Yeah, we had this conversation in the past and I'm bringing it up again. No one has convinced me why the Fire using my alma mater's (Class of 85) stadium can't work. Don't tell me it's too small because you can remove the west wall to make the field wider, fill in the cider track which hasn't been used to host a meet since Christ was a teen and the field be re-filled without a crown and the removal of the curb surrounding the field isn't the most difficult of things to do. Adding to the main stands as well as placing stands in the north and south end so the stadium isn't a difficult thing to do and can be done. No reason why this can't happen and be modified to accommodate damn nearly 20K people. I'll cover transportation in a reply to follow.
I'd love it as it would be a short bus ride away from my home but there's no way King Richard II would allow it for some of the same reasons he'll never allow the Fire to build a Firehouse within city limits.
Re: Re: Hey, Fire, Why not Lane Tech H.S. Stadium? My friend, Never say never. I think he'd go for it if it's done the right way. It's a total win for the city. The King's not a fool, a little stubborn but definitely not a fool. I'm sure he can be convinced that it can work.
Do tell, what would be the point of going to all that trouble when we already have an agreement to play this season in a community that more or less can't do anything about anything we do this year, and an agreement that is allegedly so good financially with the park district to play in new soldier field that it won't be fiscally responsible to try to get our own stadium on any but the absolute best of terms?
The transportation advantage of using Lane Stadium. Via public transport Addison bus stops in front of the stadium Western bus stops a long and pleasant walk from the stadium 1/2 mile from the Belmont bus 2 miles and a little change from the Blue Line 1 mile west of the Brown line 2.5 miles west of the Red line You could also take the Metra and with a simple transfer to the CTA EL be on your merry way Via car 2 miles and some change from the I90/I94 Addison street exit ramp 3 miles from LakeShore Drive Addison between Western and the bridge over the Chicago river are much wider than it is near Wrigley Field Parking is available at Lane Tech H.S., Devry and a few lots within a short walk of the stadium Hell, you could even sail your boat along the Chicago River and dock near the bridge over Addison and walk less than a 1/4 mile to the stadium This can work. The negative is that people living south and far west would be a bit more inconvenienced but unfortunately, people are going to be inconvenienced no matter what.
Re: Re: Re: Hey, Fire, Why not Lane Tech H.S. Stadium? There's no way in hell the real estate barons who dictate to Daley on matters of planning will allow a property-value-lowering SSS within city limts when they can make 10 times the amount building shoddy condo units to sell to yuppies who have more money than sense. Ain't gonna happen as long as the city is one big real estate scam.
Jeremy, I'm talking down the line. Not this season. It would make no sense to me to try such a feat with no time and considering how well things have worked in Naperville. I'm talking within the next Five years.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Hey, Fire, Why not Lane Tech H.S. Stadium? They're building a Target in the mall where the Ward's used to be. Who on earth wants to live that close to a Target and the traffic it brings in the City? The land by the school isn't zoned for residential use as far as I know (someone in the know please correct me if I'm wrong). It could be but I think it's still up for grabs.
Apologies, I didn't finish replying to this remark. In regards to the financial benefits for the Park district, It's a paper dragon. In order for the Bears Stadium (Yeah, it's called Soldier Field but when have you seen the Military there) they had to guarantee some other type of revenue stream hence the Fire being held captive. Once Bears stadium is built and the Fire have played at least a season there, I'm sure if the club pushed enough, they could get out of it. Bears Stadium hosts a number of concerts and other events that make a ton of money and the Fire not being the permanent second tenant frees up quite a few days that the Park district could book and make a lot more money from than any Fire home match. Dave Matthews, Rolling Stones, are only a few concerts I can cite as examples. Park District wouldn't miss a beat and their profit margin from those events increases quite a bit when compared to a Fire match.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Hey, Fire, Why not Lane Tech H.S. Stadium? Given that Daley is trying to suburbanize the City, a Target, Ikea or other big box store is infinitely more appealing to the real estate community than an SSS. The Clybourn corridor has one of the biggest concentrations of big box chain stores (and therefore the most congested traffic) in Chicago and that's done nothing to property values there. In fact, they're building condos there as fast as they possibly can and they're selling them even faster despite the ridiculous prices.
