And possibly rebranding the club for 2020.
A move back to soldier field has to be temporary, as they really need a new stadium in the city. I’m agnostic on the rebrand but will admit Chicago Fire is a pretty great name and it’s be a shame to see it go away for a Europe style name.
There is a tweet in there with a Crest. It's God awful.
These people really can't get out of their own way.
Keep the Fire, ditch Bridgeview.
(as an aside, I think the cries of SW suburb folks not wanting to head to the city for games is bullshit. They do it for the Cubs, Sox, Bears and Hawks now. The argument has been used time and time again to defend Bridgeview. It's BS. If the team is in the city, it will pull fans from all over, including the SW side, assuming there is plenty of access to public transit. And I say that as someone who has driven and parked/tailgated for Bears games, and has walked the pedway back under LSD to catch the El or a cab heading to Clinton and Madison)
But I don’t think the rebrand is as drastic as the initial rumors have made it sound.
But personally remain agnostic on the Chicago Fire name. I’ve never been a fire fan but desperately want a soccer entity in this city to be a fan of.
Rebrand or keep it, I don’t care. Just give me a team worth watching within the city.
Chicago’s Fire is fine with me...I’m sure in the long history of the coty there’s some other options although I’m sure most are already taken
Where could they put it? South side near the water? One of the old north side industrial corridors that’s currently being redeveloped?
Parking/transportation/construction in the city will be a nightmare
Chicago Fire, the first page is all links to the NBC tv show.
That’s at least part of the motivation behind a possible rebrand.
I was thinking about the TV show though when you mentioned it
They might have a similar problem with fire departments, alarms, etc...I suppose you want to be what your name auto-completes to in Google and names about real things don’t help with that.
The Lincoln Yards proposal from Sterling Bay where the USL team was going to be still makes a ton of sense. Close to the highway, and not a long walk from the El, and near some bars and restaurants.
I know Hopkins was against it, but it really is an ideal location.
Because that is the best/only chance to resurrect the stadium idea at Lincoln Yards.
And I never bought those survey results, they had what, less than 1000 people for the entire second ward that responded.
As someone who lived nearby for a year (on Lakewood between Webster and Clybourn), I'd love to know what residents are worried that developing this:
Devloping this is not going to cause foot and vehicle traffic issues for their day to day. It's west of Clybourn. No one walks over there. Hell most people don't drive over that way either (because the Clybourn stop at Ashland is already a bottleneck as it is). They are actually going to improve the shit infrastructure over there (and it's shit).
It's really the perfect location.
Who didn’t want big bad LiveNation to run everything. It’s so stupid how afraid people are of big scale projects like this. The city needs a lot more of them not fewer.
Chicago 97
Chicago United ... with shirt sponsor United Airlines
If MLS would be down with another United club in MLS, but it's a good idea.
It seems like so many older stadiums of the Chicago Fire, Columbus Crew, FC Dallas are struggling to keep up with the Jones'. However tossing a $80 mil stadium after 15 years is hardly economic. Maybe these stadiums are just too far outside of the urban area to compete?
All these older stadiums (Mapfre, SeatGeek etc.) were built at 1/4 to 1/20th the cost of these new stadiums (Audi), so the upgrade cost is going to be astronomical. Do these teams actually have this investment?
But it is in that bad of a location.
No they don’t have the money for a new one yet, hence the move tomsoldier field first.
The stadium itself is actually fine. While not perfect, it's pretty darn good.
It's the location and lack of access that basically requires you to drive to Bridgeview that is the problem.
Given the litany of public transportation in Chicago, picking a location that was virtually impossible to get to was a very bad idea.
For perspective:
If you follow the Orange Line southwest, to Midway, you'll see a large grey area labeled Bedford Park/Bridgeview. On the West/left side of the words Bridgeview is a red line. Just West/left of that is the green Toyota Park.
You literally cannot find a worse place on that map to stick a sports stadium in all of Chicagoland.
In the first place (which make the lease to 2037 all the more puzzling). They basically found a big patch of land in a Latino neighborhood and said sure these people will support us. It was stupid at the time and is stupid now.
And I knew you knew the problems, but wanted to demonstrate the colossal stupidity to anyone else who may not know the problems with the location.
Also, I'm still baffled why no one ever pushed expansion of the HC Metra line and building out the Summit stop and making Metra a second option to the Orange line. It's a fairly straight shot down Harlem.
