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 energy to persuade followers and types to comply with it to its new dwelling.
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 undertaking by developer Associated Midwest that can comprise Chicago’s 78th alderman-assigned neighborhood. Designed by Gensler to be a brick, metal, and glass tribute to town’s warehouses, the stadium is being financed in full by the Hearth’s proprietor and chairman, billionaire and monetary information agency Morningstar’s founder Joe Mansueto.
Slated to open in 2028, the stadium supplies a secure dwelling for the Hearth, who, since their founding in 1997, have shuffled from venue to venue. The crew 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 reworked; Soldier Discipline once more from 2004 via 2005; and Toyota Park in Bridgeview from 2006 via 2019, ultimately shifting 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 major 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 crew’s efforts since Mansueto’s takeover—together with the hiring of former U.S. Males’s Nationwide Staff coach Gregg Berhalter—have resulted in back-to-back seasons of report attendance in 2023 and 2024, topping out at 21,327 per sport.
Not unhealthy for a crew that’s certified for the MLS playoffs simply twice within the final 15 years, whereas ending dead-last in its convention thrice throughout that span.
“It’s an ongoing joke that we all know we’ve cracked it when web optimization can put Chicago Hearth Soccer Membership forward of the Chicago Hearth CBS present,” mentioned Hearth CMO Dan Moriarity, who joined the membership in December 2023. “We discuss quite a bit internally about the concept we’re Chicago Hearth Soccer Membership—we’re not Chicago Hearth soccer crew. A membership is greater 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 attempting 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-Instances, spelling out the plan and addressing it merely, “Pricey Chicago.”
Chicago Hearth FC
Because 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 efforts make its 2028 opening date appear nearer to kickoff.
“It’s uncommon that you’ve got a possibility as a model to successfully title a neighborhood, and that’s actually what we’re speaking about right here. You possibly can virtually consider it as how Wrigley Discipline helped give rise to Wrigleyville,” mentioned Jason Miller, evp of business 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 middle of a cultural and geographic redefinition of downtown Chicago.”
Marking their place
In the course of the 1994 FIFA World Cup that led to each MLS and the Hearth, Chicago hosted 5 matches. Not solely will town miss out on the 2026 World Cup utterly, but it surely was skipped for the CONMEBOL Copa America event in 2024, and each the CONCACAF Gold Cup and FIFA Membership World Cup tournaments this summer season.
Even earlier than the Hearth’s new stadium is accomplished, the crew 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 Middle on 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 middle of athletic and medical services.
The ability just lately hosted Manchester United for greater than every week throughout its English Premier League Summer season Collection tour of america.
“That wasn’t a purpose of constructing the Endeavor Well being Efficiency Middle, however I believe 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 in addition like worldwide federations after which tournaments down the street,” the Hearth’s Moriarty mentioned. “Chicago not internet hosting a World Cup sport is disappointing for me personally—I additionally realize it’s disappointing for lots of followers—however the best way we take into consideration that internally is it reinforces why investments within the efficiency middle and the stadium matter.”
Offering some concept of simply what sort of impression a 22,000-seat stadium might 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 website that hosted the Bundesliga’s Borussia Dortmund and Liga MX’s Pachuca.
“You have a look at TQL Stadium in Cincinnati, I believe 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 mentioned. “Once you have a look at the U.S. males’s nationwide crew, girls’s nationwide crew, worldwide friendlies, this stadium goes to be a significantly better facility for soccer than Soldier Discipline, for example.”
Chicago Hearth FC and Gensler
A slice of Chicago
Moriarty has been in Chicago since 2010, however has spent greater than half a decade working in numerous 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 in addition the Hearth’s shifting place in it since Mansueto’s arrival.
The crew 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 large swings at worldwide free brokers, together with Neymar and Kevin de Bruyne, and, whereas averaging greater than 25,000 followers via 11 matches, is on tempo to extend attendance but once more.
Of the hundreds of season ticket deposits the crew has already obtained for the brand new stadium, Moriarity mentioned 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 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 mentioned. “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 development and the thrill and the fervour across the stadium. If I’m going to get up at 4 a.m., that is the type of undertaking 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 Middle in 1994. It’ll be on the middle of 9 million Chicago-area residents and 100 million annual metropolis guests.
Chicago Hearth FC and Gensler
Whereas Excel has beforehand bought naming rights for MLS services together with Austin’s Q2 Stadium and Nashville SC’s GEODIS Park—in addition to Onerous Rock Stadium, dwelling 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 attempting 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 will 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 mentioned. “Not solely does a model have the chance to be part of the constructing itself, however this neighborhood will likely be branded and this model will develop into a everlasting fixture within the Chicago skyline.”
