CHICAGO | The Fire are moving back to The City!!!!!!!!
this is a big deal and deserves its own thread.
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the move to bridgeview was such a monumentally idiotic decision in the first place. they lost a decade and a half of brand-building in the city by wandering out there in the bridgeview wilderness.
anyone with half a brain knew it, but they were just so effing hell-bent on "soccer specific stadium" that they were willing to shoot themselves in the foot to get it. stupid. stupid. stupid. thank Pizza God this gross error in judgement is finally being rectified. |
I don't think the move to Bridge was the most hairbrained idea ever but it was obviously a failure that was somewhat predictable. You look at the demographics of Bridgeview and you think you have a ready-made market and you do. However, Bridgeview just held absolutely no appeal for those outside the immediate community/region and a team just can't survive on the neighborhood/suburbs largely within 5 miles.
It will be interseting to see what mega-development this will try to hitch to. I think the Lincoln Yards must have known this was an immenment decision and were always planning to try to lure the Fire as opposed to some 2nd tier league team. Can room be made at the 78 for a stadium? I know the Michael Reese site has been rumored but when will that ever get off the ground. |
^ the plan appears to be to play at soldier field for the time being, so time might not be a huge deal breaker for them.
if it takes 7+ years to get a new soccer stadium built at michael reese, so be it. whatever happens, now that they're gonna be back in the city again, i can't wait to take my kids to Fire games from now on! |
Never understood why they settled in some fleabag suburb in the first place.
Might re-start getting re-interested in football again. Because EPL is not played in the best day drinking Chicago timezone hours. |
Chicago Fire moving back to Soldier Field. I remember there were rumblings a few weeks ago but its more or less confirmed now: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/news...dgeview-report
This is pretty cool, I'll definitely attend games now. |
Is that McKinley Park site still a contender? Am I the only one that would like to see it away from the prime lakefront or the near NW side and in an outer neighborhood that's actually populated with the majority of Fire's fanbase - Read: hispanic?
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there is a large piece of land in brighton park next to the western stop on the orange line that someone on this forum previously speculated might make for a good soccer stadium location, but i don' think there have been any formal discussions about that site being a contender. EDIT: upon further research, that large piece of vacant land next to the western stop on the orange line is going to be taken over by the park district for their new HQ building and an adjoining 17 acre park. so that land is already spoken for. |
I would love to see a decked stadium over the Amtrack yards along the west bank of the South Branch to be considered. It would be at the crossroads of downtown and the southwest neighborhoods (i.e.Hispanic) with transit options and plenty of accessibility. Plus it would cover up an eyesore for the 78 folks which could also maybe build a future pedestrian bridge over to the stadium?
Maybe it would be cost prohibitive alternative but I'd love to see it. |
Unfortunately the club is also considering a name change to Chicago City FC... potentially as a way to alert even the most disinterested Chicagoans that the club is now playing in the city again.
I think it would be awesome to build a new Fire stadium on the Damen Silos site. Less than 1/2 mile from the Ashland Orange Line stop, lots of waterfront around it, and they could probably cut deals with the owners of a few large parking lots nearby. The Fisk power plant site could also be an option, which is close to the Halsted stop but would require a new (operable) pedestrian bridge and probably some other costly infrastructure. |
About time!
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Re: the McKinley Park site. Perhaps I've got something mixed up here. I may have been thinking of the Brighton Park site. Was there talk of a potential stadium there? - I could have sworn I heard something about this.
Anyways, I suppose this is a good spot to throw out my Southside combined Sox/Fire sports complex idea. I'll just copy and paste from a previous post: Quote:
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^ Fire's age demo's may skew millennial but you could have fooled me that a hard majority of the fanbase aren't Latino.
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Yawn
Don't expect any more attendance at SF vs where they were. Hispanics and Millennial families are the base but once the kids grow up it is forgotten. Its not covered in sports radio or TV coverage. The attendance was not much more than the minor league hockey of the Chicago Wolves that had half of the daily attendance but played many more games. It will also likely be more expensive at SF vs Toyoda park. Here is the attendance of the Fire. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_...cer_attendance Chicago is totally at the bottom only second to last. Here is there attendance including the years at SF bolded. Average attendance Regular season/Play-offs 1998: 17,887/22,677 1999: 16,016/8,197 2000: 13,387/8,431 2001: 16,388/11,239 2002: 12,922/9,434 2003: 14,005/14,961 2004: 17,153/missed playoffs 2005: 17,238/11,493 2006: 14,088/10,217 2007: 16,490/17,834 2008: 17,034/17,312 2009: 14,689/21,626 2010: 15,814/missed playoffs 2011: 14,553/missed playoffs 2012: 16,407/10,923 2013: 15,228[92]/missed playoffs 2014: 16,076/missed playoffs 2015: 16,003/missed playoffs 2016: 15,602/missed playoffs 2017: 17,383/11,647 There is no growth there only a decline. If they shuttered the team no one would even know about it because it would not even make the daily news. Its simply a dead sport in the USA. |
I dunno, if tickets aren't too expensive i'm like 1000% more likely to go to a game at soldier field. Much easier to walk there than it is to take the train to midway and take a bus.