But the HC only runs M-F, and only has 4 trains that leave Union station on those days, all in the afternoon and rush hour. Return trips only in the AM. Why no one approached Metra about running trains during Fire games, and branding special trains, makes no sense to me. It's much closer than Midway to the pitch, and there are fewer stops (it's the first stop on the frigging line, it would basically be an express train from Union Station).
some on/off ramps on the expressway that would have helped but not enough. I have a soccer-crazy family and if we get to one Fire game a year, that's alot. I was a season ticket holder at Soldier Field and while the game was definitely not "up close and personal", that was a long time ago and the new renovations at Soldier Field might help.
despite enjoying professional soccer and knowing someone on the team. I could never get there in time from the Loop during the week, and it was too much of hassle from the north side via public transportation on the weekend.
I actually have loved the Fire logo and name, but if this is what it takes to ditch Bridgeview, sign me up. Where are you hearing/seeing this?
But I’ve gotten confirmation from Fire people that at least the bridgeview buyout is going to happen.
Just tell them to change it to Chicago Fire FC, versus Chicago Fire Soccer Club.
But thank you good lord jeebus that the Bridgeview nonsense will soon end.
Huzzah.
Australia has FC teams too and Spanish and Peruvian Clubs use the word Sporting. There is no one-way to name a club, nor should their be.
Except Jazz, Utah should not have a team named the Jazz. Just kidding they get to call themselves whatever they want too, but the NBA is MUCH more egregious in poorly named teams.
Should they have changed it? Probably, but the certainly didn't pick it.
The Lakers make no sense in waterless LA. There is very little Jazz in Utah.
And keeping a name because of the franchase didn't stop the Sonics from rebranding.
That fields a football team.
Is Sporting KC a multisport athletics club?
Real SLC is dumb.
Houston Dynamo is dumb, but historic.
Sporting is a loan-word in Portuguese. To me, it doesn't really matter how many teams they have, it's still a loan-word.
Football is a loan-word to refer to Soccer. Just like Clube is a loan word in Spanish as is Sporting. I think more loan-words the better!
Real SLC IS stupid, but only because the king didn't recognize it, not because it's a loan-word. And if the king DOES ever grant it, that would be the coolest team ever.
Dynamo is silly and kinda cool cause it's harkens back. Really interesting to see a railroad city use "Locamotive city". That would be wild, but a lot silly.
is always stupid.
Sporting is a loan word to refer to a multisport athletic club in in Portugal. To loan it back to an American Soccer club that is not membership based is what is stupid.
Football is only a loan word to the american language ... But in America football is a different sport.
Dynamo is silly because it's Soviet. Or if they are named after the german dynamo teams, it's even sillier since Dynamo teams were all Stasi sponsored.
Using these names is silly because there is an opportunity to do something organic with MLS names. I like team names like the LA Galaxy, Chicago Fire, Colorado Rapids, SJ Earthquakes, Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers. This are organic, and mostly track with North American Naming Conventions. If we're going to go with European conventions words like Sporting, and AC having meanings. We shouldn't use them unless those meanings track in the American use case.
First, there are lots of 'sportings' in England so it's not loaned to Portuguese and then loaned back to English.
Australia has a few FCs even though Football there means something totally different from soccer.
I think you just really don't like this and that's fine, but I'm only pointing out this isn't a MLS-only gimmick. Although the gimmick of a 'United' team really should be from a merger of two teams.
And Honduras has a King appointed Real team, so yes King Felipe could appoint (or anoint) Real SL a true Real team if he so desired.
calling anything a football club, when to most Americans, they aren't playing football, they are playing soccer, doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
Now? Eff 'em. If anything, American football - good old handegg - has the absolute worst naming of all American sports. By far. Where, in the regular course of play, it is a penalty to USE YOUR FOOT.
When I'm sitting with friends with a hoodie on that says Fußball-Club Bayern München, I really don't give a shit if it has ambiguity to them.
It makes total sense
I have no issue with either. It should be up to the owners and supporters to decide.
My issue is calling something 'united' when it wasn't founded on anything getting actually united.
1) Great to see you post back here again
2) I agree, but for some reason, MLS has this bug up their arse about using European nomenclature. It's absurd.
3) Chicago Fire SC is, was, and would be one of the best names in the MLS. It's perfect, including the logo. They shouldn't change a thing.
Not with Chicago Fire FC.
AC Chicago Fire would also be OK.
Sadly, since cutting the cord, I'm not watching live soccer or many other live sports, so I don't have a lot to contribute.