MANSUETO BUYS STAKE IN FIRE: I mentioned in my match report on Wednesday a brief overview of what new Fire co-owner Joe Mansueto is getting into with the Fire. The idea of bringing him into the fold is to raise the profile of the Fire which has struggled mightily under Andrew Hauptman since he took control of the club in 2007.
The Fire’s last playoff win was in 2009 and the team is virtually invisible in the sporting landscape. Bringing in Bastian Schweinsteiger and Nemanja Nikolic last season did raise the profile of the club a bit, but moves on and off the pitch in the offseason and another clash with supporters groups have nearly squandered all the good will the previous season has brought.
Of course, there is the 800-pound elephant that is trying to get into the room in the form of Sterling Bay’s proposed USL club and new stadium in Lincoln Yards near the north branch of the Chicago River and with Cubs owner Tom Ricketts as a majority owner of that proposed club set to begin play in 2020.
According to a
story in Crain’s Chicago Business, the Fire operate at an annual deficit of $7 million. Mansueto, who just bought the Wrigley Building in Chicago, is evidently being brought in to raise the profile of the club and counter a potential rival on the North Side.
“The Mansueto family and Joe and his business holdings will have a whole different set of contacts and networks (from those of Hauptman), and I would like to believe that some of those could be made more available to us,” Fire president and general manager Nelson Rodriguez told Crain’s. “There’s a real prospect there to grow our business as a result.”
With results in recent years, many Fire fans wished that Mansueto would but at least 2% more of a share than he did. Andrew Hautpman is wildly unpopular and the recent clash with the Fire’s Supporters Groups over the blanket revocation of tickets in Section 101, not to mention the perceived lack of ability to add to this squad, has made Nelson Rodriguez increasingly unpopular as well.
So Mansueto’s role will likely to bring his top-business acumen to the club that sorely needs it. Nelson Rodriguez recently called the Fire “a club of choice” for players and executives, but on the pitch is what matters most and recent moves by the club and results under Hauptman have made people choose not to go to the games. The best that the Fire faithful can hope for is that Mansueto is able to use his influence to immense effect to help this club which seems stuck using Windows 7 as the league has marched on to Windows 10.
FIRE SIGN DEFENDER DEL GRECCO: On Thursday, the Fire signed Argentine defender Nicolas Del Grecco from Honduran side Olimpia. Del Grecco, 24, will join the club pending receipt of his ITC and P1 Visa.
