New Developments In Amazon Soccer Stadium Story

Over the weekend we wrote about a potential new soccer stadium on the North Side of the city being floated as part of the proposal to bring Amazon’s new headquarters to Chicago. Some new information has surfaced today that lends credence to the plans for a soccer stadium— while casting doubts on the Chicago Fire’s involvement in these plans.

The plans for a new stadium were part of the HQ2 proposal by developers Sterling Bay. Hot Time learned today of the existance of Sterling Soccer LLC, a new company that filed their papers last month in Delaware.

Hot Time also became aware of new trademarks filed by Sterling Soccer for a pair of new professional soccer teams— “Chicago Wind” and “Chicago River.”

You can look up this information for yourself at the US Patent & Trademark Office’s website.

The attorney of record is listed as Dean Gournis, a partner at the law firm of Kaplan, Papadakis, & Gournis, whose office is on North LaSalle Street in downtown Chicago. I called Mr. Gournis’ office earlier today to ask him for comment on Sterling Soccer and the trademark fillings. A receptionist told me he was not available. This post will be updated if Mr. Gournis returns my voicemail.

We also reached out to the Fire front office for comment on this story. We’ll update this post once they respond.

While these are just business and trademark filings and, on the surface, don’t amount to much, this could be an indication that the soccer stadium is indeed a major part of Chicago’s HQ2 bid. It could also be an indication that the Chicago Fire are not part of these discussions and, conceivably, are not being considered as potential tenants of a new soccer stadium.

The trademarks, and the lack of noise coming from Bridgeview about the Amazon proposal, raises some interesting questions. Is the Chicago Fire involved at all in the new stadium talks? Is this being developed with a new professional soccer team in mind? If it’s the latter, who is the ownership group behind this new team?

(I also reached out to Peter Wilt, the former Fire GM who was previously spearheading efforts to bring an NASL expansion team to Chicago and is currently leading the formation of a new Division III soccer league. Mr. Wilt declined to comment on this story.)

We’ll keep you posted as new information becomes available.