Mouthsider

From what I’ve read, ETFE paneling excels at climate control, especially in cold-weather conditions, for fixed-roof stadiums. The Minnesota Vikings’ U.S. Bank stadium is living proof. I’m not sure if ETFE is applicable for modular purposes, though.

T-Mobile Park for reference. The two stadiums are quite similar.

Agreed. I feel that a warehouse stadium would age poorly, especially with Wrigley Field, one of the most iconic, cozy baseball stadiums of all time, already taking up residence in the city. We’d be stuck playing second fiddle stadium-wise again. Indeed. Like T-Mobile Park, Daikin Park also stores its three-panel roof beyond right field, but (imo) Daikin Park maintains a better view past left field. If a retractable roof is actually being considered, then Ishbia’s team would need to find a way to keep both sides of the outfield visible. Otherwise, we either can’t see the skyline, or we can’t hit dingers into the river.

Interestingly, Seattle’s T-Mobile Park gets around the excess space that a retractable roof needs by positioning the roof above railroad tracks. However, the view of outside the stadium is limited because of that. Now, please allow me to speculate: If that area were set up so that the railroad tracks, or railyard, housing the stadium’s roof were behind left field, as opposed to beyond right field, then spectators could have a full, unobstructed view of beyond the park. This is significant because that’s exactly what Amtrak’s 14th St. Yard could allow for. The area I’ve outlined in yellow is Amtrak’s yard. The area I’ve outlined in red is BNSF’s yard. If arranged, Ishbia’s stadium could use the air space above BNSF’s yard to house a potential roof, similarly to T-Mobile Park’s setup. It would come from across the other side of the field, but I see no reason why that couldn’t be done. I don’t mean to rant about something purely hypothetical, but I figured you all on this forum might appreciate the concept. Hopefully we hear more news on the stadium front soon.

I’m hoping for one. Rain/winter conditions in the early season suuucks. And although lot of the existing retractable roof stadiums are kinda ugly, the benefits of having one would be unreal. No delayed/bad weather games ever again can only help convince people to show up. This whole project is already super ambitious, but if Ishbia can crack the code on a beautiful stadium with a retractable roof and a skyline view, I think that would solidify the new stadium as an instant classic. It also helps that the technology/engineering surrounding ETFE roofs seems to only be getting better at providing natural light and great views, but we’ll see what happens.

Yeah, Canal Edge LLC has submitted a letter of interest (to some government department) in which they ask for a RRIF (Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing) loan. In part, they’d use it to redevelop the current Amtrak 14th St. Yard, but only after helping Amtrak develop new facilities on UP’s railyard (which would need to be purchased beforehand) near Rate Field. This has been advertised in articles as a “land swap”, but (in my opinion) it’s a much more complicated plan than that with multiple points of failure, so it’s far from a done deal. I’m only expressing my own wishes, not any alternatives. Replacing a stadium with a railyard/maintenance facility is a tough deal for Bridgeport, so my heart will go out to them if/when the time comes.

Well, for the majority of the past 116 years, stadium districts weren’t even a thing. Seas of parking lots were what was sought for a while. I want to say it was the Ballpark Village in St. Louis that really kickstarted this wave of developments, and that’s just over 10 years old. Outside of that, Reinsdorf has shown he’s more than comfortable not investing if that’s the path of least resistance. A ballpark village is an ambitious investment. I wouldn’t expect him to take it upon himself, but seeing the ambition that Ishbia has, I’m thinking there may be a chance now. But again, that chance currently lies in the South Loop/East Pilsen. I can only hope Bridgeport is considered.

I feel like this would be guaranteed to work. Bridgeport is already a self-sustaining (and currently expanding) neighborhood, so building a stadium district (especially if that includes a new stadium) would function less as a shot in the arm but rather a treat for the community. Especially given its proximity to the Red Line, which would make it convenient for any intrigued Northsiders to check out. You raise a good point that Ishbia probably won’t consider it while the Amtrak yard and/or 78 are still available options, which they currently are.

I’m a Gen Z myself, and honestly my friends and I couldn’t give a s%*# if a new stadium is in the South Loop. That alone doesn’t do anything for us casuals besides make the stadium further away/harder to get to. What really matters is that they make the area around it convenient to hang out around. They’d need to put up bars, pubs, etc. and mimic the Wrigleyville model, and that would need to occur in parallel to the construction of a stadium. However, that’s also why I don’t understand why they can’t just develop the sea of parking lots around 35th and Shields. My buds and I already have bars around there that we like (ok, only Cork and Turtles, but those are the only convenient options), and we would love it if there were more options available. So it kind of feels like they’re not even giving the existing location a chance. Then again, there’s the potential of building an Oracle Park-style stadium where dingers land in the Chicago River, so who am I to complain.

A large portion of the TIF funds directed to the Fire stadium are going towards building a city-owned parking garage. I would imagine something similar may be done with the Amtrak parcel in order to maximize parking spots in a single space. This would leave more room for a baseball village development :) but unfortunately mean the end of tailgating :( As for your question about Soldier Field, I have no idea. It probably just switches to being a full-time concert/event venue. The Bears only play 8 games there per year anyways, so the city will surely find ways to fill its schedule.

archive.phRelated Midwest eyes $425M TIF subsidy for the 78 - Crain... Interesting that Related still prefers a dual-stadium development. Is this new? I thought the sentiment from Mansueto was that he wanted the 78 all for himself. Overall, this is still good news for the Sox. Having options for both the 78 proper and Amtrak’s 14th St. yard is a good place to be in.