Mansueto: Fire "active" in search for stadium solution
As the Fire introduced Gregg Berhalter as Director of Football and Head Coach, team owner Joe Mansueto was asked about the team’s stadium future roughly five years after the team announced it was returning to Soldier Field, its original home, after nearly a decade and a half at what is now SeatGeek Stadium in suburban Bridgeview.
Mansueto noted that while Soldier Field is “an iconic stadium, a wonderful stadium … at the same time, it has limitations. We have to be honest. We share the stadium with the Bears, concerts and so the warm summer days and fall days are really precious, we would like to have as many of those days as possible but we often get conflicted out with the Bears and concerts.”
Those conflicts have forced the team to decamp to SeatGeek for several matches a season, including Leagues Cup matches as well as two regular-season games this year. In addition, a lack of availability at the lakefront venue combined with summer international breaks and the Leagues Cup meant that the Fire played at Soldier Field just four times between the start of June and the end of August and only two additional times in September and August, including their season-ending matchup against Nashville this Saturday.
At times, an inability to host events at Soldier Field has limited the team, including for a high-profile Leagues Cup knockout matchup against Liga MX giants Club América last season, which was hosted at SeatGeek even though it likely could have sold out a larger venue.
The Fire owner also said, “we prefer not to have to play on the bookends when it's cold in Chicago, in the winter, early spring, or late in the fall.” Although the Fire have averaged well over 21,000 fans this season – higher than the nominal 20,000 capacity of SeatGeek stadium – attendance has been highly uneven, with early-season and midweek matchups notably emptier: Although the Fire brought in 26,582 in their season opener, they did not crack the 20,000 mark again until their matchup against Columbus in mid-May, and brought just 11,372 through the turnstiles in their next home match two days after Memorial Day. During the “precious” summer days in June through August, however, the Fire brought in crowds above 25,000 for every Saturday home match.
Calling the stadium “the last piece of the puzzle” with the Fire, Mansueto said, “we are active in looking for a stadium, a soccer-specific stadium for the Fire. We’ve been doing site tours. We're looking around.” According to reporting from Joe Chatz at On Tap Sports Net, the team has specifically toured the site of former Michael Reese Hospital, as well as the in-progress megadevelopments at Lincoln Yards and The 78, the later of which was by the Chicago White Sox as a site for a future, publicly-funded stadium. According to reports, however, Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf is considering a sale to an ownership group with links to Nashville, possibly opening the door for the Fire, who Joe Mansueto previously said would privately finance any stadium due to their unfavorable economics for public entities.
