NEW $650 MILLION SOCCER STADIUM COMING UP IN CHICAGO; CAPACITY 22000 PLUS
Chicago Fire chairman and owner, Joe Mansueto announced plans for a new soccer-specific stadium that would see the team move out of Soldier Field and into the city's future 78th neighborhood.
Construction is expected to begin before the end of 2025 and plans indicate the stadium will open in the spring of 2028.
The stadium will be privately funded, located along the Chicago River and south of Roosevelt Road. Capacity is expected to be approximately 22,000 for games, with that number increasing for other events. While Mansueto initially states the stadium will be soccer-specific, the club plans on using it as a 'community asset,' hosting other sports and entertainment events.
The stadium will be privately financed by Mansueto with no public funds used. It will cost an estimated $650 million, according to MLS.
“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,” Mansueto said.
Mansueto, a native Chicagoan who appears on the Forbes list of 400 richest Americans, has spent the last few months weighing a move to one of two mega-development sites stuck in neutral: the 62-acre site at Roosevelt and Clark known as The 78, and the massive North Side parcel known as Lincoln Yards.
The 78 has no such complications. At 62 acres stretching south to 16th Street, it is one of Chicago’s largest undeveloped parcels — and the most strategically located. But it has eluded development for decades.
Once owned by convicted political power broker Tony Rezko, it’s been under consideration for Amazon’s second world headquarters, a new corporate headquarters for United Airlines, for the home of JPMorganChase and for a Chicago casino now planned for the River West neighborhood.
The push to locate those projects at The 78 never got past the drawing board. Neither did a plan to build a new White Sox ballpark at The 78, and perhaps even shoehorn in a domed stadium for the Bears on the same site.
The University of Illinois’ $300 million technology and research hub known as Discovery Partners Institute was once planned for The 78, but is now envisioned for the Illinois Quantum & Microelectronics Park on the site of the shuttered U.S. Steel South Works plant.
Chicago Fire currently play at Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears. The Fire would become the 23rd MLS club to have a soccer-specific stadium with the most recent, Austin FC's Q2 Stadium, last opening in 2021. Inter Miami and New York City FC have stadiums under construction as well with opening dates slated for 2026 and 2027 respectively.
The Fire previously played at the soccer-specific SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview from 2006–2019 before moving back to Soldier Field in 2020.