Another year of Stars soccer by the lake
By Lesley Ryder
The Stars announced this morning they’ll return to Martin Stadium for the 2027 NWSL season. "We’re grateful to Northwestern University for their continued partnership and support as we build on our club’s momentum at our newfound home on the lakefront,” said Chicago Stars FC President Karen Leetzow in the team’s press release.
Earlier this year the Stars hoped to make a temporary move to Northwestern’s soon-to-open Ryan Field. In January, the Stars filed a unique use permit application to play for up to five years at the newly renovated facility. The Stars came into their meetings with Evanston Seventh Ward residents armed with a survey they commissioned, polling Evanston residents on their support for a women’s soccer team playing at Ryan Field. Polling painted an optimistic picture, with over 80% of respondents supporting a move. The Stars also started a petition, urging residents to sign on in support of the team
The Stars launched this 30-second spot appealing for support to move to Ryan Field
But the club’s representatives met immediate pushback. Evanston’s Most Livable City Association opposed the Stars proposal, believing their use of Ryan Field would “would wreak havoc on Evanston and Wilmette.” The group started a petition of their own against the Stars move.
Evanston resident groups have tussled with Northwestern University since the first announcement of the Ryan Field renovations. A 150 year old Charter Exemption allows Northwestern to be free from paying property taxes in Evanston. These exemptions were outlawed in the 1870 Illinois constitution, but remaining exemptions were grandfathered in. Residents have allowed for the usual collegiate matches, but any programming by for-profit entities, whether it’s summer concerts, or a professional sports team is fought, tooth and nail. The Most Livable City Association continues to seek avenues to appeal the 2023 decision to allow commercial concerts.
Opposition to the Stars move, however, did not include opposition to remaining at Martin Stadium for the time being. But the temporary lakeside stadium structure was set to be dismantled at the end of the Stars’ 2026 campaign. At a February meeting with Evanston’s 7th Ward residents, Stars President Karen Leetzow was asked why the team wanted to move from Martin Field. Leetzow told residents that the temporary structure was already deteriorating. “We basically are sharing Northwestern’s college locker rooms, which are not up to professional standards,” she said, as written by Adrian Martinez-De la Cruz of Evanston Now.
Another resident asked why the Stars didn’t just move to the new Chicago Fire stadium, to which Karen Leetzow said the team had “no appetite” to work with them. Sources familiar with the matter confirmed to Gal Pal Sports earlier this year that the door remains open to discussion. According to Tim Hotze of Men in Red 97, Fire President Dave Baldwin said he would “always be happy to have those discussions" about using new stadium if Stars "wanted to return to the city.”
In February Evanston’s Seventh Ward Councilmember Parielle Davis told residents in her newsletter that she would not be supporting the Stars’ application. “My opposition is not about women’s soccer: it is about whether a tax-exempt educational institution engaging in for-profit activity should continue to add new impacts to a neighborhood that has already absorbed years of construction and expanded stadium use,” Davis wrote. She would however, lend her support to another season at Martin Field.
Ultimately by the time the 2026 season kicked off, the Stars withdrew their application.
The Stars current match day experience has its quirks. Most of the Stadium’s 12,000 seats are metal bleachers. But the comforts aren’t restricted to the seating spaces. Public restrooms are port-a-potties, and rope lines restricting fan movement while players enter and leave the field can cause lengthy delays leaving the stadium. Right now, the late summer lakeside breeze is lovely, but it cut daggers during the early season matches. With the 2027 campaign slated to begin in February, Chicago fans will be hoping for a long road trip to start the season.
Martin Field has been a band-aid for the Stars since they left SeatGeek Stadium at the end of last season. Today’s announcement kicks the Stars’ stadium problem down the road as the club navigates through another season of struggles.