Bridgeview is a symptom, not the problem. It was the best of the primarily piss poor options. MLS and AEG extracted a pretty good deal. Bridgeview made a huge gamble and it did not pay off for them. However, A winning team would bring more people to Bridgeview. A star player would bring more people to Bridgeview. A committed ownership, with positive marketing would bring more people to Bridgeview.
Bridgiew's leverage: If MLS plays hardball, it risks killing publicly financed/subsidized stadiums for a generation. Not a problem for some markets, but a huge leap into the unknown.
True. Every once in a whole, there is a Jack Harrison available, but what are the chances that the Fire would ever be in a position to get a guy like him?
Part of the problems with Bridgeview and the stadium was when the thing was built there was no Live Nation and Ticketmaster merger (that happened in 2008/2009) so in addition to the economy tanking you also have this behemoth of the entertainment industry funneling most of the bands to their owned venues like Northerly Island and Tinley Park which they own and do not have to pay to rent and the other non Live Nation festivals like Lolla and Riot Fest and Pitchfork end up in one of the parks. That doesn't leave much left for Bridgeview. I also met a rugger last night at a little BBQ and he told me there were two big matches coming up this fall. The first was on a Friday November 4 at Toyota Park with the USA Eagles playing the Maori All Blacks and the second was the New Zealand All Blacks vs. Ireland at Soldier Field the next night, Saturday…..fwiw.
Who knew there was so much going on just to throw a concert? On an optimistic note I have never been to a rugby match and that sounds interesting.
Stadium location is a winning team's problem. If the team were playing well and weren't drawing numbers it could be listed as one of the contributing factors. As long as the product on the field isn't good enough it's irrelevant.
Agreed. It is a concern, but is not the primary problem for the Fire. It is about 10th. 1. Andrew Hauptman 2. Nelson Rodriguez 3. Andrew Hauptman 4. Vejlko Paunovic 5. Crappy Players and crappier DPs 6. Bad or no game plan (see No. 4 and 5) 7. Andrew Hauptman 8. Crappy Players, particularly man bun, Labrocca and Alvarez 9. Andrew Hauptman 10. Stadium location
So, am I to understand that some people are not happy with the location of the stadium? Not only do I agree with your point, but I would go a step further and say that I believe that the Fire could do great at Toyota Park if the product were worth watching. If the Fire had maintained our excellence that we had in the first couple of years that Andy owned the team, then the team would have experienced the same surge in interest and attendance that the entire league has experienced. If the Fire had built on success and now had a team with Drogba, Jermaine Jones and Bedoya as DPs and good young players like Shipp complementing them, they would have no problem filling what is now considered a smallish MLS venue. Some point to attendance numbers and say, "see, everything is dandy. The team has been poor but we had 18,000 last night! But the reported numbers are not even a quarter of the story for either the Fire or the Village. Sports teams focus on the percentage of face value that they bring in. If you are giving away tickets and offering massive discounts on groupon or through your own flash sales, then obviously, that 18,000 isn't that same as SKC's 18,000 that is only discounted to the extent that they give a slight break to their thousands of season ticket holders over the single game price. If you look at the area that is within a 30 minute drive of TP, I bet that area is still one of the bigger population bases in the league. I get that the stadium is not convenient for many people that post here or people in the north burbs or people in the City who don't drive, but if you are asking if the Chicago Fire could sell all or most of their tickets in that stadium if they were run properly, then the answer is definitely, YES!"
