On, But Mostly Off, the Field, a Weekend to Remember

The Chicago Fire had quite the weekend. A lot happened between Friday and Saturday, so much so that a 4-0 win over FC Dallas to keep the Fire’s slim playoff hopes alive was almost certainly the third most significant development in the span of 48 hours.

Second place goes to the official confirmation by the club (finally) that they are working to play downtown at Soldier Field next season. The deal would be for an initial three years, with options to extend it up to an additional eight years. 

This has been an open secret for quite some time. It feels like the club have been looking to get out of Bridgeview forever (they agreed to amend the current lease, including a provision that would allow them to play games elsewhere, in July). Once the recession of 2008/2009 dashed any hopes of significant development happening around the stadium (as noted by The Athletic’s Guillermo Rivera), there was an obvious ceiling on Bridgeview’s potential.

Now I’m not the first to say this, probably not even the hundredth, but the stadium’s location has only been a piece of the Fire’s problem. Yes, it’s not an ideal location given that it is neither easily accessible from downtown nor most of the suburbs. However, Chicago knows that a winning team, or at least a team the community feels connected to, can overcome stadium issues.

My dad once told me a story of going to Blackhawks games at the old Chicago Stadium where your parking fee was as much for the parking as it was to prevent whoever’s lot it was from smashing your car and raiding it for parts.

I remember going to White Sox games as a kid and parking on the east side of the Dan Ryan in parking lots surrounded by heavily armed police. The dangers of the neighborhood at the time weren’t enough to keep people away.

The Fire’s biggest problems have been the quality of the team on the field (or lack thereof) and the team’s anonymity in Chicago sports culture. A new stadium should help the latter a bit, and perhaps the fresh start can help put the struggles in the past.

But there is a way to potentially solve both of those problems at the same time, and quickly: new ownership.

Which is where the biggest story of the weekend comes in, as Joe Mansueto purchased Andrew Hauptman’s majority 51% stake in the club after originally acquiring a 49% stake last July. In total, reporting from Forbes and The Athletic estimates that this brings Mansueto’s total investment to ~ $321 million.

It’s safe to say the fanbase had grown tired of Hauptman. He’s not a consistent presence around the team, and along with GM Nelson Rodriguez and head coach Veljko Paunovic has had blame placed on his shoulders for the Fire’s struggles in recent years. They haven’t won a playoff game since 2009, only returning to the postseason twice since. Most recently they made it in 2017, but in the other three of the last four seasons they finished in 10th place.

It’s not that Hauptman hasn’t been willing to spend. The Fire currently have the third-highest payroll in MLS (roughly a third of that goes to Bastian Schweinsteiger), the Fire have invested in local soccer projects such as the CIBC Fire Pitch on the northwest side of the city (it hosts both recreational leagues and Fire youth programs), and expanded the reach of the club’s academy.

But with plenty of change afoot, there may be no better time for this ownership change given the opportunity to start fresh at Soldier Field. In his year as minority owner, Mansueto has clearly made an impression already. He attends as many games as he can, and Saturday’s win was no exception. He told Extratime that following the game he was greeted in the locker room with a standing ovation from the players and presented with a team-signed game ball by captain Dax McCarty. It would certainly appear the team view this as a positive change. This sentiment was hinted at by Jonathan Bornstein while speaking with the media after the game as well:

“For me, he was always in the locker room before the games, he was the one that I was associating very positive things with the club.”

So does that mean there’s someone else with whom he associates negative things? Bornstein also expressed the the team is grateful to Hauptman for his role in the history of the team, so read into that what you will.

But as I said in my story from the game, it was undeniable that the atmosphere and energy of Saturday’s game was different. If the team can replicate that over their final three games, beginning Saturday in Cincinnati, they have a chance to make the playoffs.

They currently have 31 points, tied with Montreal. That’s three points behind the New England Revolution, in the final spot, and four points behind the New York Red Bulls. The Fire’s (and Montreal’s) problem is that both New York and New England have four games remaining while they only have three. Basically, they almost certainly need to win out. This is a particular issue for the Fire who play two of their final three games on the road where they are an abysmal 1-10-4 this season. 

If they do miss out on the postseason, the change in ownership will soften the blow a little.

Beyond this season, Mansueto has an enormous task in front of him, and naturally the first questions raised are about the aforementioned coach and GM (and by extension, the roster who are big fans of him).

Mansueto told the Chicago Tribune that “after the season we’ll take stock.” If there was a time to make changes in such positions this is probably it. Less so because of the team’s struggles in recent years, but because of the roster situation given the likely turnover coming this winter.