Fonso, I couldn't agree with you more. I hope the team does not forget that Our first priortiy should be to remain in the city. I will not support in any way a permanent move to a suburb like Naperville, Aurora or some other far off suburb. Naperville has been a good emergency replacement. Thanks Naperville, but an enthusiatic fan base you are not. It stinks! What a pain in the butt it is to get out there too!! I just can't help but feel in my heart that some of the city locations have NOT been looked at seriously by the Fire. Locations like Lane tech have been given a passing glance and thats all. I have no reason to believe it was given any more than a passing glance considering the shoe string budget that is allocated for things like feasibility studies in MLS. I don't know if it is because we have too many people working for the team that do not understand the demographics of the city or the potential of locations like Lane Tech. Many good possibilities and plenty of room for parking. The stadium location should not be decided on because someone grew up in the area and likes it. It should be based on the potential for the most success and a city location cannot be beat! I am not not saying that this is the way a location is decided upon but I have to speak up about what is becoming obvious to me. Some potentially great city locations are being blown off!!! I understand that this type of work is difficult. No one is saying that the team has not worked hard. But the league runs on a shoe string budget and I think this decision is being decided upon with a show string budget. I think the team may want to bring in some volunteers like myself and others who own their own business and work as professionals or used to ( my shot out to the unemployed ) who were BORN and raised in Chicago and can provide some insight to the team about demographics and economics as well as help with decision making and location searching. I understand that it takes alot of work and I think input is needed by a group and this issue needs to be addressed by a group not two or three people. Cheers to the team for some of things they have done with this difficult issue but for the future let's make some things better. Alot better!! Look at places like Lane Tech again. Give them a fresh shot! Places like Aurora and Naperville are not going to cut it. Don't get too comfortable in the burbs, we don't belong there. All the talk about big crowds has not come to fruition. I don't see this year being any different. Time to put the focus back on the city, a FRESH look back on the city and formally abandoned locations. Soldier field in 2004 and City stadium in 2005-2006. !!! Ciao
Re: Re: Re: Re: Hey, Fire, Why not Lane Tech H.S. Stadium? If you are familar with the area. we are talking about the exisiting stadium land. Property value lowering SSS? I big to differ. A SSS would give a real shot in the arm to the area economically.More than the 20-30 condo that could go up on the parcell next to the stadium. You have some decent food 2.5 milles north in German Town in Lincoln Square. Plus a rabbid fan base. You have a new Bosnian population as well as exsisting latino and Asain and solid Greek popluation in thew area. I don't think the fire managment get just how good this area could be. On top of that you are not far from Wrigley the Fire could work out a marketing agreement with the Cubs. Not that they need it, but an afternoon Cubs game and an evening Fire game for X amount fo dollars. I mean The firehouse would be right down the street from Wrigley..
I'm an alumni of Lane Tech also class of __,well lets just say a while ago. First not only would the west side wall have to be torn down but there aren't enough rows on the east side. Also end zone seats would have to be installed.You basically would have to do massive constuction. Who is going to pay for it? Peter recently basically said the new lease at SF is so good public money would have to pay for lion share of new SSS. Also you are forgetting the park district will still want to play high school football there which raises the same problems with gridiron lines and the tearing up of the pitch. Also the track team plays there so you need a track around field.You think the park district and lane is going to hand over the best city public football stadium to the Fire?
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Hey, Fire, Why not Lane Tech H.S. Stadium? I agree with this. The high school isn't going anywhere, so there is no way that the land will be used for anything but a stadium (the existing one or an amped up Firehouse). As the neighborhood stands, it is not ideal for condos with Target, Lane Tech and Gordon Tech as existing neighbors. You also have to contend with two incredible busy streets. Assuming you could get the School district to go along with it ($$$$) and King Richard would eventually sign off on it, I think it would be a great location.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Hey, Fire, Why not Lane Tech H.S. Stadium? Historically, sports stadia tend to lower the surrounding residential property values as most people don't want to deal with the crowds and all the chaos, drunkeness, lack of parking, pickpocketing, congestion, etc. that sports crowds bring. Wrigley Field is the great exception. A stadium may boost the business of surrounding bars and restaurants, but not that of the real estate barons and they only care about what THEY make, not what a few community businesses will be making five years from now. I don't doubt this. I myself live in Lincoln Square so I'd LOVE the Fire to be so close and convenient for me. I could ride my bicycle to see Fire games. It would rock a great rocking for me personally. But it still won't happen. Besides, who would own the stadium? Lane Tech or the Fire? The whole point of getting out of The Mistake On the Lake is for the Fire to control their own destiny and not be behold to anyone else regarding event dates, revenue streams and such. Merely renting Lane Tech's stadium would leave most of theose problems intact to eventually come back to bite us in the ass. Now if the school wants to SELL the Fire the property outright and give up any say in event dates, revenue, etc., I'm all for this idea and don't see why it couldn't work. Well, except for Daley making it impossible because he wants the Fire paying rent to help pay for the World's Ugliest Stadium Ever, that is. Oh, and where is everyone going to park?
