Fire Front Office and Section 8
By: Tom | August 16th, 2007
Jamie Trecker, guest-blogging for Luis’ on the Trib’s Red Card blog, has an interesting post about the Fire’s continual problems with Section 8, their loyal and loud supporters’ group.
In fact, the only two groups that MLS hasn’t tried to attract are the ones that actually have showed up to see the games from day one: the hardcore fan, so to speak and those of us out here who actually follow and enjoy sports. You know us; we’re called sports fans.
Here in Chicago, I’ve watched with bemusement over the years as the Fire has chased after suburban whites and soccer kids while ignoring Polish and Latino community support. Ive watched security guards at Soldier Field go nuts on harmless fans because of the perception that all soccer fans are hooligans; Ive also listened to MLS higher-ups tut-tut the fan-friendly behavior of the team’s old GM, Peter Wilt, who made a point of sitting with the teams most die-hard support.
Why, you ask? Apparently, all these loud, happy folks are bad for business because they might scare off the tremulous whites in the suburbs and their towheaded young. Oddly enough, this has not hurt the Cubs’ bottom line, but I’m just repeating what people wearing suits who work for MLS have told me.
A couple of weeks ago, I spoke to Fire GM John Guppy on the phone about Section 8. The interview was for another publication, so I won’t go into depth on what he said here, but suffice to say he said all the right things about Section 8. He certainly seems to understand their importance, and he seems to get on well on a personal level with their leadership. But as Trecker notes, problems are continually bedeviling Section 8’s attempts to expand, and I got the sense Guppy either can’t (due perhaps to the fact that stadium management is a separate entity) or won’t step in to deal with these small issues — that he feels they should be smoothed over by others, and are not too relevant to the big picture.
But they are relevant to the big picture. Things don’t change because someone has a vision and vaguely agrees something should happen. Life is more pedestrian than that in reality: it’s the everyday effort that counts. And it’s the Fire’s job to ensure Section 8 (within all legal and reasonable limits) is not impeded in its aim to fill the entire damned Harlem End with loud fans and make Toyota Park the intimidating place for opposing teams Guppy assured me he wants it to be.
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Category: Section 8
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