If that happens, then yes we can say that. I doubt this happens (but I am usually wrong about soccer things).
Yes, they would have extinguished the “Fire” the same way they extinguished any excitement or relevance this team once had.
We'll rebrand to a hashtag and officially become #cf97 - it's like the 2018 version of becoming the Chicago Rhythm!
It's a real shame that Hauptman's incompetence is leading us down this road, because I always felt that the name, logo and uniforms of the Fire was the best work of MLS 1.0 The TV show is a big problem though, there are no two ways about it. You can't have the Google results of your own name be a confusing mishmash.
If they weren't so rudderless/stupid at the time they should have sued the makers of the TV show about the name and made them change it to something like Chicago F.D. To those who say you can't trademark the name I say when Spike TV launched Spike Lee filed suit later joined by the heirs of Spike Jones (not Spike Jonze) on the defense side. That suit was settled for a bundle of cash. In fact the "club" seemed to endorse the link.
Even without the show, I think we would've ended up with a different name had we come about even a few years later, after SEO became a larger part of corporate branding strategies (ugh- corporate branding strategies in a thread about soccer is so icky, but necessary). You're still going up against the municipal service and the historical event in the search results without the show, so I think that even if the logo and imagery paid homage to the concept of "Fire" as it pertained to the team name as we know it now, it wouldn't be part of the official name if we were a 2005 (for example) expansion team instead of a 1998 (announced in 1997 but originally supposed to have been among the first teams in 1995 and then 1996 after the delay in getting the league started) expansion team. Like they say, hindsight is in the eye of the tiger.
So we would be Chicago FC, Chicago United, Real Chicago etc., I'd take Chicago FIRE over any of those.
No idea what we'd be, it just wouldn't make sense to have named the team Chicago Fire in a world where search engines largely determine how, and whether or not, people discover and keep up with your brand, given the ambiguity of the term. In the mid-90's, we were nowhere near where we are today with that, and it's not like many people (especially in MLS/soccer) could have predicted the pace of that progress.
frankly, when the team was announced I thought the name was stupid. In 1998 I'd have been far happier with an FC or SC. most new sport / expansion team names are moronic attempts to roll together marketing strategies and merchandising opportunities by stealing a naming tradition started organically by baseball. Having lived through 3 decades of USA sportscape's constant disparagement of soccer, I was deeply disgusted by MLS's ill conceived decision to bolt as many of the trappings of US sports traditions onto this iteration of domestic pro soccer as possible. that said, the horse is already out of the barn, and rebranding is stupid.
The horse is dead and was long ago turned into glue/meatloaf. On the Chicago sports scene (and forgive the corporate speak), the Chicago Fire have virtually zero brand awareness. From management’s perspective, they are starting at square zero, and it’s easier to build a brand with no other connotations (e.g. Chicago SC or Chicago FC) than try to build a brand around something that: A. Already doesn’t work (thanks to ownership, but why fix that when you can slap a lazy rebrand on it instead?) B. Is already associated with three other more popular/significant things (The Great Chicago Fire, Chicago Fire TV show, and the Chicago Fire Department) All I’m saying is you better get your “Chicago Fire” gear now if you believe a rebrand is incoming. I personally don’t think it will happen because again it would require ownership effort.
NRod said at the press conference that every fan has to decide for himself what level of emotional attachment he wants with the club. The name, the badge and the red/white colors are important to me as symbols. Change those things and this isn't the same club. For many this isn't the same club anyway, but if I squint my eyes I can pretend. This is particularly meaningful to me because things are so shitty right now that I have to hang on to memories and believe that, in time, things will improve. If the name/colors/badge are changed, then I'm likely done.
I'll add that, I've always felt a responsibility to carry the Fire/soccer in America since the clubs inception. To do what I could to expose people to soccer, to buy jerseys, tickets and merchandise to try to bring people into the sport. If the club changes what I've spent so much effort to encourage, it's like saying that what I've spent decades pouring love into isn't worth anything because the people that really matter, are the ones who didn't respond to the name/badge/colors for whatever their reasons are. If the club wants those fans more than me, they can have them.