The 2005 MLS season will be the last for the Fire in the great Soldier Field. Although we co-occupied with the Bears, and the football lines were, at times, present, I wish to be the first to say that SF is an amazing venue, and I will dearly miss it. Not only does it do away with today`s corporate naming of stadiums, but it honors the Armed Forces of America, and it makes the Fire play in a true fortress. And although I enjoyed the old SF more than the new, it was still wonderful to play in downtown Chicago, amidst the great Skyline, alongside Lake Michigan. Let`s hope we finish out our tenure at SF with a great ending.
I 2nd the motion. While our own stadium is going to be wonderful, they really did a great job w/SF. I will miss it. My hope is not only for an improved 2005, but also for the chance to perhaps play a doubleheader w/the Nats at SF at some point in the future.
As long as the Fire have their own stadium in Bridgeview, the Fire will never play another game in Soldier Field, which, to some extent, is sad to think about. To reference the HDC, even the US National teams play games in the HDC rather than the Rose Bowl or Colliseum. However, knowing that we will play in our OWN stadium makes everything better.
Well, the HDC also has about ten thousand more seats than we will have. A move to Soldier Field may be in order if the nats come. I really hope that we do have some nat games at Soldier Field in the future, as i'd love to get a suite for the games. I don't know how it's going to work in B'View in regards to the suites and non Fire things like Nat games. Obviously, if it were a double header, the suites would be taken by their normal holders. I'd think that the owners would have the right to them for nat games as well, meaning that they would be pretty hard to come by.
I wonder if like at SF the fire will have some suites available on a per-game rental basis at Bridgeview.
That's what was thinking. The only thing that made me think otherwise was that Peter said they had sold almost all of the suites already, and the stadium is over a year away. Hopefully they will hold some open for people who just want a specific game. Yes. It may not be exactly 20k, but it certainly will be less than 21,000.
I think you might be being a bit pessimistic, though accurate for the near term. On the opposite, maybe overly optimistic view of the world, somewhere down the road the Fire might turn out to be a huge draw. If the economics of playing Real Madrid in NSF are significantly better than playing in Bridgeview, the game will likely be played at NSF, not Bridgeview. However, I'm not suggesting that this will happen for at least another 10 years.
While thay may be true, the Bridgeview stadium is built for future expansion. Also, why have a stadium built if you're not going to play in it?
I am reasonably certain the contract the Fire has w/ bridgeview requires them to play all home games in the Chicago area at the stadium. Reasonably sure that means not just MLS league matches as well.