New Club President of Business Operations, Dave Baldwin, recently sat down with CFFC digital media host Rudy Hodgson to discuss his first few months with the organization, adding another team member to his growing family, Lionel Messi’s decision to join MLS, and 2024 season ticket member benefits.
Below is the full transcript of their conversation, lightly edited for clarity.
Dave, you’ve been with the organization for roughly five months now. How is your first season in MLS going so far?
I’ve really enjoyed my time getting to know the Fire fans. For the first few months with any new team, you’re spending a lot of time getting your legs under you - meeting staff, supporters, partners - and learning more about the organization and identifying and implementing ways in which we can improve. It’s also been extremely encouraging to see the fan support at our matches, home and away, especially our more recent home matches with the weather starting to improve.
Although I’ve only been here for a couple of months, I’m really excited for the long-term outlook of our Club. On the personal side, Chicagoans have been so warm and welcoming to our family. My wife and I recently had our third son Cameron at the end of March and the whole family is officially settled in. His two older brothers are already fans and they love getting to meet Sparky when they come out to Soldier Field.
What have been some of your favorite moments so far?
There’s been a few in a relatively short period of time. During my first few weeks with the Club, I traveled to Tucson, Arizona, with our owner Joe Mansueto for four-to-five days during the team’s preseason training camp.
It was great getting to spend time with him on the road and hear more about his vision for the Club. I also loved meeting our sporting staff, coaches and players in their element.
More recently, we had a chance to host alums Jesse Marsch, Logan Pause and Chris Armas at our U.S. Open Cup match against St. Louis as we honored the 2003 team for their victory in the tournament. It was fantastic to hear them reflect on their time with the Fire and how much it meant to them to be a part of this Club. A couple days later, we beat St. Louis again in League play during our Chicago Sports Day match, and it was fun to see so many of our fans rocking the Fire-branded hockey jersey giveaway item.
Outside of that, a couple other highlights would be having Chicago Handshakes with our supporters at A.J. Hudsons. I always do my best to try and make it out to the Waldron Deck and South Lot regularly on matchday to get the pulse of our fans.
You mentioned being in Tucson for preseason, how much time do you spend with the team here in Chicago?
Seeing as though we operate in different facilities, I don’t spend a ton of time with them day-to-day. Although we’re one big family, I like to give the folks on the team side some space. My job as President of Business Operations is to support the team and help to set them up for success. However, in the interactions that I have had with our players, I’ve been very impressed by how professional they are and how serious they are about winning. Off the pitch, they’re great people and are fantastic ambassadors for the Club with our supporters, community partners, and sponsors.
Given that you don’t oversee the sporting side of the Club, how much do the wins and losses impact you personally?
Unfortunately I’ve been known to wear my emotions on my sleeve. My general nature is to be really competitive, and I’m all in on the Fire. Any of the away matches that I don’t travel to, I watch at home and oftentimes I’ll rewatch our matches on Apple TV.
You mentioned the new Apple TV partnership and we know the World Cup is coming to the U.S. in 2026, but in the last week there’s been some other major MLS news with Lionel Messi stating his intention to join Inter Miami this summer. What does this mean for the Fire and MLS as a whole?
I’m thrilled to see one of the best players to ever play the game say he plans to join MLS this summer. It’s an exciting time for all of us here in Chicago and for soccer fans throughout North America. His arrival will have a major impact on the League and is further proof that MLS is becoming a top destination for international stars, including our own Xherdan Shaqiri.
When the Messi news broke, I was actually on a 10-hour flight back to Chicago and began quickly firing off emails to our team to ensure that everyone back at home base was quickly pivoting and started planning out how to handle a match of this magnitude.
There’s been so much excitement around this match from sports fans throughout Chicago and all over the country. Can you quantify how big of an impact you expect Messi to have on this match?
Since details began to emerge of Messi coming to MLS, the Club has sold 15,000 new tickets for the Oct. 4 match, and if demand continues, this could be one of the highest-attended matches in Fire history. On top of that, we’ve seen an outpouring of interest from the local business community, reaching out about renting suites or wanting more details on how to sponsor the Fire given the massive increase and attention that Messi will bring.
Speaking of the excitement, the ticket prices for this match have a big-event feel. Can you shed some light on that?
We’ve already seen an extremely high level of interest and demand for our Oct. 4 home match at Soldier Field against Messi and Inter Miami. Within 24 hours of the news breaking, we had over 12,000 tickets purchased, which is incredible and speaks to the impact Messi is already making in Chicago and across MLS.
In regard to our pricing, it has increased; Like most pro sports teams we have a dynamic pricing model. And for this match, our pricing is in line with what we’re seeing across the major markets in the League for teams set to face Inter Miami later this year. It’s the chance to potentially see a once in a generation talent play against your hometown team, just after winning the World Cup. It’s going to be a massive event for the city of Chicago, no different than when Beyoncé or Taylor Swift comes to town, for example. It’s going to be a significant moment for our Club and everyone who loves soccer and the Chicago Fire. That said, season ticket members will always pay the lowest price to attend a Fire match, and while some tickets are being resold online for thousands of dollars, many of our members are paying $25-30 per ticket for this match as part of their membership package.
Additionally, due to the high demand, in a few days we will be notifying fans who have attended matches this season, as well as families who participate in our youth soccer programming, with a special link to purchase tickets in the 400 level at Soldier Field before we open it up to the general public. To get access to these seats, fans will have to purchase tickets to more than one match this season to ensure that we’re filling the stadium for our other matches. We plan on opening these seats to the general public in the coming weeks after we’ve provided an opportunity to those two groups.
You mentioned season ticket members, now that you’ve been with the organization for awhile, what are your thoughts on the current benefits that members receive?
I’m confident we can do more for our members and to that end, we’ll be launching exciting new benefits next month for the 2024 season. There’s one benefit, in particular, that our fans are going to love. I recently met with (Club Owner and Chairman) Joe (Mansueto) and it’s really important to him and I that our season ticket members receive great value for the investment that they’re making with the Club. I don’t want to steal our ticketing team’s thunder, but we’ll have more details on that coming next month.
To close this out, what are you most excited about for the second half of the season?
There’s plenty to be excited about for the remainder of the season. We have another major competition coming up soon with Leagues Cup, which is a brand-new World Cup-style tournament between MLS and Liga MX. We also have some amazing theme nights on the calendar for some of our home matches in MLS play, such as Heroes Night (July 8) and Hispanic Heritage Night (Sept. 23), and we’re still within a few points of the playoff line with half of the season remaining. A few more wins and we’re right back in the mix in the Eastern Conference. Finally, the opportunity that our fans will have to watch their team face one of the greatest players to ever play is something that is obviously very exciting for us as a Club.
Next match:
The Fire will return to League play when the team travels to face the Portland Timbers at Providence Park on Wednesday, June 21 at 9:30 p.m. CT. The match will be available for free on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV and transmitted locally on wlsam.com in English and on TUDN 1200 AM in Spanish.
