This Chicago Fire on Tuesday announced plans to build a $650m, soccer-specific stadium in the South Loop of Chicago – a venue that will be part of a large development project called “The 78.”
The club aims to open the stadium in the spring of 2028, with the building of the venue itself requiring no public money, according to an announcement by the team’s owner, Joe Mansueto. It is planned to hold 22,000 spectators.
The 62-acre vacant plot of land that will be used to construct “The 78” is a former landfill and railyard along the banks of the Chicago river that has sat vacant and in development limbo for decades. The site is set to be developed by Related Midwest, which acquired the land in 2016. The Chicago White Sox of MLB have also sought to build a new stadium there, even constructing a temporary field at the site. The MLB team and Related Midwest have sought more than $1bn in public financing for the baseball stadium project.
“This project is more than just a stadium,” Mansueto said in a statement released by the team. “It’s a space for fans of all ages, backgrounds and neighborhoods to come together and celebrate the beautiful game – right in the heart of our city. It’s about investing in Chicago, not just on match days, but every day as a committed community partner.”
The Fire have played at a number of venues since their founding in 1998 as one of MLS’s first expansion clubs. The team began their life at Soldier Field, home of the NFL’s Chicago Bears, where they built a considerable home-field advantage and enjoyed some of the most vocal support in MLS at the time. Extensive renovations to Soldier Field forced the team to decamp to suburban Naperville, Illinois in 2002, before the club built its own home venue, SeatGeek Stadium, which opened in suburban Bridgeview in 2006. The stadium’s location and the team’s own struggles led to a decline in fan interest in the club, causing Mansueto to move the Fire back to Soldier Field after purchasing sole ownership of the team in 2019.
The site of “The 78,” so called because it is seen as a new neighborhood in addition to the 77 that currently make up Chicago, is well served by public transportation. A home for the Fire there will be among a select group of MLS stadiums to be situated close to a home city’s downtown area. When built, the Fire’s stadium will be the 22nd soccer-specific stadium in the 30-team league.
