With a $650 Million Self-Funded Stadium, Chicago Fire FC Makes Its Big Pitch

Even with a championship pedigree, a rising fanbase, and a privately financed new stadium on the horizon, Main League Soccer’s Chicago Hearth FC nonetheless wanted some advertising and marketing energy to persuade followers and types to comply with it to its new house.In June, the membership introduced that it’s going to construct a $650 million, 22,000-seat, soccer-specific stadium proper in the course of The 78, the 62-acre challenge by developer Associated Midwest that may comprise Chicago’s 78th alderman-assigned neighborhood. Designed by Gensler to be a brick, metal, and glass tribute to the town’s warehouses, the stadium is being financed in full by the Hearth’s proprietor and chairman, billionaire and monetary knowledge agency Morningstar’s founder Joe Mansueto.Slated to open in 2028, the stadium offers a secure house for the Hearth, who, since their founding in 1997, have shuffled from venue to venue. The group began at Soldier Discipline, the house of the NFL’s Chicago Bears. Then, it moved to North Central Faculty’s Cardinal Stadium in Naperville in 2002 and 2003, whereas Soldier Discipline was being transformed; Soldier Discipline once more from 2004 by 2005; and Toyota Park in Bridgeview from 2006 by 2019, ultimately transferring again to Soldier Discipline in 2020.The brand new facility additionally follows Mansueto’s overhaul of the membership, which took it out of Naperville, gave it a big rebrand in 2019, and overhauled the model once more with fan enter in 2021 after receiving important backlash. Whereas the Hearth noticed attendance within the suburbs dwindle to 12,234 per sport in 2019, the group’s efforts since Mansueto’s takeover—together with the hiring of former U.S. Males’s Nationwide Crew coach Gregg Berhalter—have resulted in back-to-back seasons of file attendance in 2023 and 2024, topping out at 21,327 per sport.Not unhealthy for a group that’s certified for the MLS playoffs simply twice within the final 15 years, whereas ending dead-last in its convention 3 times throughout that span.“It’s an ongoing joke that we all know we’ve cracked it when search engine marketing can put Chicago Hearth Soccer Membership forward of the Chicago Hearth CBS present,” stated Hearth CMO Dan Moriarity, who joined the membership in December 2023. “We speak so much internally about the concept we’re Chicago Hearth Soccer Membership—we’re not Chicago Hearth soccer group. A membership is larger than simply us, and the membership not having its own residence in its 27-year historical past, we’ve at all times been a tenant in different individuals’s properties. [The new stadium] was one thing that we had been enthusiastic about, however we had to determine how we talk that to loyal followers.”But it surely wasn’t simply ticket consumers that the Hearth had been making an attempt to succeed in: It was anybody within the metropolis who’d be launched to The 78 for the primary time. For the stadium’s announcement, Mansueto purchased full-page advertisements within the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Solar-Occasions, spelling out the plan and addressing it merely, “Pricey Chicago.” Chicago Hearth FCAs the Hearth’s companions at Excel Sports activities Administration start their seek for a model to place its title on the brand new constructing—and different groups within the metropolis search public funding for stadiums of their very own—the membership continues pitching its constructing to the general public, potential companions, and tentpole occasions as advertising and marketing efforts make its 2028 opening date appear nearer to kickoff.“It’s uncommon that you’ve got a chance as a model to successfully title a neighborhood, and that’s actually what we’re speaking about right here. You’ll be able to virtually consider it as how Wrigley Discipline helped give rise to Wrigleyville,” stated Jason Miller, evp of economic income and head of properties for Excel Sports activities Administration. “This isn’t a sports activities sponsorship. It is a civic funding that locations the associate on the heart of a cultural and geographic redefinition of downtown Chicago.”Marking their positionDuring the 1994 FIFA World Cup that led to each MLS and the Hearth, Chicago hosted 5 matches. Not solely will the town miss out on the 2026 World Cup utterly, nevertheless it was skipped for the CONMEBOL Copa America match in 2024, and each the CONCACAF Gold Cup and FIFA Membership World Cup tournaments this summer time.Even earlier than the Hearth’s new stadium is accomplished, the group has been working to make sure Chicago isn’t skipped on the world soccer stage once more. In March, the Hearth opened its $100 million Endeavor Well being Efficiency Heart on the town’s Close to West Aspect with 5 and a half fields, a ten,000-square-foot inflatable dome, and a 56,000-square-foot efficiency heart of athletic and medical services.The