One playoff appearance (a play in to boot) to show for 7 seasons. That is owning the soccer conversation!
Wayne Rooney and the Chicago Fire Would be the Perfect Marriage Excerpt: "..........the Fire do convey no sense of real ambition or desire to spend money. Basically, they come off with an organizational ethos of IDGAF. They’ve been such dreadful losers for so long that they’re currently invisible in the local sports scene. Yes, in the nation’s third largest market, they’re not just irrelevant, but invisible, as every time I write about the club I feel horrendous pangs of remorse. Why? Fire material gets such tremendously low page views that to write about them is allow your time to be burglarized. (Maybe this time will be different though as we’re promoting a rather revolutionary idea. *fingers crossed*)"
Wow, that is really damning. "Toyota Park is a gorgeous, state of the art facility, but it lies in the absolute middle of nowhere. It’s not geographically all that far from the downtown, but the highways that lead you there are always ridiculously congested making your travel time very long. In a move of total bone-headedness, they also placed the venue in a location inaccessible to public transportation."
Leaving aside the usual point about Bridgeview probably being the right deal at the time, it's 12 years old. In stadium terms these days, thats over the hill. From articles I can find, the median lifespan of an NFL stadium these days has fallen to around 30 years, and plenty of owners of 20 year old stadiums are already grumbling that their stadiums are out of date and in need of updates. The Braves are getting a new stadium just 17 years after Turner Field opened. I find it hard to believe that Toyota Park is still (if it ever was, given how bare bones early MLS stadiums tended to be) "state of the art". Gorgeous is probably a bit of a stretch as well.
It is not over the hill. It is still not complete. There has been incentive, he'll no reason, for the expansion phase. That is the real shame.
I tried to follow the link but it went no where. In regards to the above…I heard it was complete nonsense.
try http://www.thesportsbank.net/manchester-united/wayne-rooney-chicago-fire-would-be-perfect-marriage/
We are owning the soccer conversation, Everbody is talking about the monumental mismanagement of the Chicago Fire.
Bump. Never let a good snark go to waste. Besides, the front page is lacking in soccer conversation these days. So is everything else.
Randomly spinning the dials led me to the discovery that Bastian just finished up an interview on AM 670. OWNING THE SOCCER CONVERSATION = ACHIEVED?
Owning the Soccer Conversation in Chicago (Summer, 2018 edition) I tried buying tickets to tonight's USWMNT v. Brazil game. I figured that the Fire might have a line on decent tickets, since they "own the soccer conversation" in Chicago. Spoke Nope. Nothing, I was told that they are offered by a "different entity" (which, of course, I knew). No help there. I was able to go through USSF and buy pretty decent seats (Section 134) for $32.00 a pop. I am beginning to think that the Fire "Owning the Soccer Conversation" in Chicago might have been a wee bit of a stretch. Good seats are reselling for $250.00 each?!? That's a bit nuts.
By the way, I was looking through this thread and there are some entertaining discussions about how the Fire are totally: Owning the Soccer Conversation in Chicago!