Meet the Team night

We had a great event last night with a number of our season ticket holders at the Chicago Children's Museum on Navy Pier. It was our annual "Meet the Team" event and it seems like it was a huge success. I was assigned to be a liason for one of the players, Tony Sanneh. "The Big Cat" as he is referred to by teammates and fans was one of the stars for the United States in the 2002 World Cup over in South Korea. He was one of just three U.S. players to play every minute of every match in the tournament and earned Chevrolet "Man of the Match" honors for his effort in the quarterfinal loss to Germany. He also had the game-winning assist on a pin-point cross to Brian McBride during the opening match against Portugal.

I have attached some photos of the event below and at the bottom I have included a posting from one of our fans on a soccer message board this morning at bigsoccer.com. Enjoy!





Tony Sanneh doing some sculpting













Chris Armas mingling with the kids











Overhead view of the Checkers and Chess room









I'm in the background as Tony Sanneh begins to give the youngster Floyd Franks his first lesson in chess.











Diego Gutierrez getting schooled by a little girl












Chris Rolfe takes on a fan in checkers













Brian Plotkin taking on some kids in chess






I went with my wife and 2 children (ages 3 and 1 and half). I also had a co-worker and his son join me because Fanaddict was gracious enough to pass me his tickets as he could not make the event.

The Fire reserved the entire museum for those that attended the event. So we basically had the run of the place.

John Guppy (President/CEO) personally greeted everyone at the door.All coaches were in attendance and all players (well I saw everyone but Chad Barret but I do believe he was there and I just did not see him) were in attendance.

The entire Fire front office staff was on hand for the event. In fact, a front office staff member was assigned to each player to act as a sort of liaison between the player and the fans.

It was a nice touch and I thought it really helped open up communication between players and fans. Although I know most of the players there were one or two I have never met before but by having the front office staff along with a player it made for quick and polite introductions. It was very concentrated effort by the Fire to ensure the players got a chance to meet some of there fans and not just group in a corner while people thrust things at them to autograph. For instance Diana Lopez graciously introduced me to Ivan Guerrero as a season ticket holder all the way back to 1998 which lead to a nice short conversation between him and I.

Food and beverages were served and readily available throughout the entire evening.

Every Fire player was very approachable throughout the entire evening and graciously signed autographs and posed for pictures way past the scheduled 8:00 end time.

A lot of the players went out of there way to play with the kids in attendance. CJ , Chris and Ivan were playing oversized checkers with kids around tables. Jim Curtin was helping little kids up and down the slide in the outdoor exhibit. Chris Rolfe and Logan Pause were doing crafts with some young kids and Andy Herron really got into the spirit and was down on his knees building a fort with a bunch of kids he was really hamming it up and the kids were loving him for it.

I know some were not thrilled with the venue selected for this year's meet the team event but it really was an idea location for those of us with children.

I have to say the Fire put on a top notch event this time out.