The South Loop site known as "The 78" will indeed be the grounds for a new stadium for a Chicago sports team, but not the one that's most relevant to the mission of this site.
Chicago Fire owner Joe Mansueto announced plans for a privately funded, 22,000-seat soccer-specific stadium on the 62-acre vacant plot of land along the Chicago River. The Fire will foot the bill for building the $650 million soccer stadium, although an untold millions of dollars of public funding will be requested to cover infrastructure issues like relocating railroad tracks, running water, sewer and power lines, reinforcing the seawall and various other tasks.
If the city approves the project, the Fire would break ground this fall with a completion date targeted for the 2028 season. More details for the plan can be found at DearChicago.com.
Whether this rules out any White Sox ambitions for the site remains to be seen. Related Midwest, the developer that owns the tract, had previously floated the idea of side-by-side fields for the Fire and White Sox, and the White Sox issued a statement saying the door is still open:
"Related Midwest first approached the White Sox about building a new ballpark on a piece of property they were developing, and we continue to consider the site as an option. We believe in Related Midwest’s vision for The 78 and remain confident the riverfront location could serve as a home to both teams. We continue to have conversations with Related Midwest about the site’s possibilities and opportunities."
And perhaps it's still possible, but Jerry Reinsdorf (or "sources close to him") expressed a willingness to only cover $200 million or so of a far more expensive project, and lawmakers at the local or state levels showed no appetite to cover the rest. Mansueto, meanwhile, has separated himself from most of his cohorts by saying that teams should be expected to pay for and own their facilities:
“It is my belief that these stadiums should be privately financed,” said Mansueto, who earned an MBA at the University of Chicago. “Most of the value accrues to the sports team. So it’s only fair that the sports team shoulders the cost of its construction.”
We'll see what happens when it comes to hammering out an infrastructure plan, but the willingness to cover construction would seem to make the Fire a superior partner for the city in comparison to the White Sox, whose approach to building a $2 billion stadium can be boiled down to:
- Showing some interesting renderings.
- Talking about how cool it would be.
- Saying "c'mooooon..."
They've been stuck on Step 3 since September, after Roger Bossard built a sandlot there and the White Sox took various officials on a river cruise. Perhaps a proposal for a White Sox park will be revisited once infrastructure costs are agreed upon and approved. Perhaps this was just another plan designed with the intent of finishing in second.