It has been widely speculated that all three of the Fire’s Designated Players (Bastian Schweinsteiger, Nemanja Nikolic and Aleksandar Katai) will not be back next season. Schweinsteiger is aging and not worth a third of the budget, particularly if he’s going to be playing center back, and Nikolic hasn’t been consistent enough the last two seasons to be paid like a top striker.

Mansueto more or less confirmed that changes in this department are coming, saying in his Extratime interview:

“As you mentioned we’ll have some DP slots opening up..”

This despite the fact that host Andrew Wiebe had not directly prompted that response. So it seems safe to say there’s changes coming to the top of the roster.

Beyond that, the club has an option to make Nico Gaitan (who they are currently paying with TAM, see a guide to MLS finances here) a DP. Gaitan is undoubtedly a talented player, and Paunovic loves the impact he makes on set-pieces, but I won’t be shocked if the team elects to let him go.

Contracts in MLS are incredibly year-to-year, and its feasible that next year’s roster could barely resemble the current one. Mansueto told the Chicago Tribune that he wants to build a young, talented roster that can grow together over time. The current squad certainly has plenty of room to get younger.

I say all this to make the point that you don’t want to put yourself in the position the New York Jets did this spring, where they fired their manager AFTER the NFL Draft and free agency. You don’t let a guy build a roster if you think you might fire him soon.

Mansueto needs to make up his mind on Rodriguez (and by extension, Paunovic) sooner rather than later to give the team as much time as much time as possible both to find potential replacements and reconstruct the roster, no matter who’s in charge of it. Mansueto did tell the Chicago Sun-Times that he “believes in both those guys,” so don’t be surprised if they stay.

The other storyline that will be hanging over the offseason is whether or not the team will make any branding changes to coincide with the move to Soldier Field. This has been discussed as anything from simple aesthetic changes (crest redesign, tweaking the color scheme) to a full-on re-brand of the team.

In his various discussions with media over the past few days, Mansueto has made it incredibly clear where he stands on the issue, saying repeatedly that he loves the name, loves its connection to the history of the city, and has no intent to change it. That will come as a huge relief to the team’s most hard-core supporters, who have been vocal in their opposition to re-branding. Mansueto did concede smaller changes were possible, and the team is expected to announce their plans after the season.

In Mansueto’s mind, however, it appears all of these discussions are secondary to the bigger picture: building a strong culture around the team.

“The goal is to win championships, to build a world-class soccer organization,” he told Extratime.

It’s already clear he’s thinking very big, which given his significant financial resources and expressed commitment to the club is within his reach. He pointed to a recent friendly between Liga MX clubs Chivas and America and the Gold Cup final between the US and Mexico, both of which sold out Soldier Field, as examples of the potential that exists for soccer attendance in Chicago. Without question, soccer’s popularity among Chicago’s Latino population has not been leveraged enough by the club and I’d expect that to be a new area of focus under Mansueto.

But he’s talking about getting 60,000 people for an MLS game. That’s incredibly hard to do, and it’s only been done 18 times in the history of the league.

Six of those have been at Atlanta United, including MLS Cup last year, and six have been at Seattle’s CenturyLink Field. The others are:

  • A game during MLS’ inaugural season between the New York/New Jersey MetroStars and the LA Galaxy at the Rose Bowl

  • David Beckham’s first visit to New York as a member of the Galaxy for a game at Giants Stadium vs the Red Bulls

  • Orlando City’s first MLS game (at the Citrus Bowl)

  • An MLS Cup at Gillette Stadium 

  • A Colorado Rapids game when they played at Mile High in 2002.

Basically, the only teams who have ever done it with any sort of regularity are Atlanta and Seattle, and even for them it’s a rare feat. It would be absolutely incredible if the Fire became to Chicago what Atlanta United and the Sounders are to their respective cities, but that’s going to take time and a lot of incredibly hard work.

While any new owner is likely to come in talking big, Mansueto really sounds sincere and like he truly believes in this project, telling Extratime that:

“From an investment perspective, of all the teams in the league this team has the most potential.”

I don’t think he’s wrong. Chicago is a sleeping giant for soccer. U.S. Soccer is headquartered here, there are large Latino and various European ethnic communities that are crazy about soccer, there’s a supporters club for almost every Premier League team as well as several other European clubs that meet every weekend across Chicago’s bars. 

Most MLS teams consistently lose money, and yet Mansueto thinks this team can make him money. That in itself is as bold a statement as anything.

I want to be as objective as I can in my analysis of this. As a Chicagoan I really want to believe in Mansueto and believe that his dream of the Fire as a pillar of Chicago sports can become a reality.

The team believes in him, the fans believe in him, and perhaps most importantly, it's clear that Mansueto believes in himself.

As a journalist, I’m optimistic. As a Chicagoan, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited.

Joe Mansueto Interviews This Week

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