Dear Mr. Rodriguez,
I wrote you an open letter through Windy City Soccer back in August 2016. I started by commending you for speaking out against that offensive chant that certain people did when opposing goalkeepers took goal kicks. Indeed, I was the one that suggested those who persisted in doing so should be removed.
When it comes to this latest incident of fan misconduct, though, I’m afraid you went too far by doing something teachers do when they are unable to single out individuals who commit misdeeds, and that was punish the entire class. In this case, the revocation of season tickets to everyone in Section 101 for the actions of a few was an overreaction and the punishment does not fit the crime. The majority of season ticket holders in that section, especially those who are not ever part of Sector Latino, do not deserve that punishment and should be reinstated with a refund for missed matches due to this blanket ban.
At last season’s end, Dax McCarty mentioned that the club needed to improve in four areas: goalkeeping, defense, midfield, and up front. It is of the opinion of many a Fire fan that club has not improved in any of those areas. Richard Sanchez is not entirely to blame for Saturday’s loss against Toronto, but he needs to learn not to make errors at critical moments. Joao Meira is player who appears to be more sorely missed than originally thought. One can only look to the fact that the Fire have conceded two or more goals in the last five league matches.
Dax McCarty and Bastian Schweinsteiger were great improvements last season to the midfield, but they cannot do everything. This club still needs a central attacking midfielder and maybe another strong wing midfielder to adequately replace David Accam. Aleksandar Katai has been wonderful this season and well done on keeping him through at least 2019, but he cannot do everything either. Up front, Nemanja Nikolic has reached double-digit goals in league play and a main reason why the club is in the US Open Cup semifinals this season. You wanted a player who could not only create chances for players like Nikolic and create chances for himself. Katai has done that on occasion and Brandt Bronico is showing some promise, but fans want evidence that you and Andrew Hauptman (and now Joe Mansueto) are willing to spend the money to bring in that quality.
Fire fans are not confident in you doing that after not adding sufficient depth over the Winter and considering the deal you made at the SuperDraft to move up to draft Jon Barkero only to trade him earlier this week. Nicolas del Grecco, Raheem Edwards, and Nicolas Hasler could become good players for the Fire. We all await the returns of Michael de Leeuw and Djordje Mihalovic. Injuries happen and they have happened in a bad way this season as it did last season when Schweinsteiger was hurt during the home stretch. However, this club was not put in an adequate position to deal with those injuries and none of the recent signings at this point will get fans overly excited.
Another issue that fans are not overly excited about is the deal with ESPN+. Yes, it gave the Fire a rights fee for the first time and yes, LAFC has something similar. However, when the White Sox moved most of their games to ON-TV in the early 1980s, fans were incensed as not many in Chicago had cable and it wouldn’t be until the latter part of the decade and the early 1990s when cable was more omnipresent in Chicago. It’s not a matter of people not being able to adapt to watching their club on a digital device such as their laptop, phone, or table; it’s more that fans still want to relax and not have to do that and watch them on television. Not having them on local television limits the club’s exposure no matter how well ESPN is as a partner. The White Sox’s exposure hurt during that time while the Cubs remained on WGN which became a superstation and opened the door to many fans outside the Chicagoland area. To this day, it is considered a major factor the Cubs are far more popular in this town than the White Sox.
That leads me to something you mentioned at your first roundtable of the year. By the way, prior commitments and my regular job will preclude me from joining the next one on Wednesday. You were dismissive of the proposed USL team expected to be spearheaded by Tom Ricketts and the new proposed stadium in Lincoln Yards set to begin in 2020. There was once a time in this town where the minor-leage Chicago Wolves were more popular than the NHL Blackhawks. That time was the late 1990s thru to the time Rocky Wirtz took over the Hawks after his father’s passing. It wasn’t was much what the Wolves were doing right (and they were doing a lot of things right in Rosemont) as much as what the Blackhawks were doing wrong. They were stuck in their antiquated ways and were being outdrawn at times by the Wolves on some weekends. Also, the Wolves were winning more often during that time.
The Fire run the risk of being overshadowed by this new team come 2020 if they continue the path they are on. Fans continue to question Andrew Hauptman’s commitment to this club and wish Mr. Mansueto bought at least 2% more of a share than he did. The supporters groups vehemently disagree with the punishment handed out to an entire section for the repeated misconduct of a few. The groups do need to police themselves more, but the club needs to do much more to work with them to bring about a safe, yet vibrant environment. JD Power can say this was the best fan experience in 2016, but they would say something very different about this season. And yes, the supporters groups feel you talk down to them and I’m sure you saw the demonstrations on Saturday.
The biggest concern I have is that the club is wasting all of the goodwill it built from last season and you as president and general manager need to address this. The media roundtables are fine, but you need to hold a town hall meeting with supporters to work out issues with them. Kansas City, Orlando, and DC United recently made peace with theirs over various issues, but it’s embarrassing that current conflict has gotten as far as it has here. The team in the third-largest market in the United States should not be third lowest in average attendance.
You said in the last roundtable that the club was becoming a “club of choice” for people who want to be associated with the best. Many Fire fans feel that is not the picture the club is painting and are choosing not to come to games. You can have the best personnel off the pitch and have a top notch charitable arm, but it matters little if results on the pitch are poor. The experience gets worse if fans feel like they are being alienated by the front office and that blanket ban of Section 101 is exhibit A.
There are a lot of things that need to be fixed at the Chicago Fire and you need to get together with the ownership and with COO John Urban to come up with a plan to rectify things and you definitely need to speak to the fans in a town hall setting to address their issues. Otherwise, soccer fans in Chicago will be counting the days to when that Lincoln Yards stadium and new USL team become a reality and leave the Fire out in the cold.
Yes, this has been a lengthy open letter, but that’s because there are lot of issues this team need to address and there is considerable question as to whether the front office, including yourself, is willing to commit to addressing them to help bring the Fire back to prominence.
Once again, you need to fix this.
Sincerely,
