Fire hosting Tuesday groundbreaking ceremony for new stadium
The Fire have waited a long time for an event like the one they’ll hold next week.
The club confirmed it will host a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday at the site of the new stadium at The 78. Running from 2-4 p.m., the event’s speakers will include Mayor Brandon Johnson, Ald. Pat Dowell, Fire owner and chairman Joe Mansueto and team president Dave Baldwin. Current coach and director of football Gregg Berhalter will be in attendance, as will Fire alumni and other guests.
The groundbreaking comes more than two years before the stadium will see Fire matches. The team expects the facility to be ready in time for the beginning of the 2028-29 season, the second season in which MLS will play from late summer to spring instead of using the spring to fall format it had followed since its inception.
That shift signals a giant change for MLS, and the new stadium represents another transformation for the Fire under Mansueto.
Mansueto, who is bankrolling the 22,000-seat stadium, moved the Fire from SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview back to Soldier Field for the 2020 season. The Fire also officially opened a new performance center last year, and in 2025 made the playoffs for the first time since 2017 while showing a willingness to spend on top players and staff.
The stadium issue, however, is one that has plagued the club for much of its existence.
The Fire were displaced during the Soldier Field renovations and spent all of 2002 and most of 2003 in Naperville, playing at a temporarily expanded small college football stadium. In 2006, the team went to the soccer-specific stadium in Bridgeview, where the team declined on the field and that coincided with the struggles to draw urban fans to the southwest suburb.
In 2019, Mansueto and the Fire paid $65.5 million to alter their lease with Bridgeview and return to Soldier Field immediately. But as soon as that move was confirmed, speculation began about whether the Bears’ home would be the Fire’s actual long-term dwelling or just a stopover.
On Tuesday, the Fire will take another step toward building that permanent residence.