I'm not doubting the availablitity of parking, or the distance to the Kennedy or LSD, but you're talking about, for the most part, a one lane road to and from those highways. The traffic congestion would be brutal getting in and out. Also, I would guess that we would not only be subject to the Public School FB schedule, but also the Cubs schedule, as Addison traffic is a nightmare on Cubs days, and if you add Fire traffic, you'll completely choke the area. It's interesting, but it's not as logistically feasible as appears at first glance.
So good that they still will probably be swimming in red ink. I am guessing that this statement was probably directed at potential suburbs as the Fire would look for some leverage to get free land or upgraded infrastructure. If the Fire are going to build anywhere, they will have to pay a boat load towards the actual structure, they just don't want to pay for several acres of land. That is why Arlington was such an attractive offer. If the SD and City would agree to a similar rental situation as we asked for from Arlington then I suspect the Fire would be very interested. Your point about HS football would be a factor, but again, there is nothing a little splash of cash can't cure. Also, a HS football game does not cause near the damage to a field as the pros where all of the linemen are 300+ Of course, the whole notion ignores the fact that there probably wouldn't be any beer sales on HS/SD property
I mentioned that stands would need to be added and torn down in an earlier post. The Fire are the main beneficieries then they should pay for it. Course it is but at what cost? Still splitting 50% of the profits and when you factor in the overhead, how much does that eat into your overall profit? Total control of your revenue stream is what you want and hopefully it's what the Fire wants in a stadium. Didn't forget at all. The idea of sharing it with H.S. athletics should be welcomed with open arms. It's a great opportunity to market the club, stadium et al to the next generation and another source of revenue. It's what everyone else does with the multi million playgoruns they own. The area around the stadium can be converted to a few grass training fields and a field dedicated to host H.S. sports. Place stands there and football games can continue on a regular basis as well as at the main stadium. There's not a kid playing in American sports that wouldn't relish the opportunity to play their sport on a professional sports field. Turf has to be replaced on a regular basis and with the maintenance fees the Fire would charge or split with the Park district, this would be awesome and insure that the Fire have a new field to play on every season. The cinder track can be reomoved. No one's hosting meets on it and there's a great one at River Park. It's arguably the best track within the entire Chgo Park district.
You're talking a potential traffic nighmare 16 to 20 dates out of the year. Remember the Fire would play most of their games on Saturday nights, unlike the Cubs and considering how the MLS releases their schedule quite late, by sports standards, they can set it up where this potential problem would be kept to a minimum. Addison is a real nightmare near the ball park because it's quite narrow. Addison @ Lane is quite wide. A total of four lanes, two going east and tow going west. It's as wide as Western in this stretch. It's feasible from a logistical standpoint for crowds of 20K and less. If it can work for the Cubs, there's no reason why it can't work for the Fire. As far as the conflict with Football, it's still something that wouldn't have a major affect on the Fire. Especially, if there are grass training fields with stands in the area. Let me also add that I'm not a "Mr. Know It All" about this potential project. It's obvious that I have strong feelings about this topic and would love to see the club seriously attempt to at the very least do a feasibility study. Too many people scream it won't or can't work, yet the same has worked out rather well @ Cardinal stadium and which is located in a downtown area that's old and with narow ass streets and in an area surrounded by less open space.
You've forgotten one of the key transportation modes, by kayak to the kayak launch in Clark Park, a few hundred yards from the stadium. Those of you who think I'm just mentioning this to draw attention to my kayak rental business, located in Clark Park, you're absolutely right. By the way, when this came up a year and a half ago, I mentioned that a Fire staffer showed up at the business one day that summer with a clipboard, asking about us. He was wearing a Fire short-sleeve buttoned shirt, like the ticket sales guys, so I asked him what was up, and he said he was reporting on the Lane Stadium for the team.
There is a 4 lane road there called Western Avenue. 2 lanes each way. One of the larget in the city. Addison and western is the corner. expressy way is a mile away.