USL For City (not Fire Affliated)

This is great. Would definitely not mind a little US Open Cup Chicago Derby action at Toyota Park. This USL team will push the Fire to really step up their game. This will force Andy Cakes to step up his game because if he doesn't then hell ill go watch USL Fire at there Amazon Headquarters for all I care.

 

retractable roof.

 

Yeah, I still don't believe it.

1) There is no evidence that Amazon will move to Chicago, as there are 238 locations with proposals on the table, according to the article.

2) There is no evidence that this will be the winning proposal, as there are at least 10 for Chicago alone, according to the article.

3) There is a decent chance that the USL will not look in 2020 as it does today. There are only four teams from 2011 still in the USL. 14 teams have folded, moved or changed divisions since 2011. There is no stability. It is almost as bad as NASL.

Sterling Bay dropped a couple of hundred grand up, maybe up to a couple of million to "secure" a USL team. Big f'n deal. That is chump change for them.

The endorsement by Papadakis is meaningless.

If the stadium is built according to the picture, how would they have a retractable roof? It seems like way too large of an area to cover.
Plus, it sure looks like Fire banners on the west side of the stadium.

I know I will be attacked, once again, for my comments.
However, I will have a healthy dose of skepticism until there is an actual agreement on the table.

They claim that they will build the stadium with or without Amazon. Without Amazon, it makes little sense.

The only way this makes sense would be for Sterling Bay to buy the Fire, work out a deal with Bridgeview, move the Fire to the Chicago stadium and move the USL team to Bridgeview...and then fold the USL team.

I doubt 20,000 people would be interested in supporting a USL team.
Hell, 20,000 people rarely turn out for the Fire.

 

I can see a universe that exists where this gets built with or without Amazon coming here and I can see it being built without Sterling Bay making a play for the Fire, too, although that seems a little more unlikely. Obviously, Amazon to Chicago is a pipedream that could turn out to be a nightmare, and a USL team is not drawing 20k people, but there could be a long con here that involves anything from Chicago 2 (admittedly not super realistic) to a swap with Bridgeview that puts a USL team there and moves the Fire to this spot (okay, probably just as realistic but it's spectrum ... of unrealisticness... or something).

If I were laying on odds, I'd say this seems more likely to happen than Amazon coming here based on the 20-30 minutes I've spent reading about it (i.e. what constitutes 'research' to most people on the internet anymore). Basically, I think it makes sense to develop an attraction on that site whether Amazon is there or not.

Not sure how I feel about the retractable roof - definitely requires a redesign from the renderings, which are never accurate anyway, but I think those look damn sweet and staying as close to them as possible would be great, whereas having a retractable roof would add to the cost significantly, making this less likely to happen at all (much less without public money). Plus, I kind of prefer sitting outside on a shitty, rainy, cold October night to watch the Fire get beat by Toronto to being in climate-controlled environs that allow me such modern comforts as warmth and protection from rain/sleet/snow/whateverelseisfallingfromthesky.

 

I have ABC on right now and one of the scrolling headlines at the bottom of the screen this morning is about building this stadium.

 

You get Peter Wilt to run this somabitch and I'd be willing to fight the Kennedy traffic to come in for games. What the hell? It's not like the Fire are ever going to get better under the current regime.

 

As I stated in the previous thread on the subject, I really hope this comes to fruition. I would really, really like it to come to fruition with the Fire involved. Having the Fire in a near downtown location with a retractable roof would pretty much guarantee their success indefinitely.

However, until there is a deal in place, I won't get my hopes up.
It is way too speculative.

Also, I find it hard to believe that anyone would dump well over $150,000,000 (with a retractable roof, double that) for a USL team, a league with little infrastructure and almost no stability.

The average USL attendance in 2017 was 4,302 and that includes the average of almost 22,000 for Cincinnati and 12,000 for Sacramento. The lowest teams average 632 for Red Bulls II, with only five teams above 5,000 (and 7 teams with a total season attendance less than FC Cincinnati's average game attendance).

