicago and DC kept coming up. As someone who really didn't start following the league until 2011 or 2012, I didn't understand it. I never really felt like the Crew had a real rival (despite MLS best efforts to force TFC onto us). I'm super pumped for Cincy to come into the league, and will forever hate that asshat Precourt for trying to move us, so Austin can eat shit and die as well. I don't really have any issues with Chicago or DC, but the best days of those rivalries were well before my time. Just curious what you guys think.
I feel like the crew were our biggest rivals. But, now there is nobody to even hate, we've fallen too far.
Sorry, any team from New York, or LA were my rivals from the start. Then the shiny new toys in Seattle, Toronto and then Atlanta. Columbus & Dallas are just teams we play.
The Fire never had a natural rival. It’s changed from year to year. DC, Columbus and Dallas were all rivals at some point, but the Fire suck so much, we don’t have any rivals anymore. A team in St. Louis, Detroit or Milwaukee would be a real rival, but none exist.
I agree with this. From time to time, it has been all over the map from Revs, DC, Dallas, KC, Columbus, LA. In some cases, it is easier to hate on certain players like Carlos Ruiz, Matt Reis, Joey Franchino, Jay Heaps, Ben Olsen than the team itself. Rivalries should not be forced like MLS and NHL league office and broadcast partners want you to believe. Just let it happen naturally. That said, the Fire suck so we have no rivals anymore. If you want to hate us, go ahead, we don't care.
We have no rivals. We out suck everybody in MLS at the moment. If we did not have Bastian, Nikolic and Katai, we would be a sub-USL team. We are run by incompetent fools. We have a club president who is a 'shady,' repulsive snake-oil salesman, who has ruined two previous MLS 'franchises' and has NEVER had any success at any level. We are managed by manager who's only experience was at the U-17 level, and it shows. We are owned by a vulture capitalist who only cares about his "asset" appreciating in value due to new teams being added. We are 49% owned by investor who appears to be a smart and honest guy (for an investment research and investment management firm owner), but from whom we have not heard a peep since acquiring his interest. Rivals, we have no stinking rivals. We were close with Precourt and Columbus, and the proposed "relocation" to Austin, but they have been sold (to the owner of the Cleveland Browns-so they have chance to suck more than us) and are having a new stadium built. I mean, crap, if we can't laugh at Cowlumbus anymore, we are well and truly screwed.
The Red Stars are far above the Fire in professionalism, community involvement and club management. We are not their rivals.
Our rivals are other available professional soccer options Chicagoans can watch (e.g. Liga MX, Polish Ekstraklasa, EPL, Bundesliga, La Liga), and we get blown out of the water by every single one. There are more Chicago based EPL “supporters” than Chicago Fire fans, and the amount of Liga MX fans compared to Chicago Fire fans is ten times that. On the field rivals? Maybe the New England Revolution. I certainly can’t think of another team whose ownership is as unambitious as ours. At least their ownership is world class in sports though (i.e. running the Patriots). Ours is a steaming pile of sh*t aspiring to become diarrhea. Congratulations on keeping your team and losing precourt. Maybe one day we’ll get lucky enough that hauptman will decide to leave too. Until then we’ll continue to the perennial league whipping boy.