Chicago Fire GM pleased with new TV deal

When Chicago Fire chief operating officer Atul Khosla left for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in June, general manager Nelson Rodriguez began overseeing the business operations in addition to his duties on the soccer side of the club.

On Thursday, Rodriguez sat down with the Daily Herald and discussed how he's balancing the two, in addition to the team's decision to forgo a local broadcast deal on tradition television to stream games online with the ESPN-Plus service, which starts later this spring. The following has been edited for content, clarity and brevity.

Q: Do you feel like you're taking a bit of a risk in going online with your local TV broadcasts?

A: "Make no little plans." That's the sign that greeted me when I first came here. What I really believe is, I don't even believe this is the future. I believe it's the present. The viewing habits of people have changed, and I think having the opportunity to have our games on any device anywhere and irrespective of service provider - right? - is massive. It just avails us to more fans. And I'm excited by that.

The other thing I'm excited by is the partner. We appreciate the partnership we had with Comcast. They were very good partners for us. But ESPN is bigger. And their commitment to the sport and their commitment to the league is proven over many years.

We're enthused by what we think this partnership can mean in terms of helping us build our brand, helping us be more ubiquitous and accessible, particularly to a demographic that is saying, we watch on our smartphones, we watch on our tablets. I think it's pretty cool.

Q: Are you concerned that you're going to be reaching out to the die-hard fans, the hard-core, but you're going to miss the casual fan who might just be switching channels and come across your game?

A: It's a good question, but I actually think it works in our favor because ESPN-Plus is not just soccer. It's going to have MLB. It's going to have NHL. It's going to have tennis. It's going to have golf. It's going to have niche sports like cricket and bowling. So I think that casual fan who may be surfing will also be surfing on ESPN-Plus.

Q: It sounds like you're saying this was a first-choice option for you and not just a fallback when it didn't work out with NBC Sports Chicago.

A: It is accurate. But also we ended up with multiple bidders, so in the end we were weighing two different options, and we were pleased to select this one. … For some people there will be trepidation or worry. And not everyone is an early adopter. But in the end our view was three years with the Worldwide Leader in Sports is a good thing.

Q: Any concern that you will be the only MLS team that won't have its games on TV?

A: Let's see what those other 22 clubs do in the next few years.

Q: Is there any way you can track the number of people who are signing up for ESPN-Plus and watching the Fire?

A: Yeah, because there is a subscription, so we will be able to do that, and that will be important to our partners and our sponsors.

Q: I'm glad you mentioned sponsors. I'm just wondering what their reaction was, especially (jersey sponsor) Valspar.

A: Some have asked questions and are looking for answers, and that's normal. Some just trust us, so to speak, and are excited or it fits into their platform a little bit. Time will always give the answer, right? Time will always say, this was avant-garde, or this was beta vs. VHS.

Q: Staying with media, any possibility of English-language radio broadcasts of games?

A: It's not anything that we've discussed. Maybe as (new COO) John Urban settles in we can look at that.

Q: You've been involved in the business side since June when (Atul Khosla) left. How has that been going for you?

A: ... Now already it's been a heck of a lot easier since John has come on. He has come in and has gained a command of the business and the personalities and the direction that we want to go. I'm already doing significantly less. He's that talented. He and I mesh very well.

Q: How is the club doing financially?

A: Last year was a good year, comparatively speaking. When you're losing money, I wouldn't say you go out and throw a parade and tout your efforts and performance, but last year was a better year than the year before. We're trending to our goals as we get to the first quarter for this year, and our goals are to improve upon last year. So that's a good start. Renewal units and revenues were a record, over 83 percent. Best the club's ever done, which is great. TV deal, getting a rights fee, that's never happened before, so that's a plus.

Q: You talked earlier about when (AK) left as COO and you had to take over his duties, it was a lot of work. It took a lot of time. Do you now or did you then have too much on your plate, and did that lead to the "incomplete roster" that you mentioned?

A: That's fair. If I were to self-reflect, I think I would say I was personally less prepared than I would like for the draft. I personally saw less college games and less college players than I had the two previous years. So that's one spot I would say I took time away from that preparation to devote to broadcast and sponsorship and some other things.

The incomplete nature of the roster is not a result of that. It's more a result of when we have found those players and people that we've liked, the valuations have not coincided. I would say that has impacted more than anything else.

When we value a player at X and they value a player at 4X, that's big, big. And we're not talking about X on $10,000. That's a big difference. And then there are some where we made offers and were competitive and were considered, but ultimately we lost out. I think that's been part of it.