Gabe Ramirez: Chicago Fire FC building a stadium at The 78 is a 'win-win for everyone involved'

Watch Gabe Ramirez: Chicago Fire FC building a stadium at The 78 is a 'win-win for everyone involved' - WSCR-AM / 670 The Score on Dailymotion

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00:00The coach that they're adding with Greg Berhalter, the performance center, the Endeavor Health

00:03Performance Center that they added on Ashland and Roosevelt, and then now the stadium news,

00:07right? It's just, you could just tell that the owner that they have, and I'm a Sox fan, right,

00:12and a Bears fan, so it feels good to see an owner that's out there and just putting up his money and

00:16put his money where his mouth is and really putting forth what he believes is a world-class

00:21team for a world-class team. What did you make of this news as it relates to the talk that we had

00:28heard last year, about this time, a little bit later, so less than a year ago, about private

00:34money being used to support the building of private stadiums, ballparks for these teams,

00:41as opposed to going to the public will? What do you think that says about where the fire is as an

00:45organization? I think, Marshall, you know, first and foremost, you have to really, because a lot

00:50of people are seeing the story and they're like, well, then why isn't everybody doing this, right?

00:54Well, I mean, if you're talking about a billion-dollar stadium in NFL compared to a, you know,

00:59or a multi-billion-dollar stadium in the NFL to a $650 million stadium in MLS, it's a big difference.

01:06But, I mean, you know, I have no issue with it whatsoever. I mean, the site itself needed

01:12something, right? And when you've seen, like, whether it be Lincoln Yards, you know, on the north side,

01:18the 78 and the South Loop, it's like, there's areas that need to be developed, but this is Chicago,

01:23so it's expensive, so it's hard for either developers or people in general to come up

01:28with the funds to do it. So, when someone comes along and says, hey, I can solve this problem

01:32for you, I can do it with my own money, and I can give the city something, and then the developer

01:37says, well, this is great, I love it. So, to me, I think it's a win-win for everyone involved,

01:41and especially the site itself, right, that's been vacant for so long, now has itself its initial

01:47resident.