This. Not only do I agree with your point, but I would go a step further and say: The fact that they "distribute" 18,000 tickets, but there were no more than about 14,000 (at most) people in the stadium is a huge problem for both the Fire and Bridgeview. The massive discounts result in tens of thousands of dollars a game in lost ticket revenue. Also, if the "average" fan purchases just one food item and one beverage, the ancillary sale per person is at least $15.00. The 4,000 no shows a game amounts to at least $60,000 in loss revenue per game. That adds up over a season. Finally, on a personal level, I have season tickets and I have attended, I think, five games this season. The location of the stadium is one factor in my non-attendance. There were more important factors: The early games this season were at 4:00 on Saturday (which I could not attend, due to teaching), The early games were in f*cking March in Chicago, The team sucks, so there is little "incentive" (besides the fact that I have tickets) to go, I have graduate school as well work to deal with on a weekly basis (fortunately the graduate school is almost over), Although it is only 8 miles away, and 100 yards from "Chicago", it can be a pain in the ass to get the stadium (and often not worth it, when I am on my own, since my "significant other" works and Lately, I have more fun watching on tv and making sarcastic here on BigSoccer than attending in person (...and sometimes (when I have decent reception) making sarcastic on BigSoccer). Not to mention the very good ticket exchange process for STH. I can switch out my unused tickets up to an hour or so before game time. Twice this summer, I have brought decent-sized groups (6 or more) of people with me, using my unused tickets and parking passes. Frankly, this is good for me (as my tickets do not go to waste), good for my friends (since they go to the game "for free") but not so good for the Fire, as the people I bring with me are not required to spend anything. -I know, why would I torture my friends by bringing them to a game...
Yeah I probably have like 6 tickets for the final match of the season and I couldn't have even bothered to exchange some of the games I missed because they make you enter your password like twice before you can exchange them. Also you can't exchange seats that aren't adjacent at the same time. I'm in section 8 the tickets aren't right next to each other but are exactly the same as far as the seating goes. But, why are we playing at 3pm on Sundays? It worked out great for me because i had dinner with my family in palos hills but, sundays are lazy days nobody wants to hop 1 train to midway and and a bus to toyota park just to watch this mediocre shit show. Like why do they have the team that will likely draw one of the bigger crowds this season playing on a Wednesday night?
Fire need 8 wins in the next 12 games to have a shot in making the playoffs. http://www.sportsclubstats.com/USA/Fire.html
Piece of cake. All the Fire have to do is win twice as many games in the last 12 games, as they have in the first 22. With the "saviors" that our 2-meter Armenian and "soft feet" it should be no problem. Take that to Delusion Thread.
As Peter Wilt pointed out, the location is bad for Northside and North Suburban residents. There are literally millions of people who are in close proximity. Many Polish and Mexican residents are within minutes. Summit is primarily Mexican and up and down Archer is Polish and Bridgeview is heavily Polish. Most of the people in this area already follow Soccer. It is just as common to see soccer jerseys around here as it is to see any other sport represented. YES it is inconvenient for the hip young urban crowd on the North side and yes they tend to make up alot of the MLS market but are there an abundance of potential Fire fans in the area? Yes, but they're not. Not because of the location, seeing these are the surrounding areas. It's because they suck balls. If you want to truly make the location a spot to capitalize on all of Chicago rather than the SW side and SW Burbs, Downtown is the only prime location. However real estate downtown is scarface and expensive. Bridgeview should make an effort to improve the surrounding area to capitalize on game days and events but the village sucks and is Hauptman level incompetent. I love Soccer, I love the Fire. I live on 103rd and 76th Avenue right behind Polekatz in the town of Bridgeview. I haven't been to Toyota Park since 2013 because they're awful and not worth my free time. Location has nothing to do with it and there's no location close enough for me to pay to see a lousy team.
Location isn't the problem. Sign a big name DP (ala Blanco) sign players that are good (Rolfe, McBride, Frankowski, Razov, Wolfe, Armas, Conde, Thornington, Ralph, Lubos, Kosecki,Nowak, etc) have a competitive team and TOYOTA Park will be sold out every fvcking game. The only problem is our non caring fvcking cheapass owner won't spend any of his wife's/father in-laws money. So we will continue to SUCK, until we get an owner that is willing to do those things. So you won't see my ass anywhere neat TOYOTA Park until that happens.