John Guppy Quotations

We are proud and delighted to work with Chicago's educational and recreational leaders within the Latin American community. We are determined in our goals to help create a better environment for many gifted students and athletes through our Foundation and community programs so that they can enjoy a better and more productive life. The Hispanic community and the Mexican American community in particular have greatly supported us for nine years and we are happy to be able to give back.

The reality is we need to play games to accommodate the small MLS schedule. We need to play games in early June instead of mid-June.

Peter has done a fantastic job as GM for the past seven years and has built one of the most successful and respected teams in MLS. Just as Peter has helped shape a successful past, I hope to shape a successful future.

I'd also like to thank Samuel for his contributions to the squad last season and wish him the best of luck in the future. Samuel is a player with valuable international experience and is a tremendous professional. As we looked at our overall team needs for 2006, though, we simply decided it was more prudent to invest our financial resources in other players.

We are disappointed that Will is leaving the Fire. We believe he could have had a bright future with our club, however, he was adamant about securing a Senior roster spot as opposed to a Developmental slot. When we looked at the depth of talent on our Senior roster, this was simply not a realistic option.

The experience we had last year, when the Fire played AC Milan, is something we'd like to replicate every year. We'd like to have one of those matches this season, and we're confident we can do that. But the calendar is very short, so it's extremely challenging.

We are ecstatic to finally be able to announce the date of our Grand Opening game at our new stadium in Bridgeview. We know there has been much speculation and great anticipation in the community about this date, and we are thrilled that every soccer fan can now circle June 25 in their calendar.

It's been a general scheduling challenge. I'll leave it at that.

It's not about how many people will be in the stands, though that's part of it. It's about the credibility of our team. Perception in some cases is worse than reality. People will be able to judge us and the quality of our team. AC Milan is one of the top three-four clubs in the world, but I think we'll do fine. This opportunity is incredible. It's one that doesn't come along too often.

Clearly it's not the perfect balance that we would have in an ideal world. There's a challenge in opening a new stadium that presents a unique circumstances that we will see this year.

I am very proud and honored to be given the opportunity to lead the Chicago Fire organization in the future.