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Great, news! Can't stand going out to Bridgeview.
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https://i.imgur.com/OSGNqBr.jpg Are the South Works too far away for a Fire stadium? Might help justify better service on the Metra Electric. |
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Chicago Fire officially leaving the suburbs and returning to play at Soldier Field next year
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move back to the city - yes!
chicago city fc - cringe |
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I doubt Soldier Field helps attendance. Football stadia are generally terrible for soccer. And, given it's a major market, Chicago already sees the Madrids and Bayerns of the world. |
One point that could be made is that a SF location could help with brand building, which could boost attendance.
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The Fire play 17 home games from March to October. Most games are Wednesdays and Saturdays, they do have Sunday Sept 29th as a home game. Shouldn't be too hard to avoid scheduling conflict with the Bears.
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Still, SF's capacity is 3x that of the Bridgeview stadium. It would be awesome if we could get something like Minnesota's new soccer stadium in a city location... :slob: |
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If anything the Fire should build in one of the White Sox parking lots or one of the Chicago Stadium parking lots. Then build a parking deck to replace lost slots. I prefer the Chicago Stadium site since the NBA/NHL seasons are opposite of the MLS season. This would activate the west side complex on an additional 20 events in the summer. It would anchor the west side and take advantage of the new Damen Green line stop and still be accessible to the Med District Blue Line stop. It is easy to imagine entertainment/retail and even more dense housing growing in the immediate area around the Stadium. |
I would love for them to build in a transit adjacent site, that's for sure.
We need a 21st century version of the magic of riding the Red Line to Wrigley. |
What about the K-Mart/Olive Garden at Addison and the Kennedy?
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If only there were a large site available in one of these newly-approved mega developments...
Bring the stadium back to Lincoln Yards!!! |
Hmm...this news has me thinking that proposals for a new NFL stadium for the Chicago Bears might start to appear in the next year or two.
Soldier Field is one of the smallest stadiums in the entire league, and the city (and the Bears) have long sought a solution for that situation with the hopes of hosting a Super Bowl. This deal could present the city with a long-term plan for Soldier Field, while opening the door for a new NFL stadium (possible on the Michael Reese campus or the 78). |
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It would cost at least 1.5 billion. But Superbowls, bowl games, conventions, a multitude of things... |
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And to say the MLS is a minor league is a clear indicator that you don't watch it. MLS's popularity is as high as it's ever been and will only get bigger. |
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More than NFL? Not even close. And the reason it has more attendance than NBA and NHL isn't number of fans but size of arenas. NHL and NBA play many more games, so overall attendance crushes MLS. NBA and NHL have 82 games and long playoff series. MLB has 162 games(!) and long playoff series. MLS is a growing sport in some regions, but you needed to get fact checked hard. |
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No reason to think that has radically departed from that thinking and even less reason than ever to see how the state/city would get behind the funding of a new stadium just 15 years after the new one opened. If somehow a new retractable/dome stadium could be incroperted into a McMormick expansion then maybe you could get some funding throw in. However, a new dome stadium or just an empty Soldier Field would be too large for the permanent home of the Fire. One could take the down the west upper grandstand of Soldier Field and be left with a 40k stadium but that would cost money though it would have the benefit of dismantling the UFO apperance of the current stadium. |
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The Fire moving back to Soldier Field is nothing but good news. A majority of MLS stadiums are close to downtown and the Fire will surely get a boost and hopefully a attendance spike. |
The one thing nobody has discussed in this thread so far:
$60.5 million If moving back to the city wasn't financially a good gamble, then when did they pay that much to get out of their lease with Bridgeview? That's a lot of effen money. Obviously being downtown is valuable to this franchise. |
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there's no way that this move will do anything other than benefit the team, and the league in general, by being front and center in the heart of one of america's greatest cities, rather than being lost out in the obscurity of bridgeview. |
Fantastic news!!!
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Hiding in plain sight.
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The site already existed. If we had obtained the Chicago POWER indoor franchise in June 1995, we would have played an outdoor exhibition game there (v. Detroit). The site remains available. It is Rockne Stadium at Roosevelt and Central. Of course, it would have to be rehabbed and expanded. But this cannot be a deal breaker. The Blue Line "L" Forest Park branch shall be extensively renovated when the Illinois Dept. of Transportation announces its plan to rework the Eisenhower Expy. A new station at Central Ave. will be upgraded to handle crowds which should seemingly follow. This will unquestionably revive the entire far west side of Chicago, as well as adjacent suburbs of Cicero and Berwyn, and perhaps Oak Park and Forest Park. :yes: |
^Not bad
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so, soldier field?
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Until they can get their own stadium built at Michael Reese development.
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They should really just work with the state to build a stadium next to Sox Park. Existing Red Line station, existing parking facilities. |
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