CHICAGO — Playing outside the city limits of Chicago has provided its challenges to the Chicago Fire over the years, but the team is trying to connect with the city in different ways off the field to help combat that geographical distance.
The club’s newest attempt to connect with soccer fans in Chicago is a pop-up shop in the Wrigley Building, at the heart of the Mag Mile during holiday season. The venue is a retail store that on certain nights gets transformed into an event venue the team is using to host season-ticket holders, retail partners and other groups. There’s Fire gear (some exclusive to the store) and areas to play FIFA, soccer skee ball or foosball.
But what’s more interesting about the store is how the Fire got the space in the first place.
The pop-up shop was possible in large part due to Joe Mansueto’s dual position as a 49 percent owner of the Fire, a stake he bought July 11, and as owner of the Wrigley Building, which he bought June 30. Mansueto mentioned two openings for real estate in the Wrigley Building that could work for the Fire.
“This one came our way obviously through the relationship with Joe and the building and the rest of it,” Fire COO John Urban said.
While there may have already been more Mansueto influence behind the scenes, this marks the most public and clearest example of his affect on the Fire since joining the ownership group.
Once Urban and the Fire knew of the opportunity, it was a matter of executing.
“We wanted to make sure we did it at the right level,” Urban said. “We’re on the Mag Mile here, and Wrigley Building and all of that. We wanted to bring our A game.”
Urban has been with the Fire since Jan. 30. While things on and off the field didn’t go well for the Fire in 2018, Urban’s excitement about this project showed clearly.
“For the club, it’s just a chance to put us in front of a lot of people — Chicagoans, tourists, shoppers, sports fans, Fire fans, etc. — in a high-profile sort of big way,” Urban said.
The store had its grand opening Friday, which meant the venue was in place for the Chicago Lights Festival that weekend. Mansueto took part in the traditional tree lighting. He also stopped by the shop Tuesday to check things out.
The plan is for the store to remain up for about two months, through the United Soccer Coaches Convention, which runs Jan. 9-13 in Chicago and includes the MLS Superdraft.
“It was an opportunity to connect to the Mag Mile during the time of year for the Mag Mile,” Urban said. “With that in mind, we said, ‘Look, what can we do brand-wise and retail-wise and experience-wise for people that might know us a little bit, for people that might know us a lot, for people that might be learning about us for the first time, for people that might just be soccer fans out of town walking the Mag Mile on Thanksgiving Weekend or here to shop in December? Let’s put the brand right in front of people. Let’s make some more fans.’ And I think we’ve already started to do that in each one of those categories.”
Urban admitted the project was a bit of an experiment, but it could turn into a more permanent idea, even if in a different location.
“We’re going to learn a ton in the next two months about the mix and the size and all the rest of that stuff,” he said. “At that point, I think we’ll have a lot more to go on, but for right now we’re going to take full advantage of this amazing opportunity. … It’s an exciting place to be. We’ll all be watching and working very closely.”