Chester Stadium

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Chester Stadium
"Seaport Drive"

Location	Seaport Drive Chester, PA 19013
Opened	2010 (planned)
Owner	Delaware County, PA
Operator	City of Chester
Surface	Grass
Construction cost	$115 million
Architect	Rossetti architects
Tenants	Philadelphia MLS team Philadelphia WPS team
Capacity	20,000

This article or section is about a planned or proposed stadium.
It may contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change dramatically as the construction and/or completion of the stadium approaches.

Chester Stadium is a proposed soccer-specific stadium in Chester, Pennsylvania, USA, which is the planned home of the Philadelphia Major League Soccer team.^[1] The project has received a commitment of $30 million USD from Delaware County and $47 million USD from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

The stadium site is located on the city of Chester's waterfront along the Delaware River, just southwest of the Commodore Barry Bridge. Chester Stadium is poised to be a catalyst for economic development on the waterfront, with additional plans calling for a riverwalk amidst other entertainment, retail, and residential projects.

1 History
- 1.1 Women's Professional Soccer
2 References
3 External links

[edit] History

Major League Soccer (MLS) has been interested in entering the Philadelphia market for several years, with many promises of a team by Commissioner Don Garber, as evidenced by his quote from The Philadelphia Inquirer saying: "It's not a matter of if, but when Philadelphia gets a team."^[2]

Initially, MLS was interested in a site in the borough of Bristol, Pennsylvania, about 23 miles (37 km) north of Philadelphia."^[3] Those plans never came to fruition. Later, Rowan University provided details for a soccer stadium near its campus in Glassboro, New Jersey. However, funding from the state of New Jersey fell through in 2006.

In late 2006, a group of investors led by Rob Buccini, co-founder of the Buccini/Pollin Group; Jay Sugarman, chief executive of iStar Financial; and James Nevels, a former chairman of the Philadelphia School Reform Commission, initiated the planning for a soccer-specific stadium in the city of Chester after the funding for the Rowan project failed to pass the New Jersey legislature. After many months of negotiations, Delaware County politicians announced their approval of funding for the stadium in October of 2007.^[4]

Delaware County will own the land and the stadium itself, while the proposed team will own the naming rights based on their approval of a 30-year lease. The newly formed Delaware County Sports Authority will pay the county's share of $30 million dollars through taxes from the Harrah's casino in Chester. An additional $80 million will be donated by private investors.

On January 31, 2008, Governor Ed Rendell and Pennsylvania Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, unveiled a combined soccer stadium and economic revitalization package for the city of Chester.^[5] $25 million will go to the building of Chester Stadium, with an additional $7 million towards a two-phase project composing of 186 townhouses, 25 apartments, 335,000 square feet (31,100 m²) of office space, a 200,000-square-foot (19,000 m²) convention center, more than 20,000 square feet (1,900 m²) of retail space, and a parking structure to house 1,350 cars. In phase two, another 200 apartments will be built, along with 100,000 square feet (9,300 m²) of office space and 22,000 square feet (2,000 m²) of retail space.^[6]

[edit] Women's Professional Soccer

In June 2008, Women's Professional Soccer formally announced that it will place an expansion franchise in the Philadelphia region for the 2010 season, most likely to play at Chester Stadium. The newly-formed team will replace the former Philadelphia Charge of the defunct Women's United Soccer Association.^[7]