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Friday, August 27, 2010

Building the Fire - Bring the Academy Front and Center

The club deserves a lot of credit for the current success of the fledgling Fire Academy program.  They seem to really understand its role in player development and have generally, minus the occasional setback, progressed above and beyond their MLS peers.  There is a strong foundation in place, and there is some recent silverware to show it, but the Academy still needs to play a more central role in club operations.  The players, and especially their families, need to be completely incorporated into the Fire family.  They all need to be viewed as just as important to the club as the first team players, and promoted with passion.

On the logistics side, the Fire should take every chance to schedule Academy matches on Saturday afternoons prior to evening first-team matches.  Open up the parking lots early with free parking to give fans the incentive to come support the youth team.  Create an all-day festival atmosphere that brings the Academy, their families, and friends, closer to the supporters.  This creates more opportunities to turn Bridgeview into a destination on match days.  This could also apply to PDL and U-20 teams to maximize the first-team home schedule

It should go without saying that players and their parents should have free admission to Toyota Park for as long as they are in the program.  The opportunity to create lifelong ties to the club, and the overall message of commitment to the development programs, far outweigh the ticket costs.

Back to promoting the Academy, club coverage should extend down to at least the U-16 level.  Promoting the youth programs would provide deeper coverage for the website while increasing exposure.  Again, the goal of the Academies should be to become THE premier youth development system in the region, if not the continent.  Big-league media exposure is one platform that local club soccer and prep sports cannot provide.  For player discovery, this is a competitive advantage for the Fire and should be leveraged as much as possible.

With full incorporation of the development programs, the club can illustrate its commitment to Tradition Honor Passion, develop new marketing opportunities while strengthening existing initiatives, as well as continue their path towards creating an elite player development program.

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