It just does not seem to be sustainable.

 

I agree with much of your post, but I cannot agree with this at all.
There is no fun freezing and being rain/sleet/snow/whateverelseisfallingfromthesky-ed upon especially to watch the Fire lose.

 

So a speculative team, playing at a speculative stadium, in a league that is anything but, assured of it's future? Yawn. But, it would be funny if the amazon stadium had a team not called the Fire.

 

I dunno they're expanding not only with their current Division 2 but also expanding and adding USL Division 3 in 2019. The USL will endure even if their average attendance is far below MLS. Now the NASL on the other hand is dead in the water.

 

I agree about the USL v. NASL.

My point was a larger one about the inherent instability of the league in general (even with its relative strength vis a vis NASL).

They have never had anything close to stability.
The league is only five years old, yet there have been over 35 different teams added, contracted, moved to MLS, etc.

USL attendance is not just "far below" MLS, it is 1/6th of MLS and even less without Cincinnati.

The new "Chicago" team is listed on USL Wikipedia page so it MUST be happening.

I suspect that we might get Matt Fondy back in Chicago if this goes through:

(it was just a reason to post that)

 

Never will happen in America. All the owners care about is money and if their team falls down a division well guess who ain't making as much money the next year? For soccer in the US to work there must be some kind of stability. At least that's my opinion

 

It's a nice thought, but it will never happen in the MLS as long as it is made up of single entity franchises. The only way we will see pro/rel happen is if fan owned teams create their own league and gain traction/popularity exceeding MLS'.

 

The stadium will happen, the USL support will determine if we get a 2nd MLS team in the city. This is the same model used by most of the new expansion teams.

 

I hope it happens but very skeptical that it will happen.

 

1. They control the land
2. They are paying for it
3. They've already invested into USL

There may be some property tax messing about to get by the city .
Also NIMBY opposition will try to get it torpedoed I'm sure.
But these two things seem to be only hurdles.
I'm positive whoever is alderman will do their best to push this through. This is massive legacy project to whoever gets it done. I just can't see Rahm letting this slide ....
This group is for real, they have the $ and local political clout to get it done.

 

Shouldn't be an issue since this team would be in the USL. I'm guessing they are playing the long game here. Most likely they are hoping a brand new, centrally located stadium will create significant fanfare and make the Fire irrelevant. The hope, as others have pointed out, is most likely that things become so dire in Bridgeview (e.g. no new stadium sponsorship, worsening attendance, etc.) that the town will take any buyout offer they can get from the MLS. After this happens either the Fire would be moved to this new stadium or folded with the new Chicago team, which would have gained significant popularity, "promoted" to the MLS.

 

Andy holds on and he gets a nice territory fee paycheck.

 

Absolutely. There's probably plenty of well heeled Lincoln Park NIMBYS east of there, but it's not like they're plopping it into the middle of a residential neighborhood. Most objections will be overcome by the prospect of park land where there was none and access to the 606 bike network. After a little bit of research I present a few details below.

The site is part of the North Branch - North TIF area and may include some of the North Branch - South TIF area as well. Ironically part of the Finkl Steel site is not included in any TIF area.


As for the aldermen from DNAInfo (RIP):

Most of the site is in the 32nd Ward whose alderman, Scott Waguespack, is a Fire fan and has commented on #cf97 many times. Unless he's a FTID guy, he should be behind the project.

The neighboring 43rd Ward isn't nearly as enthusiastic, though most of their concerns (pre-Amazon HQ2) seemed to be about zoning changes to mixed use from industrial: https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/201...rridor-plan-parkland-parks-ald-michele-smith#

 

There will be some point in the next year, 2 years, 5 years, etc. where the price of buying out the VoB/MLS Chicago lease vs. VoB bond payments makes sense to all parties.

 

The plans include land on the West Bank of the river, too.