Comments on: Happy Birthday to the Chicago Fire!

By: An Open Letter to Fire Ownership | Pitch Invasion

An Open Letter to Fire Ownership | Pitch Invasion — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:55:54 +0000

[...] ago today, as you know, a soccer club was born in Chicago. Though some marketing wizards at Nike wanted it to give it some cool skater street cred and name it the Chicago Rhythm with trendy turquoise shirts to boot, the wiser heads of Phil Anschutz and Peter Wilt prevailed. So [...]

By: The Sweeper: America’s Lower League Crisis Continues | Pitch Invasion

The Sweeper: America’s Lower League Crisis Continues | Pitch Invasion — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:46:40 +0000

[...] birthday to my Chicago Fire! Peter Wilt’s reminiscence of October 8, 1997 here yesterday was a nice touch. The club has a lot of problems that frustrate me immensely as a [...]

By: Peter Wilt

Peter Wilt — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:13:45 +0000

The Fire logo was created by Adrenalin – http://www.goadrenalin.com/ – out of Denver, Colorado. i also used them to collaborate with JL Murtaugh on the Chicago Red Stars logo design. In both cases we were looking for a design that would be timeless. In the late 1990s there was a movement in sports team logo designs to anamated characters such as the Toronto Raptors and hundreds of minor league baseball teams. We recognized that this style of logo would soon look dated…and you’re right, the instruction i gave to Dan Price from Adrenalin, was “make it look like it would fit in with the NHL’s original six team logos.”

From a negotiation stand point, the CPD was more difficult for MLS than for me, because at the time, as part of its single entity responsibilities, MLS negotiated all stadium leases. Field board advertising rights were held by a third party (Art Adler i believe) and MLS was not able to nnegotiate those away in 1996. THAT is the main reason Chicago did not get an MLS franchise when the League started up. Adler’s rights didn’t expire until after the 1999 season, but MLS finally negotiated a compromise that allowed for the 1998 launch.

From an operational standpoint, CPD was often difficult to work with in the early years, but became much better over time as they began to appreciate the value that the Fire brought to the CPD.

By: krolpolski

krolpolski — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:11:42 +0000

More details, please, Peter! The story goes that you wanted a logo that would be like one that would grace a Original 6 NHL sweater. Who came up with this design because it really succeeded in meeting that goal.

How hard was it negotiating with Chicago Park District?