Build It, And Will They Come?

The ONLY news in Chicago soccer this week was the Fire's announcement that they had signed a "memorandum of understanding" with the village of Bridgeview to build a $70 million soccer stadium at 79th and Harlem, just southwest of the city limits.

It's okay if you couldn't find Bridgeview on a map, although the "79th and Harlem" clue should be enough of a hint if you're reading this from the Chicagoland area. Even then, all you're really going to come up with is "somewhere past Midway." And that's okay, too.

The raging debate among online soccer fans, and this has been going on for almost as long as the Fire have been Chicago's winningest sports franchise (that is to say, since the team's first season), is whether or not the suburbs can "properly" support a pro soccer team. Longtime residents love trotting out the Chicago Sting's move to the Rosemont Horizon and subsequent imposition, but that's a very facile treatment of the situation, especially when you consider they went from outdoor soccer to indoor.

To demonstrate the viability, or perceived lack thereof, you have to start with the conceit that the key to success is for the team to attract people just like you. If you live in the city, you point out the lack of swift and uncomplicated CTA coverage to the stadium location. If you live in the north or northwestern suburbs, you grumble because it's not going to be in your backyard, as was the case with the last suburban plan, the Arlington Heights deal that fell through at the eleventh hour. Although, just maybe, you don't have the foggiest idea where Bridgeview actually is.

I think it's more the latter, because, as GM Peter Wilt pointed out to an angry e-mailer (you can read the interchange at BigSoccer.com), the distance between many northwest 'burbs and the new stadium location is nearly identical to the distance to Soldier Field. Plus, it's along 294 instead of the Kennedy, which should count for something. If Soldier Field was acceptable, it's hard to make the case against Bridgeview, coming from that part of the metropolitan region. And if you were okay with that failed Arlington Heights deal, it's hard to argue against a suburb that's actually closer to the city unless you're really playing the very rare "IMBY" card.

The whole issue strikes me as an emotional coming-to-terms with the fact that we're actually going to have our own building. With few exceptions, I can't imagine that fans want the thing to fail, so the alternative is that they're pricking holes in the information in order to wake them if they're dreaming. Or that they're just emphatically underinformed, very impatient, or both.

Since we've already worked over the suburbanites, let's look at the city situation. For instance, how can you seriously grumble about how you're going to get there from the city two years before the first game? Yes, the Orange Line only goes to Midway, but there is talk of extending it, and even without, there's going to be a plan to run some kind of shuttle from the terminus wherever it is. That's a safer bet than the Patriots this weekend. Metra schedules will likely be beefed up. With the success of the Ginger's Ale House bus to the Fire's temporary home in Naperville, similar efforts will certainly be available. And fans in the city without cars have two whole years to either make friends with other soccer fans who do have cars, or convince existing friends with cars that they'd really, really enjoy season tickets to the new stadium.

My continuing concern is that a "memorandum of understanding" is hardly the same thing as a groundbreaking ceremony, but it seems like the team has all its ducks in a row. This may turn out to be a very exciting time to be a soccer fan in Chicago, aside from the unparallelled success on the field that, if you haven't checked out yet, you really should. Which is a long and grammatically challenged way of saying the bandwagon is accepting new riders.