Chicago’s Major League Soccer team, the Chicago Fire, has unveiled plans to build a $650-million soccer stadium, envisioned as an anchor of a mostly empty area just south of the city’s downtown district where a multi-use district with housing, entertainment and other uses is also envisioned. 

A contractor has not yet been announced for the privately financed, open-air stadium designed by architectural firm Gensler. It will have 22,000 seats and a natural grass field. Construction is expected to start in the fall or in early 2026 with completion in spring of 2028.

The stadium will be part of The 78, a 62-acre development located along the Chicago River between Roosevelt Road, Clark Street and 16th Street. The stadium will occupy approximately nine acres of the site that was formerly a railyard and which is currently mostly vacant. 

The Fire has been owned since 2019 by Joe Mansueto, founder and executive chairman of Chicago-based financial research firm Morningstar, who is financing the project 100%. 

In a podcast on the team’s website, Mansueto said he thinks sports team owners ought to privately finance their stadiums. 

“They are very expensive and costly to maintain, but I really think it [the cost] should be borne by the owners of sports teams. That’s where most of the value accrues,” he said. 

The stadium will be sited in The 78, a planned multi-use development along the Chicago River.
Photo courtesy Related Midwest and Black Creative

Other stadium projects for Chicago’s professional sports teams, such as the National Football League’s Chicago Bears, and Major League Baseball’s White Sox, have drawn on public financing for their construction. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson praised Mansueto for not asking for taxpayer funding for the Chicago Fire stadium. 

“He’s willing to put real skin in the game,” Johnson said in a press conference. 

Related Midwest anticipates that The 78 mixed-use development will also include restaurants, outdoor gathering spaces, a half-mile riverwalk, and a residential component that will include affordable housing. 

The Fire, which played previously in suburban Bridgeview, Ill., and currently plays at Soldier Field, recently opened The Endeavor Performance Field, a new $100 million training facility two miles west of The 78 on a 30-acre site formerly owned by the Chicago Housing Authority. The contractor for that project was Chicago-based Pepper Construction and the architect was Crawford Architects. 

Related Midwest acquired the property for The 78 in 2016 and has since struggled to find an anchor tenant for the larger development, and had sought out Amazon, United Airlines, JP Morgan and casino companies before deciding to pursue sports facilities. A new stadium for the White Sox had been mulled for the site, but a $1-billion public funding request failed to win political support.  

The White Sox organization says it have not abandoned the idea of possibly building its own stadium at The 78. 

“We believe in Related Midwest’s vision for The 78 and remain confident the riverfront location could serve as a home to both teams,” said Joe Roti, a spokesperson for the White Sox in an email to ENR. “We continue to have conversations with Related Midwest about the site’s possibilities and opportunities.”

Curt Bailey, president of Related Midwest, said in a statement that “the Fire’s decision to bring the city’s first soccer-specific stadium to our site will give rise to an entirely new sports and entertainment district that activates more than a half-mile of downtown riverfront. Few institutions have the ability to create the sweeping economic benefits this stadium will generate—and soon.”

The Chicago Fire is also touting the stadium’s location near public transportation and the river as an asset, adding that “a parking garage and water taxis are in plan.”