power just lately hosted Manchester United for greater than per week throughout its English Premier League Summer season Sequence tour of america. “That wasn’t a objective of constructing the Endeavor Well being Efficiency Heart, however I feel it’s recognition that, as we construct a world-class membership and we construct world-class services that sit behind it, it’s going to open doorways for internet hosting each European and worldwide golf equipment, but additionally like worldwide federations after which tournaments down the highway,” the Hearth’s Moriarty stated. “Chicago not internet hosting a World Cup sport is disappointing for me personally—I additionally comprehend it’s disappointing for lots of followers—however the way in which we take into consideration that internally is it reinforces why investments within the efficiency heart and the stadium matter.”Offering some thought of simply what sort of affect a 22,000-seat stadium may have, Miller factors to how Q2 Stadium in Austin, Texas—which Excel negotiated the naming rights for—seats simply 20,500 and hosted a CONCACAF Gold spherical. He additionally in contrast the Hearth’s new facility to a FIFA Membership World Cup web site that hosted the Bundesliga’s Borussia Dortmund and Liga MX’s Pachuca.“You have a look at TQL Stadium in Cincinnati, I feel that may be a actually good instance of the extent of occasions that we’re going to have the ability to herald right here,” Miller stated. “While you have a look at the U.S. males’s nationwide group, ladies’s nationwide group, worldwide friendlies, this stadium goes to be a a lot better facility for soccer than Soldier Discipline, as an illustration.”Chicago Hearth FC and GenslerA slice of ChicagoMoriarty has been in Chicago since 2010, however has spent greater than half a decade working in varied roles with Main League Baseball’s Chicago White Sox, the NBA’s Chicago Bulls, and ultimately the Hearth in 2023. It supplied him perception not solely into Chicago’s sports activities tradition but additionally the Hearth’s shifting place in it since Mansueto’s arrival.The group has overhauled its workplaces, bringing in a brand new president, head of individuals and tradition, head of ticketing, head of visitor expertise, and head of partnerships. It’s taken huge swings at worldwide free brokers, together with Neymar and Kevin de Bruyne, and, whereas averaging greater than 25,000 followers by 11 matches, is on tempo to extend attendance but once more.  Of the 1000’s of season ticket deposits the group has already acquired for the brand new stadium, Moriarity stated he’s been stunned by what number of have come from new followers who’ve by no means purchased a Hearth ticket. He attributes the passion each to the stadium’s personal funding and to its preliminary advertising and marketing push.“The day we rolled issues out, I used to be within the workplace at 4:15 a.m. We had 20 individuals within the workplace by 4:30. We had tales touchdown at 4:30 and 5, and we had the full-page advertisements loading, and it was nice, since you had this wave of followers waking up and seeing the information,” Moriarty stated. “That was step one in lots of steps of getting a stadium constructed open for ‘28, however we’re simply excited in regards to the stage for progress and the thrill and the fervour across the stadium. If I’m going to get up at 4 a.m., that is the form of challenge I like waking up for.”Excel’s Miller, in the meantime, famous that this new stadium would be the first new main sports activities facility to open within the metropolis of Chicago for the reason that United Heart in 1994. It’ll be on the heart of 9 million Chicago-area residents and 100 million annual metropolis guests. Chicago Hearth FC and GenslerWhile Excel has beforehand bought naming rights for MLS services together with Austin’s Q2 Stadium and Nashville SC’s GEODIS Park—in addition to Arduous Rock Stadium, house of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins—Miller famous that this facility is exclusive for its central location within the metropolis, its visibility from highways and trains, and its potential as each a soccer and leisure venue. Having labored with gamers on Main League Baseball’s Chicago Cubs and on partnership offers for each the Bulls and the WNBA’s Chicago Sky, Excel is making an attempt to convey to manufacturers in each Chicago and past the worth of the Hearth’s place in Chicago’s future.“We’re on the level proper now as we exit to manufacturers, versus telling them the place they’re going to hold their signal, we are able to work with them to say, ‘The place would you like your signal hung? What will we need to do to make this constructing really feel like United Park?’” Miller stated. “Not solely does a model have the chance to be part of the constructing itself, however this neighborhood might be branded and this model will grow to be a everlasting fixture within the Chicago skyline.”