I promised I would bitch about this more and I always keep a promise...
Any other MLS fans having this problem? Apparently, the Fire doesn't see fit to air its games on television. You have to pay to see the games online or your're out of luck, unless the game is carried live nationally on ESPN or ABC. If it's not a national game, we can't see it here in Chicago.
How stupid is this? How does the Fire expect to build a fanbase by keeping its product practically behind the scenes? Get your shit out there. Broadcast it. Let your freak flag cry.
Listen, $19.95 gets you the entire season - every game, every team - and that's actually not a bad deal. I'm not complaining about the price. However, the fact that you can't simply turn on a telly and see Fire games, especially now that they're on a nine-game road trip, is ludicrous.
I realize the big idea, surely, is to get people to actually attend the games, but forcing their hand like this is just dumb marketing. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Win and they will come. Play the games and air them on television and some will watch. Think of it as one big commercial. Look at it this way: Even if a home game in Bridgeview is a sellout, that's still only a crowd of 20,000-something. Chicago has - what? - 8 million people? Nine million? I don't even know for sure but it's a whole lot of people that just might watch on television.
The lunacy, greed, and idiocy behind the MLS braintrust, at times, appalls me.
Forcing potential fans to either a) pay to watch online, or b) listen on the radio in Spanish or Polish? I can only shake my head. And, no, the Fire's game last weekend wasn't televised but it was on two radio station, neither in English, of course.
Way to get your product out there. Those stations probably don't even come in clear.
