Arts & Entertainment
Chicago Fire Break Ground on New $750M Stadium Site Amid Gentrification Concerns
The Chicago Fire held a groundbreaking ceremony for the team’s new stadium at The 78 in the South Loop on March 3, 2026. (Blake Thor / WTTW News) The Chicago Fire held a groundbreaking ceremony for the team’s new stadium at The 78 in the South Loop on March 3, 2026. (Blake Thor / WTTW News)
The Chicago Fire broke ground on a new stadium development site Tuesday at The 78 in Chicago’s 3rd Ward. The stadium is expected to open before the 2028 Major League Soccer season following a $750 million private investment from the club’s owner, Joe Mansueto.
“Our vision for the Fire is to have a world-class soccer organization, and an integral part of that is to have our own stadium,” Mansueto said at the groundbreaking ceremony.
Since the team’s founding in 1997, the Fire have played home games in multiple stadiums around Chicago, spending 13 years at SeatGeek stadium in Bridgeview before moving to Soldier Field for the 2020 season.
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Mansueto said owning a stadium, rather than renting at Soldier Field and sharing with the Bears, will create a stronger team and community identity.
“You don’t wash a rental car. You just have a totally different view,” Mansueto said. “Last year we got pushed out three times to the suburbs due to conflicts with the Bears and concerts. Not ideal.”
The Fire stadium would be Chicago’s first new stadium in more than three decades, following the United Center, home to the Bulls and Blackhawks, which opened in 1994.
The Fire estimate the project will generate an $8 billion economic impact for the surrounding area, creating jobs and attracting small businesses, while serving as the anchor tenant for continued development at The 78.
Real estate developer Related Midwest purchased The 78, a 62-acre site in the South Loop, in 2016 with plans to build Chicago’s 78th neighborhood from the ground up. Development of the site has been slow, largely due to the lack of an anchor tenant, with construction partners pulling out of the site.
“I think the right model today to develop a neighborhood is to have a stadium as an anchor,” Mansueto said. “(Related Midwest) bought this site 10 years ago and they’ve tried a few things that maybe didn’t work out. So you save the best for last.”
While Mansueto’s private investment will fund the stadium’s construction, public tax increment financing, or TIF, funds are expected to drive the creation of surrounding infrastructure. As it stands, the stadium site is largely empty, with few bus and train stops, roads and sidewalks.
A rendering of the Chicago Fire stadium in the South Loop. (Courtesy Chicago Fire FC)A rendering of the Chicago Fire stadium in the South Loop. (Courtesy Chicago Fire FC)
In 2019, the Chicago City Council approved $700 million in TIF funds to drive public infrastructure and affordable housing in The 78. But a newly formed coalition of community organizations from the 3rd Ward and nearby areas — known as the Community Benefits Agreement for 78 Coalition — worries public funds will be directed more toward optimizing the Chicago Fire stadium than assisting lower-income Chicagoans.
The group held a news conference near the stadium site Monday demanding a community benefits agreement, or CBA, between themselves and Related Midwest. A CBA would legally require Related Midwest to meet a set of public-interest goals in exchange for construction at The 78.
The group is made up of 12 organizations including the Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community and People Matter. Sarah Tang, director for programs at the Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community, said Related Midwest and the Chicago Fire have not been responsive to concerns that an expensive stadium could displace low-income residents.
“From the beginning of this development, proposing a casino and now the Fire stadium, it has been very obvious to us that the city of Chicago and the developers have willfully neglected the voices of the great people who built this city,” Tang said. “Within three months, with no meaningful public engagement, the stadium plans were swiftly approved.”
Etta Davis, vice president of the Dearborn Homes Local Advisory Council, said she is concerned about how stadium construction could affect housing affordability.
Megadevelopments are typically associated with rising rent and property tax costs leading to gentrification. Davis also questioned Related Midwest’s commitment to create affordable housing units in The 78.
“Every time they’ve said they’re gonna build affordable housing in our areas, again it’s not affordable for us,” Davis said. “The fact that they are spending $750 million on a stadium at The 78 means that they can advocate and help find public housing at this site. Let’s see just how concerned they are about the people who live in these surrounding communities.”
Mayor Brandon Johnson, who spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony, said he advocated for community benefits in negotiating the stadium site.
“I made it very clear, in order for these types of investments to be realized it has to have a community benefit to it,” Johnson said. “We’re building more affordable homes, our transportation system is gonna be sharper, and the number of jobs that are of course going to come with this project.”
Leaders of the Community Benefits Agreement for 78 Coalition were not invited to the groundbreaking ceremony.
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