Chicago Fire FC undergoes extreme makeover entering Major League Soccer's 25th season

Over the winter, the Chicago Fire pressed Ctrl+Alt+Del on its team and did a near complete system restart.

With a new majority owner (Joe Mansueto), new coach (Raphael Wicky), new sporting director (Georg Heitz), new home stadium, an overhauled roster, new team colors, logo and uniforms, and a semi-altered team name, Chicago Fire Football Club will look like a completely fresh team when it plays the season opener Sunday (on ESPN) against the defending MLS Cup champion Seattle Sounders at CenturyLink Field. 

Serving as the frontman of Chicago Fire FC's re-imagination is Mansueto. The Morningstar founder and executive chairman bought a 49% stake in the franchise in July 2018 and then became majority owner in September. Mansueto's passion for soccer grew from his children's involvement in the sport. 

"I thought of what a great sport it is," Mansueto told USA TODAY Sports. "I just think it fits so well into the modern lifestyle. So many other sports are three-plus hours (to complete). This is 90 minutes of non-stop action. Just a really compelling sport. So I thought soccer has a great future. You look at it around the world, how popular it is. You look at the U.S., it's not quite where it is globally but it's growing quite rapidly. I think over time that gap's going to narrow."

Complete franchise overhauls are rare in U.S. professional sports. The most successful recent example – and certainly most familiar among U.S. soccer fans – might be Kansas City, which ditched the Wizards nickname and rebranded as Sporting Kansas City when it moved into its soccer-specific stadium, Children's Mercy Park, in 2011. In its third season following the rebrand, Sporting KC won MLS Cup. Chicago, meanwhile, is moving out of a soccer-specific stadium in suburban Bridgeview and back into one of the most famous sporting venues in America, Soldier Field. This gets the team much closer to its primary fanbase in downtown Chicago.

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"Moving to the center of the city and into an iconic stadium like Soldier Field really opens up the Chicago Fire to the whole metro area," Mansueto said. "If you look at the popularity of soccer in cities like Seattle, Portland, L.A., Atlanta, Chicago has that potential. Moving the team to Soldier Field in the center of the city is the first step in realizing that potential. It's an important step and I think a necessary one if we're going to get to those levels of engagement with the city."

Throughout MLS history, teams playing in NFL stadiums have had mixed results. In the early years of MLS, sparse crowds in cavernous, 60,000-plus capacity NFL stadiums was not a good look for a young league vying for sports fans' respect. Recently, however, teams such as the Seattle Sounders and Atlanta United have shown that an MLS team can make playing in an NFL stadium function, and still be aesthetically pleasing for both fans at the game and those watching on TV.

"I think the norms are being re-evaluated. There's a big market for soccer. Certainly, soccer-specific stadiums offer a great match-day experience, but the downside is that they're not that big. I think there's a bigger demand for what they can hold," Mansueto said. "If we could make Soldier Field work, and create that intense of a match-day experience that you would find in a soccer-specific stadium, that would be the best of both worlds. We'd be exposing more people to that match-day experience."

Of course, a big part of the match-day experience is seeing the home team win. This hasn't exactly been the Chicago Fire's forte as of late.

Born in expansion in 1998, the Chicago Fire – behind a first-time professional coach named Bob Bradley – won the MLS Cup and the U.S. Open Cup, becoming the only major U.S. professional sports franchise to win its league championship in its inaugural season. The Fire appeared in the MLS Cup three times in its first six seasons and won the U.S. Open Cup a record-tying four times in its first nine. It was a regular playoff qualifier in its first dozen seasons of existence.

Then, the team dropped off significantly, reaching the MLS playoffs just twice in the next 10 seasons. In that time, a number of teams have established themselves as heavyweights. Some are familiar, such as the reigning champion Seattle Sounders and the Los Angeles Galaxy. Others – like Atlanta United and LAFC – were just figments of the league's imagination just a few years ago.  

"First and foremost, we need to field a very competitive team, a championship-caliber team," Mansueto said. "Winning on the pitch is how we really get people's attention and really inspire a fanbase. The fans are restless and I applaud that. I'm restless, too. They want to see a great team on the pitch. So, that's Job 1 to do that.

"My aspirations are to have a world-caliber organization, both on and off the pitch. I want to win championships. Sports is very black and white that way. That's not only MLS Cup, but Supporters' Shield, Open Cup. We've got to bring home the trophies. That's first and foremost."

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The Chicago Fire will get a high-octane home opener for Soldier Field on March 21 (on Univision) against 2018 MLS Cup champion Atlanta United, a team that has had on-field success and a fervent fanbase.

"Give fans a reason to leave their homes and come support you," Chicago Fire forward and 2019 team MVP CJ Sapong told USA TODAY Sports. "I think we need to increase the player- and organization-to-fan interaction; really make them feel part of the club. Make them feel a part of our success.   

"Everybody wants to be a part of something at the end of the day. If they can have that connection and feel like they actually matter, I think it'll translate to a lot of support, which will translate to us getting results."