If you follow the Chicago Fire, then you know quite well about the club’s plans to potentially rebrand. Fire GM Nelson Rodriguez recently held a media round table, and during the session he said that the Chicago Fire have been working with Major League Soccer, and also holding focus groups about refreshing their brand identity.
The process needs to be accelerated, Rodriguez believed, and brought to a conclusion. No decision has been made in terms of badge/logo/name or team colors change. It’s all up for debate, and we talked about it this week on CLTV Sports Feed with Jarrett Payton.
Have a watch below:
Payton and I agree- we love the badge, the kits, the colors etc. We like the team name too. However, as Nelson Rodriguez pointed out at the round table, something needs to be done in order to differentiate the team’s badge from the night time soap opera television show of the same name; and also your standard run of the mill fire department logo.
The NBC television show is more relevant right now than the soccer club, despite the fact that the team has been around much longer. They need to find a way to use the logo to better convey the fact that they are in fact a soccer team. Maybe they can redesign the crest to put a soccer ball in there?
Whatever you do Chicago Fire, please don’t go the European style “FC,” “City,” or “United”route with the name. That’s already been overkilled in MLS, and it just comes off as trying too hard. Chicago United, Chicago City or Chicago FC just doesn’t work.
Keep it simple- Chicago Fire SC, as in Chicago Fire Soccer Club is perfect, and just find a way to revamp the badge with a ball and the word “soccer” in there and you are golden.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, also contributes to Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.