The Chicago Fire Football Club’s new training facility will be named the Endeavor Health Performance Center, the team announced Thursday.
The training facility is located in Roosevelt Square on the Near West Side and is expected to open in January 2025, according to the team’s news release. The center will include five turf/grass fields, a performance space, hydro pools and an area for the sports medicine team. The naming rights agreement goes through 2029, according to the Fire.
“The Endeavor Health Performance Center will be the preeminent facility in Major League Soccer, and with Endeavor Health by our side we’ll be able to attract and train top talent with the highest performance standards, while also providing much-needed resources to our new neighbors on the Near West Side,” said Dave Baldwin, the Fire’s president of business operations, in the news release.
The announcement comes after Endeavor Health became the official health system, sports medicine and orthopedic provider of the Fire in 2023, according to the news release. Endeavor Health’s Dr. Jason Koh is the Fire’s chief medical officer and head orthopedic surgeon, with more Endeavor Health physicians serving as the official team doctors of the club. The doctors provide medical care during home games at Soldier Field and SeatGeek Stadium.
The Chicago Fire training facility has been mired in controversy from its inception. The City Council initially blocked the deal and then reversed course in September 2022, and housing advocates sued the Chicago Housing Authority — the entity leasing the land to the team — the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and then-HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge in June of last year, alleging the deal to lease 23 acres of vacant CHA land did not undergo proper local and federal reviews. Members of Congress also expressed concerns, sending letters to Fudge and CHA CEO Tracey Scott, after the project broke ground in April 2023. The lawsuit was dismissed in October.
CHA and Ald. Jason Ervin of the 28th Ward, where the facility is located, continuously touted the resources the project would bring to the community through employment opportunities, as well as the ongoing construction of mixed-income apartments in the neighborhood. CHA told the Tribune in October that the revenue generated through the leasing agreement will go toward investing in its existing public housing stock.
The performance center will “provide employment opportunities for community members, resources for minority and women-owned businesses, free sports programming for local youth, community green spaces, and recreational spaces for the neighborhood and surrounding area,” according to the Fire’s Thursday news release.
The Chicago Fire reserve and youth teams will also train at the facility and will receive support from Endeavor Health professionals.
“We are looking forward to extending our partnership with Chicago Fire to provide excellent medical and orthopedic care to the team at a facility that will fully support these efforts,” Koh said. “The Endeavor Health Performance Center will further enhance the care we provide to Fire team members with the best training and treatment facilities.”
ekane@chicagotribune.com
