For those of you who follow the MLS, you’ll know that an MLS team’s supporters are unique. They form supporter groups, get involved in the community, and bang on drums all game long. It is a tradition the MLS has had since its inception and is what makes going to games so much fun.

If you’ve ever been to a Chicago Fire Game, especially since they set up a stadium in Bridgeview Illinois, you probably heard constant chanting and singing coming from two different ends of the stadium. As you might imagine this singing is coming from a mixture of supporter groups and incredibly passionate fans. On one end of the stadium is Section 8, an independent supporters association, and Sector Latino, a supporter group.

This is pretty standard unless you have been to a game recently.

The reason for the recent silence comes from a mixture of strange decisions by the front office and boycotting by Section 8. I’ll explain.

The Fire front office, led by Nelson Rodriguez, has made a few decisions that have Fire fans in an uproar. Before I get into the specifics of these decisions I’m going to give some background on the Fire. I think it’s important because it highlights the extreme issues with their decisions.

A brief breakdown of recent events.

Fire ban Sector Latino Fire permanently revoke supporter group status from Sector Latino Fire ban all season ticket holders within section 101 for the remainder of the season

Without any context to these actions, it may seem like the Fire front office had justifiable means to make these moves. However, this is not the case.

The Fire cite that Sector Latino had multiple warnings to “correct or eliminate such misbehavior”. In a press release on June, 29th the Fire wrote that these opportunities to improve behavior were communicated to Sector Latino leadership, however, “serious violations continued, including after being given a final warning”.

The issue with these warnings is simple, a group cannot control all of their members. Also, it is unclear that everyone involved in the “serious violations” were in fact members of Sector Latino.

In a statement to the Chicago Tribune, Nelson Rodriguez (Fire General Manager), admitted to not actually having a complete list of Sector Latino members. This statement came before the decision to ban all Section 101 season ticket holders, which makes sense considering not all season ticket holders in that section are members of Sector Latino.

This move would make sense if all members were accountable for these actions. However, it is clear that the Fire front office doesn’t even know who is in Sector Latino, which makes any extreme move against them seem unjust.

The actions against Sector Latino were embarrassing enough for the club, but they are only the first part of this story. Section 8 disagreed with the extreme decisions by the front office, and in solidarity withdrew their vocal support during games. Most have boycotted games entirely, hosting watch parties at local bars. Others have gone to games with shirts, flags, and banners with phrases such as Free 101, Hauptman Out (Andrew Hauptman is the majority owner of the Chicago Fire), and Nelson Out.

There has even been a petition list making the rounds, in which season ticket holders pledge to not buy a season ticket for next year unless the issues with Sector 101 are resolved.

The next round of banning came after the July 21st home game against Toronto. Again acting in solidarity with Sector Latino, supporters in Section 8 made their way to the now empty section 101 to protest the bans. The Fire Front Office felt that this was a violation of the “Fan Code of Conduct”. As a result, the Fire revoked Section 8’s ability to sing, chant, and hold banners for the next match. The irony here being that Section 8 had already planned to boycott this game.

In addition to this action, the Fire felt it necessary to review footage of the incident during the July 21st game and single out those who they could identify. These fans were then sent an email that they too were banned and could even face legal actions for “trespassing”. I point out here that the Fire put in the effort to review footage and ban only those involved, unlike how they treated Sector Latino and banned the entire section.

What makes these events even more interesting is that during this protest in Section 101, Monterrey security seems to have been caught on video physically assaulting a supporter who they thought was joining these protests. Not everything that happened here is clear, but there is evidence to suggest the individual who was assaulted was, in fact, going down the steps to their assigned seat in the adjacent Section 102. However, no action or word has come from the club on this.

It seems that the club is not going to back down. There is some evidence to suggest they will no longer meet with leaders of Section 8 or Sector Latino to discuss options.

It seems strange that a team with the second lowest average attendance in the MLS, and a team currently in last place in the Eastern conference would continue to treat its most impassioned fans like this.

I personally attended the home game after the July 21st home game against Toronto. It was a beautiful Saturday night. Having attended many home games in the past, this one felt very strange. The crowd was actually surprisingly large, although it looks as if the Fire may have tried to sell most of those tickets to youth soccer teams and their families. What was most strange was the noise. It was incredibly quiet at times, and at other times the roar of the crowd felt strangely loud. I soon realized that I usually couldn’t hear this because Section 8 and Sector Latino would be singing loud, banging on drums, and leading the entire stadium in chants. It’s something that is missed at Fire games and will be until this issue can be resolved.

It is only right to end this with a little note about Nelson Rodriguez and Andrew Hauptman. Rodriguez was an interesting pick for General Manager, with his last job of overseeing Chivas USA. If you don’t know about Chivas USA it’s because they aren’t around anymore. Rodriguez was brought in to shut the club down. Is it a coincidence that he is running the Fire like this? Who knows to be honest.

Andrew Hauptman, on the other hand, has been a long time Fire fan favorite to complain about. Think of Hauptman like an absentee owner. He lives in California and doesn’t overly invest in the team he owns. The only good news for him is that with the recent hate growing for Nelson Rodriguez, fewer people are talking about him.

I hope the Chicago Fire make a move soon. Thinking that this situation will blow over and being content filling the stands with youth teams while talking about a future plan just isn’t going to cut it. The Chicago Fire had one thing going for them, passionate fans who will make the trip out to Bridgeview and support the team no matter how poor the product is on the field. Unfortunately, with these recent decisions, the Fire no longer has this type of support. Not to say Fire fans are done, but they are happy to support the players on the field through a TV (Of course, that TV is only being used as a streaming device because of the whole Espn+ deal).