Wow that’s a mixed bag of news. I mean good that they’re moving back to the city. But to an NFL stadium (albeit the smallest one)... eh....
A critical question is who will get the revenue from concessions/parking etc? That has been a driving factor behind sss since the get go. And would they spend any money on the stadium to improve the match day atmosphere when it may only be one-third full.
Someone in this thread can correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the original B-view lease like 250k/year increasing 6-8% per season. Well the article reports they're discussing divvying up that revenue. The only question is to what extent. In B-view it's 50/50 for concession revenue (and the team only get 22% of the cut from the merch at the pro-shop!).
Jeez, beyond the obvious it’s no wonder they want out of Bridgeview. It may be a SSS, but those are terrible terms for the team that are far worse than many of the new rental situations that have given MLS pause.
Beggars can't be choosers and the Fire were running out of options. Peter Wilt being let go makes a bit more sense in retrospect. Sure, it was a stadium, but it's a terrible stadium (functionally) in a location you can't ride the train to in Chicagoland with bad terms for the team (and oddly worse for the town). At a time when team sponsorships were lagging. Say what we all will about Nick S. and the deals in Harrison and Camden, but both of those stadiums have worked out better in the long run.
Yeah I mean the league made some compromises back then. Chivas USA, Frisco, Foxboro, and clearly this... however it’s good to see those early compromises being righted. Just seems odd that moving back to Soldier Field is a better option than staying in the often over valued SSS.
Well, and sometimes hindsight being 20/20 leads to realizing that decisions that were made on the best available information at the time, probably weren't the best option. We shouldn't be too hard on the league and teams for decisions made ten years ago that obviously look bad today. There is an alternate reality where the Chivas USA thing could've been better executed. I mean, in a lot of ways expanding to Toronto was a terrible mistake with lasting negative repercussions, but it turns out that MLSE has their shit together operationally, and the fan base and sponsorship market in Toronto really delivered. In the long run it would've been a lot easier had MLS stayed a strictly USA based league (3 more cities could have teams), but Toronto/MLSE worked where Chivas USA/Cue/Vergara did not. I don't see Frisco or Foxboro as having been compromises or mistakes. Southlake, however, was a disaster. There's nothing inherently wrong with Foxboro than disinterested ownership. The Revolution were among the earliest break-even teams in MLS at a time when the league as a whole was still hemorrhaging money.
Yes, I believe in 2006 it was 300k, with a 3% increase, so for the 2020 season it would be 678k and 1,625,000 in the last year of the contract. I believe it t would be 50/50 (concessions/parking). The source said the district and the team would divide parking and concession revenue based on certain income thresholds.
Rent was 300k in 2006 and go up to 1,625,000 in 2035 (30th year), but also the village paid for the entire stadium 100 million. So 81k a game (20 game schedule) isn't that terrible. The village paid 100+ million and it would have cost us 24 million (total) for the 30 year lease. That's not a terrible term.
Well considering they paid 100+ million (cost of stadium), 50/50 sounds like a win for the team. They could have easily asked for 100% of the concessions.
Sure they could have. That is kind of the point some of us that think this is not a great financial situation are making. Just saying "oh well at least they are getting some" doesn't mean it is good for the team and league.
Chicago fans, get me up to speed on this. Bridgeview is hard to get to on transit and I found it hard to get to by car coming off the freeway due to limited number of off ramps than what I am used to in So Cal. What makes Soldier better? What are the transit options? The one time i was at Soldier was before the redo and i was there 3 hours ahead just to make sure I could park. What if any changes to Soldier access since the last time the Fire played there? A side question also. Is that USL- C team actually going to be a go in Chicago and if so, what are their options on where to play..
