The City Council on Thursday approved the Chicago Fire FC’s plan to build a $650 million soccer stadium at a vacant South Loop lot known as The 78.
The 22,000-seat stadium is being bankrolled by billionaire Chicago Fire owner Joe Mansueto, who pitched the new stadium project in June, but tens of millions of public dollars would still be needed to prepare the long-dormant site for development.
City Council members, without debate, unanimously passed a zoning amendment allowing the new stadium to be built. Mansueto, a Chicago native who bought the Fire in 2019, hopes the soccer-only stadium will be ready in time for the 2028 season.
The team currently plays at Soldier Field, where they moved to full time in 2020, after playing for more than a decade at SeatGeek Stadium [formerly Toyota Park] in Bridgeview.
The 62-acre site at Roosevelt and Clark will encompass more than 1,400 feet of publicly accessible riverfront space, a new water taxi stop, 1.5 miles of bike trails, Divvy bike stations, two temporary surface parking lots in addition to public parking and three acres of sports fields, according to developer Related Midwest’s plans.
White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf once eyed the vacant lot as a potential spot for a new White Sox stadium. While that prospect became more unlikely after Mansueto swooped in and called dibs on The 78, developers for the site could still return to the Plan Commission and the community for consideration of a second stadium.
Residents in the communities surrounding The 78 — the South Loop, Chinatown, Bronzeville and Pilsen — have been split on the plan for a new soccer stadium, with some expressing frustration over the short three-month timeline between the project’s announcement to the City Council’s vote.
Community organization leaders said at the city’s Plan Commission meeting last week that many Chinatown, Bronzeville and Pilsen residents weren’t aware of the project, while a majority of polled Near South Side residents favored the stadium.
Mansueto is the founder and chairperson of Morningstar, a Chicago-based financial services firm, and he is among the Forbes list of 400 richest Americans.
He announced the stadium project in a full-page advertisement in the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune in June, calling the open-air arena “more than just a stadium.”
It’ll be a place for “fans of all ages, backgrounds and neighborhoods to celebrate the beautiful game” that is soccer “right in the heart of our city,” Mansueto said in the advertisement. “Soccer is the world’s game and a world-class city like ours deserves a world-class club with a world-class home to match.”
Also during Thursday’s meeting, Mayor Brandon Johnson proposed an increase in taxicab fares and fees to provide financial relief to cabdrivers fighting for survival in a market dominated by Uber and Lyft.
The plan includes an increase in meter rates — from 26 cents for every 1/9 of a mile to 31 cents, and from 20 cents for every 36 seconds of time elapsed to 31 cents for every 45 seconds.
The mayor’s ordinance also authorizes a $1 fee for rides between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m as well as a rush hour fee of $2.50 for rides between the hours of 3:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.
The fee for shared rides between downtown or McCormick Place and O’Hare Airport would rise from $24 to $30; from $18 to $22 between Midway and downtown or McCormick Place and from $37 to $45 between O’Hare and Midway.
The mayor is also proposing to make it easier to implement a fuel surcharge when gas prices rise to $5 a gallon.
Council members also approved an affordable housing pilot program in an effort to prevent displacement of South Side residents living near the Obama Presidential Center, which is scheduled to open next year.
The Jackson Park Housing Pilot program reserves city-owned lots for affordable housing, supports rehabilitation of vacant properties and creates a property tax debt relief grant pilot program.
“South Shore and Woodlawn residents deserve to be able to stay in their neighborhood to benefit from the Obama Center and future development — not to be pushed out and replaced,” Dixon Romeo, executive director of Southside Together, said in a statement.