Chicago Fire Football Club Wants Privately Funded Stadium

Joe Mansueto’s Major League Soccer team is ready to step into one of the city’s megadevelopments while plans for other pro sports stadiums in Chicago are trying to find traction.

The Chicago Fire Football Club is planning to pursue development opportunities for its own stadium, the Chicago Business Journal reported. The team currently shares Soldier Field with the Chicago Bears.

“If we can find the right parcel in Chicago, I think we’ll move forward on it,” Mansueto said during an event introducing Gregg Berhalter as head coach.

Two megadevelopments are contenders: Lincoln Yards, a 53-acre mixed-use development by Andy Gloor’s Sterling Bay, and The 78, a 62-acre megadevelopment in the Near South Side by Related Midwest, a division of Jeff Blau’s Related Companies. The club is also considering a site in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood that was previously home to the Michael Reese Hospital, where Farpoint Development’s Scott Goodman has pitched a multibillion dollar megadevelopment.

Rumors started circulating last week about a possible sale of the Chicago White Sox to an ownership group that would move the team to Nashville. That would throw a wrench into Related Midwest’s $7 billion plans for The 78, where a White Sox stadium was to be an anchor, although Mayor Brandon Johnson said today that he is now open to subsidies for a ballpark.

However, a Fire stadium could be an alternative.

It would be privately financed, Monsueto said, in contrast to the Bears, White Sox and National Women’s Soccer League Red Stars, all of which are pursuing public funding for their stadium projects.

“We share the stadium with the Bears, concerts, and so the warm summer days and fall days are really precious, and we would love to have as many of those days as possible, but we often get conflicted out with the Bears and concerts,” Mansueto said. “Certain sponsorship categories are blocked out. Non-game-day access to the pitch is sometimes an issue. So, those are the limitations.”

Mansueto, the billionaire founder of financial services firm Morningstar, said a new stadium for the Fire is “the last piece of the puzzle” in revitalizing the club, which has struggled in both standings and attendance for years. Since taking over in 2019, he has made significant investments to improve the team, including becoming one of the top five spenders on player payroll in MLS for the past three seasons.

Twenty-two of Major League Soccer’s 29 teams have their own, soccer-specific stadiums, and two more are under construction, in Miami and New York.

— Andrew Terrell