The USL team is all but officially dead. The alderman who oversees the Lincoln Yards site where the stadium was supposed to go gave into the local NIMBY opposition and killed the stadium due to traffic concerns (though in all honesty attempting to drive to that site would have been a nightmare and transit to that part of Lincoln Park is just ok). For Soldier Field, transit is light years better than Bridgeview. The Red, Green, and Orange lines all stop at Roosevelt which is a 0.8 mile walk from through the Museum Campus away, though there are also shuttles for people who need to be dropped off directly in front of the venue. The Metra Electric regional rails from the south burbs stop right in front of the stadium. If you're trying to take a train in from the far west, southwest or far northern burbs, transit becomes a bigger pain in the ass because the regional trains that service those parts of the region are poorly connected to the L system, and require a lot of walking between trains/busses. The South Loop neighborhood around the stadium isn't the most exciting place in the city considering it's one of the most dense neighborhoods in Chicago, but it's got more than enough decent places to eat and drink before and after the game within walking distance. Parking at Soldier Field is awful if you don't know some tricks to doing it (Download SpotHero, reserve a spot under the green line, and walk over the 18th St. footbridge). Nearly everyone with access to the CTA takes transit to stadiums in this city, so it's not as bad as some stadiums I've visited, but there's really only one way in or out to the stadium lots. How it compares to Bridgeview really depends on where you're coming from, but at least for weekday games, you're going against rush our traffic. Currently getting to Bridgeview requires you to fight rush hour if you're trying to get there from the city, and for most people it's just not worth it on a highway that has chronic pothole problems and turns into a parking lot any time past 8AM seven days a week...and that's just the Stevenson Expressway. Getting there from the north side requires you to get through at least two major bottlenecks. So yeah, if you live in Bollingbrook or a similar southwest burb, you get screwed by this move, but overall the move will improve access for lot more people than it hurts.
The number of supporters in this city demanding that the team keep chasing sunk costs in Bridgeview is baffling. Though the fact that Toyota Park was Wilt's baby no doubt plays a significant part in it. Hindsight has been especially unkind to the decision to choose 71st and Harlem. AEG showed in New Jersey that they were willing to wait out (and dump money into) a bad stadium situation that was even worse than Soldier Field at the time. The Fire really only had bad options, but at some point the people in charge of the team needed to step back and look at the terms of what was being offered and say "look, this just isn't going to work." I can only imagine the fun that AEG had trying to offload the Fire to potential buyers with that lease.
I do not know where this person got their info from, but 0% of the stadium (in Columbus) is publicly funded. Though the city, county, and state are contributing to the non-stadium aspects of the project, which includes residential/commercial/retail around the stadium site and the transformation of Mapfre into a training ground/community park. As for Nash, yeah, I think you are correct. But I believe 4 is a draw? Yes. 3 = you win. 5 = I win. Been so long. I still think 4 is possible (not counting Miami's temp home).
I wouldn't count Sacramento out if I were you. That will be 4 (5 if you count Miami's temporary home). You need to keep it to 3 for a win.
Probably another reason the Fire are moving back to the city. Don’t want to get undercut like the Galaxy were in LA.
Couldn't have happened because the Bridgeview lease mandated that ANY MLS matches within 70 miles were played there, though the USL team that died with the stadium plan would have made things interesting if the Fire stayed where they were.
MLS and the Fire are one organism... As usual I'll let Miki Turner get the clicks for his hard work in documenting all this. https://socceresq.com/2018/05/09/st...be-the-best-worst-lease-in-the-united-states/
Actually they’re not per that lease. The owner and the league are separate entities. However both were parties to it.
Well, you can't stop people standing up during the game no matter what seating combo you have, so no. What UEFA does require is that the fold-up seats are locked in the folded up position for UEFA-approved competitions (CL, Europa League Euro and WC games). You can do what you like for BL and Pokal games, but UEFA requires seating that's fixed in position for the duration of the game.
You need 5. We are at 2 with 3.5 months left. Columbus is yet to start. You are counting them a little early. Miami's modular stadium does not count. Reports are that it will be just like the modular/temp stadium Vancouver used.