Fire's new team president gets his kicks from soccer

The Fire's new team president calls himself a "serial entrepreneur" who will try to build new and better relationships between the team and local media.

The Fire introduced Chicago businessman Julian Posada on Thursday to replace former president Dave Greeley, who resigned over the summer after 21/2 years with the club. Posada does not have experience in sports organizations, but he calls himself a big soccer fan who is recovering from a torn ACL suffered while playing soccer in Chicago.

"I'm very passionate about the sport," Posada said Thursday. "I play it. I love it."

Posada doesn't see his lack of experience in sports management as a problem.

"What you should also know about me is I had no right in running a newspaper and I did that pretty successfully, and I had no right running two non-profits, and I did that," he said.

Posada has worked as a media and entertainment executive for nearly 20 years in the Chicago market.

"Julian is a very dynamic, energetic and savvy business leader who has a passion for Chicago and an ambitious drive for achieving successful business growth," said Javier Leon, managing director for Andell Sports Group.

Posada served as founder and president of Café Media, a multimedia company that targets second- and third-generation Hispanics through a combination of print, event, electronic and web platforms in Chicago and other cities. He also was general manager for Hoy, a Spanish daily newspaper owned by the Tribune Co.

Posada said Chicago's Hispanic community will be of particular interest to him, in part because of his work in Hispanic newspapers. But he won't overlook other ethnic communities, he said.

"The Hispanic community is one of the many communities in Chicago that are interested in soccer," Posada said. "It will be important, but it will be one of many."

Posada said he expects to make changes in the way the Fire does business, and some of them might be "crazy changes." He expects those changes to pay off with more capacity crowds at Toyota Park for home games.

"The number of soccer fans in this market is humonguous," Posada said, "and we have a huge opportunity."