Fire's owner still looking for impact player
Andrew Hauptman doesn't mind making a big splash, as long as it's the right splash.
The Chicago Fire owner said Thursday night at his annual preseason media meeting that the club tried to sign a high-priced designated player during the off-season but couldn't find the right deal.
Each Major League Soccer team can sign up to three DPs, players whose salaries count only partially against the league salary cap. The Fire hasn't had a DP since Nery Castillo and Freddie Ljungberg left after the 2010 season.
“There's no hesitation about bringing in the right DP,” Hauptman said, “but my job is to rely on our team, our coaching staff, all the way down, and say to them what I say to them always, which is, Bring me one. Bring me a DP. Bring me an impact player. Bring me the qualities that are going to help you succeed. That's all I can do. And then it's up to them to come to me and say, OK, I have one.”
Still fresh in Hauptman's mind is Castillo, a player for whom the Fire had high hopes but who struggled just to get on the field. The Fire is looking for a player who produces like Cuauhtemoc Blanco did.
“At the end of the day, when you're going out and signing a player at that price, you'd better be pretty confident — you'd better be more than pretty confident — that that player is going to make a significant difference,” he said.
But Hauptman insisted the club will not hesitate to go after a player that is the right fit, and when the opportunity arises, the club will pounce.
“Organizationally, we're in a much better place in terms of our ability to evaluate those opportunities,” Hauptman said.
Hauptman also said the club has done well at the box office, with season-ticket sales up 25 percent over last year at the same point, up 33 percent for all ticket sales, which the owner attributed to the club “getting our act together.”
“It's no secret here that we've tried to rebuild the club from when we bought it from the ground up,” Hauptman said. “But there are some very compelling things that we've done.”
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