It Seems To Me . . .

New suburban Chicago stadium could be far from many Fire fans.

By Robert Wagman
SoccerTimes

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Tuesday, January 27, 2004) -- Welcome with me, if you will, the new South Chicago Fire.

The Fire announced yesterday it will build a new soccer-specific stadium in the south Chicago suburb of Bridgeview. Construction will begin later this year and the stadium is expected to be ready for the 2006 season. For the next two years, the Fire will continue to play downtown in Solider Field.

The $70 million project, slated for a 60-acre site at the northeast corner of 79th Street and Harlem Avenue, on Chicago's far south side, will include a 20-25,000-seat stadium that will be closely modeled on the Home Depot Center that the Anschutz Entertainment Group built in Carson, Calif.

The Bridgeview stadium site will include team offices, a training facility and a separate practice field. A hotel and other commercial and retail developments also are anticipated.

In making the announcement, AEG president Tim Leiweke said "We are very proud today to announce that AEG and the Village of Bridgeview have entered into a memorandum of understanding to build a world-class soccer stadium for all of Chicago, for all of the Midwest, for the Fire and their fans and for the Village of Bridgeview."

As Fire general manager Peter Wilt put it, "This ensures a greater future for the Fire and soccer throughout the Midwest. This stadium will be a focal point and (offers) a sense of permanence in Chicago. . . and is critical to the team's long-term economic viability."

I was born and raised in Chicago and spent most of my youth there through high school. I lived on the North Side and then in northern suburbs. To be completely honest, not only have I never been to Bridgeview, I had to refer to a map to locate it.

The press conference yesterday reminds me greatly of one I attended in Fort Lauderdale a number of years ago when Ken Horowitz announced that the newly formed "Miami" Fusion would play its home game 40 miles up the road in Fort Lauderdale's Lockhart Stadium. The Fusion was going to Lauderdale so Major League Soccer could thumb its nose at the city of Miami which wanted vastly too much for its decrepit Orange Bowl, the Fusion's preferred home.

Horowitz and then-MLS commissioner Doug Logan waxed eloquently on how legions of loyal Fusion fans would make the drive up Interstate-95 from Miami for Fusion matches. I also remember the press conference four years later when Horowitz announced that the Fusion was folding. The main reason given: it had been too much to expect that fans would make the drive up from Miami and that no suitable place in Miami could be found to play, The city still wanted too much for the Orange Bowl.

Given the geography of Chicago, setting out from the northern suburbs like Evanston or Highland Park, or the very heavy populated northwest suburbs like Crystal Lake or Long Grove, is a daunting proposition. It's a gas-up-the-car, load the food and water, all-day proposition. I would think that locating on the far South Side will essentially cut the Fire off from millions living in the northern and northwest part of Chicago.

In the press conference Wilt said of Bridgeview, "Within 45 minutes, you can reach suburbs as far away as Buffalo Grove and Arlington Heights, and it is even closer to places such as Naperville and Northwest Indiana." I guess that is correct if you are the only car on the road. In rush hour, which in Chicago is about 18 hours a day, every day, it might take twice or three times as long as Wilt estimated.

Actually, that "45 minutes," I seem to remember, is a direct echo of that now long forgotten press conference in Fort Lauderdale. If I remember correctly, Ken Horowitz swore it was only 25 minutes from Miami to Lockhart.

The Fire would like fans to believe it considered many, many sites in the Chicago area before settling on Bridgeview. Why the team ended up there has much more to do with money, than with location.

The city of Chicago had proposed building a stadium on what is now one of the parking lots of the new Comiskey Park -- sorry I'm dating myself -- U.S. Cellular Field, which is adjacent to the Dan Ryan Expressway on the near South Side and which would have been a terrific location. However, the city of Chicago had the gall to want AEG and the Fire to pay for any new stadium. The Anschutz organization, after shelling out most of the costs for the Home Depot Center, now takes the position it wants someone else to foot the bill for any new stadium construction.

The deal in Bridgeview requires the city to come up with $15 million in cash and $40 million in construction bonds that will (theoretically) be repaid from a six percent tax on tickets to events at the complex. AEG will, at most, be on the hook for about $15 million.

So for Fire fans, ticket prices will be going up to pay off the bonds, and those who live north or west of Chicago will have to drive for hours to go to games. This does open an interesting possibility -- an MLS expansion team in the northern suburbs. The new club might even want to think about playing Cardinal Stadium in Naperville, the artificial-surface eyesore that hosted the Fire while Soldier Field was renovated.

Robert Wagman is a SoccerTimes senior correspondent. E-mail Robert Wagman.