This piece is part of our “State of the Team” series, previewing each MLS squad ahead of the 2020 season. Read the other teams’ stories here.



Even in its old home, it is impossible to be around the Chicago Fire and not see some example of change.



There are the obvious areas: the club’s new coach, Raphael Wicky, giving interviews in front of a backdrop with a new (much-maligned) logo. Within the tunnels of SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview, Ill., where the team still trains, however, the change is evident in areas less visible to the public.



Under new owner Joe Mansueto, the club has remodeled the locker rooms in SeatGeek Stadium and built out a new weight room, two areas that lagged far behind most MLS teams. Behind the stadium, crews are preparing to construct new training fields, improving another area where the Fire were stuck in MLS 1.0. The non-soccer operations employees moved from Bridgeview to new offices in downtown...