From free tickets to see superstar Lionel Messi to synchronized LED bracelets, billionaire Joe Mansueto is pulling all the stops to boost his struggling, multimillion-dollar bet on Chicago soccer.
Mansueto’s Major League Soccer team, the Chicago Fire, is counting on an upcoming match against Messi’s Inter Miami to help break with years of stagnant valuations for the club and some of the lowest attendance rates in the US league.
The Oct. 4 game is on track to sell out Soldier Field’s roughly 63,000 seats, which are only a quarter full at the average Chicago Fire game, said Dave Baldwin, the club’s new president of business operations. The event is on on pace to be the highest-grossing MLS regular season match of all time, according to a team spokesperson.
“One of the things that we’re really focused on is using this match against Inter Miami to convert casual fans into more consistent attendees,” Baldwin said in an interview at Bloomberg’s office in Chicago. “We’re hoping that over time people that came out to watch Messi will slowly convert to be Fire fans.”
To squeeze more recurring revenue out of the one-time match, anyone who purchases a season pass for next year — or splurges as much as $50,000 a year for a suite — gets free tickets to the Messi game, according to Baldwin.
Some fans will also get free parking, which can sometimes cost more than the tickets themselves. On top of these perks, Chicago Fire is distributing about 40,000 LED bracelets that light up at the same time to create a visual spectacle, similar to the ones used at recent Coldplay concerts. Individual tickets for the game are running from $99 to nearly $5,000 — well above the $22 to $425 range for the Fire’s Oct. 7 match against Charlotte FC.
The Chicago Fire is one of the few US soccer teams to play in a football stadium, which typically have a higher seating capacity than soccer venues. As of Sept. 20, about 57,000 tickets had been distributed.
The bundles show how MLS teams are cashing in on the super-sized boost that Messi has provided since joining the US professional league in July. His tour around the country has seen prices skyrocket for matches in Dallas, New York, and elsewhere — with some selling out in minutes. The rising revenue could help owners by pushing more MLS club valuations past the $1 billion mark, MLS Commissioner Don Garber said in July.
Chicago Fire was valued at just over $535 million as of 2022, according to Sportico. It was the only franchise that didn’t increase in value from 2021 to 2022 while teams in Dallas, Houston, Austin and Miami had double-digit growth.
Mansueto, the owner of Morningstar Inc., took over the Fire at the end of 2019 in a deal that valued the team at about $400 million. He then spent $65 million to move the club back to Soldier Field from a stadium in Bridgeview, and is now investing another $100 million in a training center. Still, in a city that already has well-known baseball, football, hockey and basketball teams, soccer has lagged behind.
But Baldwin, who joined Chicago Fire in January, is optimistic. The team’s revenue this year is projected to jump almost 80% and the club has already sold 27 suites for next season, up from none this year.
The Inter Miami game is likely to be bigger than a 2011 friendly match against Manchester United, which lured more than 61,000 fans to Soldier Field. Then there’s the 2026 World Cup, which is shared between the US, Canada and Mexico, and is expected to make the sport more popular with Americans.
“If you take a look at the expansion fees that are now getting paid, it’s a fantastic indicator of how serious the MLS is perceived by potential suitors that are looking to purchase a team,” he said.
--With assistance from Kiel Porter, Tarso Veloso and Brian Chappatta.
