I mean, Nowak won a title in DC but he was a self-destructive disaster in Philly, and Philly lucked into Curtin out of pure laziness on the part of Nick Sakiewicz who only promoted him to the top job as an interim when his previous interim head coach got shitcanned. Armas doesn't look like anything special in Jersey. Marsch has the pedigree now but he also started at the bottom as an unproven manager who only lasted a year in his first stint in MTL and worked his way up after some trial and error. The 1990s aren't coming back to save us. I don't think Pauno was a bad idea for a hire. I'll even admit I cheered the move when it was announced, but the problem has been the fact he should have been gone two seasons ago when it didn't work out.
Capacity will be 28k at Soldiers Field, 100 and 200 sections. Looking for a FULL stadium (61k) for the first game next year.
That's almost 3x the largest crowd the Fire has ever gotten there. Exactly how does that happen without giving away almost 40k seats for free? It would seem to require a world renowned player *in his prime* for a crowd like that and I don't think any of those players are coming to MLS for *any* amount of money.
37k for the first Fire game I ever attended, which was in the summer of '98 against the Galaxy. Take away '98, the end of '03 when Soldier Field reopened, and double-headers, and the original comment is closer to the truth.
That also was 16-21 years ago. Joe is thinking big. Yes, selling the entire stadium isn't going to happen, but I could see selling out the 28k capacity the stadium is going to be set up for.
One off, home opener, first game back in the city in 14 years. an owner that cares about the team. So yes I could see us getting 61k for our home open next year.
The last Soldier Field playoff game had better attendance than the first Bridgeview playoff game. The popularity of the sport grew pretty rapidly in the country right around the time of the switch. We can definitely get good crowds and I don't think selling out the opener is totally unrealistic. They're going to have to market the hell out of that game, but a good off-season is key to that. Unfortunately Pauno is still around as of today. I can already see it, Fire take a nice 2-0 lead early on Atlanta, the huge crowd is loving it. Pauno subs in an extra CB and starts parking the bus around the 55 minute mark. The Fire stop attacking and only absorb the Atlanta attack. Teams lack of involvement in trying to score sucks the crowd out of it. Meanwhile Atlanta equalizes in stoppage time. 2-2 final score, the buzz the new fans were feeling in the first half has worn off and they leave the game mentally exhausted with no immediate plans to return to the next one.
The "big opener" against the Galaxy was against the backdrop of not having *any* pro soccer since the Sting ended. The Fire are currently a known thing with a notably damaged reputation. Absent a mind boggling signing, I think expecting to hit any more than 25-35k for the novelty of first game back is a sign of hitting the hookah a bit too harshly.
Only way they sell out is if they make the 400s and endzone 300s $5. Maybe that's the plan, sell everything for $5.
cheap but full might end up having a better return than more expensive and 50% full. plus better for the park district as they'll get more money for parking, concessions, etc. maybe that's all the point. (i always had a theory that if minor league baseball teams gave away tix for free, they'd probably make more money on concessions, etc because there would be more people.)
I legitimately fear this coming to fruition. Without wholesale changes (on and off the field), I fear the "refresh" won't be successful. I agree if you mean the team is generally known among Chicago-area soccer fans, but I think most Chicagoans have no idea who the Chicago Fire are.
We're talking about who we're going to get to show up at a *soccer match*. Thinking we're going to get 30k people who weren't previously aware we *had* a soccer team in Chicago is *insane*. If you follow *sports*, you have a sense of the local teams even if you don't follow them. I can spout things about the Blackhawks this year and I haven't watched a hockey game of any flavor in like 5 years. Most sports fans in the region have a sense of the team in some form, and it's not likely to be a particularly high opinion.
Free tickets might get revenue for a game, but long term they are damaging unless you decide that *all* tickets are going to be free because all you're doing is eroding the value of the tickets you *do* sell. It gets harder and harder to ask people to pay money for something they know they can get for free. Now, going *all* free and making your money from concessions? Maybe, but stadium food is *already* overpriced, it'd be nightmarish if the prices had to go up to make up for the revenue loss at the gate.
yup, that's the exact thought i always had when contemplating this scenario. how much food/ drink/ merch would you have to sell per person, per game, and how many more people would you get coming to the game because of the tix. i'm sure it wouldn't work, but it would be interesting to see the results if anyone ever tried it.
Yeah, bad analogy. The Fire could only wish they had that level of brand awareness. If anything, the ceiling for the team has been the Wolves over the last decade or so. Most people are aware there's a soccer team that exists as much as they're aware there's a hockey team that plays out in Rosemont. (total season attendance are about equal between the two, actually) Most Chicagoans probably couldn't tell you how they did most years despite their Calder Cup run this spring. It's been out of sight out of mind for this team unless Spanish language media is your go to in this market. And it's not 2005 anymore. Soccer fans in this country aren't just pretentious hipsters with acquired tastes in sports like in the old days.
BAck in 99 I had a bet with a soccer hating bar owner. Fires opener attendance vs White Sox. IIRC I won.
The end result is that you're effectively arguing there is a vast sea of people *ignorant* of the Fire and willing to pay money to see a soccer match. That is wishful thinking of the highest order. The people willing to pay to see soccer matches pretty much know the team exists and have demonstrated pretty clearly the numbers of them that are willing to see the Fire. We didn't suddenly generate a doubling or tripling of those people since the Fire were last in NSF (sporting a much better reputation at the time, no less). I have no problem with people wishing for a pony, it's just pathetic to try to avoid admitting that's what you're doing. Bigger crowds are possible, but thanks to where we are it takes both work and *time*. There is no amount of work that can substitute for time.
It depends *of course* on how *often* you do *it.* *If* you offer a *free ticket to opening game* and that is *it,* it would not have much of an effect on overall tickets. By the way, I would not give the tickets away free. I would simply make all seats for the home game, $5.00 or $9.80 (in honor of the '98 team) or $10.00 (fees included) and sell them all out.
Don't forget people are pretty fickle especially when the first home game is the middle of March next to the lake. I don't see them getting more than 15K - 20K considering the weather at that time of year.