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Could this be Blanco’s last goodbye?
According John Sutcliffe of ESPN Deportes (click here for the original en Espanol and all the details), Mr. White may be following Beckham’s example or even leaving MLS entirely. The apparent scenarios that must be decided in the coming hours by the Chicago Fire Front Office are:
-Blanco is not resigned by Chicago and he will start playing with Veracruz as of January
-Blanco is resigned by Chicago and he will go on loan to Veracruz until mid-April
What do you think? Huge problem for the Fire or is it time to find a younger DP? Can anyone replace Blanco’s ability to draw fans or his ability for cheeky plays? Who would you like to see possibly replace Blanco? Are these DP loans a good thing or bad thing for MLS?
-Patrikc Beatty
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I think it’s important that we honor the last of men who were there when the game was invented.
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winning the MLS cup should be more important for both sides. This MLS cup. If he wants to go out a champion, fine. If either side cares more about something other than winning then it should be time to part ways. I still think this is just a rumor and Blanco is focusing on winning the trophy, but you never know. I doubt at his age he will be able to play the current MLS season, half a Mexican season, half an MLS season, and then the World Cup.
I want to keep him another year. Possible DP replacements? Kily Gonzalez, Martin Palermo, Ariel Ortega, Benni McCathy, El Hadji Diouf. I doubt Chicago goes more than a year without a DP.
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Chicago should let Blanco go. Blanco is a good player and a legend, but let him retire playing in Mexico. The MLS has to be competitive, and to do so, it must attract players with speed. Blanco no longer has the speed to keep up with MLS players. Blanco is not as good as Brad Davis, Robbie Rogers, or Stuart Holden. Chicago Fire need to refrain from putting all of their eggs into one basket and focus on improving the quality of every position.
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It would be great for the mls if this flopping douche left. It would be great for soccer as a whole if he retired. Flopping is ruining the game.
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Watch Chicago’s attendance DROP
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We all know Blanco only came here for the fat DP salary and there’s no way Chicago will give him a new deal on similar terms. Nothing else to really keep him here. He’ll leave
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I love watching him on my team. If he wants to play at a lower salary for Chicago than great, but it might just be time to get younger.
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Clearly the attendance will drop. Say what you will about Blanco, believe me I also hate the diving #$%^&. He has the world class knock of great passing shots, anticipation..quite simply he is the playmaker for that team..as well as our rivals down south. Its mind boggling to some, but he always comes through. Most 98% of MLS don’t have a wink of his vision.
late
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have you been to a fire game? granted beckham was suspended, but they could not even get a near capacity crowd for Galaxy. There are A LOT of empty seats right now, during a playoff year, with Blanco. The fire’s marketing arm does not know its audience and therefore there is no audience on game day. Seattle knows how to market soccer. Chicago does not.
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ADF Says:
Posted on October 29, 2009 at 7:59 pm
“have you been to a fire game? granted beckham was suspended, but they could not even get a near capacity crowd for Galaxy. There are A LOT of empty seats right now, during a playoff year, with Blanco. The fire’s marketing arm does not know its audience and therefore there is no audience on game day. Seattle knows how to market soccer. Chicago does not.”
Before they signed Blanco their attendance was not very impressive. Yet another team that made a critical mistake with a suburban stadium location way outside the city. A shame.
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First of all Toyota Park is only 3 blocks outside of the City of Chicago. Lets get that straight. Now there are issues like no Public Transportation (unless you count the orange line to the bus)the other is its on the South Side and people up North down go South in Chicago unless they are on a drinking bus. So yea there are problems with the location but its not because its 3 blocks out of the city limits. If it were 3 blocks into Evanston right off the purple line we won’t be talking about it being in the “SUBURBS”
The Fire doesn’t really market the team to any one they are relying on Blancos billboards with his endorsment deals to market the team. They have 2 or 3 billboards along 55 and an add in the papers just before home games thats it. They don’t really care they didn’t pay for the stadium so 17 thousand in the stands is more than enough people to pay the bills. They are even raising ticket prices again for 2010.
FYI Peter Wilt has let go over the whole Stadium issue. Thats one of the reasons you won’t see him back in MLS anytime soon.
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“FYI Peter Wilt has let go over the whole Stadium issue. ”
huh?
“First of all Toyota Park is only 3 blocks outside of the City of Chicago.”
C’mon now. Let’s get real. You can bring in your semantic, technical city limit lines, but this team does not play in an urban area of Chicago. Players across the league openly state how they miss traveling to Chicago and playing in the city and staying downtown.
“They don’t really care they didn’t pay for the stadium”
That’s great. So then they can always leave and go build their own IN Chicago. (urban)
“so 17 thousand in the stands is more than enough people to pay the bills.”
Like we’re saying – that # is gonna dwindle back down to about 11-12K like it was before Blanco was signed.
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he is officially signed, but he has a clause that says he can comeback after world cup IF HE WANTS…..
if i am in charge of chicago, i dont wait for blanco to make the decision…..have a meeting and move on so you have time to replace him
if you try to stick with blanco and he decides not to come back when the window is shut YOU ARE SCREWED!
i know its hard but, you can replace him chicago
im thinking Adu, Veron, or Ronaldinho
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this is why we bring in these DP’s guys….chicago attendance wont drop much, cmon
ESPECIALLY if they replace him which they will, mexican fans of blanco that have worn the chicago jerseys through cold weather are not going to stop watching there team b/c their favorite player leaves, if they are fair weather fans, then they wouldnt be spending their money on the games, they would just be watching it on TV or something
chicago is in trouble though….
OUT: Prideaux retiring,Blanco to veracruz,Soumare left,Rolfe going to Aalborg, and Justin Mapp will probably leave for another MLS team since he didnt get much playing time this season
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