Chicago Machine moving from Benedictine to Bridgeview next year?

[rider]

http://www.chicagomachine.com/news/?id=6858

Kanman on the Majorleaguelacrosse.com boards posted this today. Kevin Kelley from the Machine posted this on his blog on the Machine's website about the team's potential move to Toyota Park in Bridgeview. Although I'm nowhere near Chicago, I've always advocated this move because it doesn't seem to be a worse location than Benedictine and most importantly, it's just a great looking stadium. Here's what he wrote.

Second, and this one is even bigger than the first, but there is a possibility we may be moving to a new stadium...Toyota Park in Bridgeview. About a week ago a few of the management and players were invited to see a Fire game. Uh, yeah, this place is awesome. It looks like a mini-pro football stadium. It seats 20,000 strong, it's got a jumbo-tron, the stands are right up next to the field (unlike Benedictine where there's a track) and the field is the really nicely cut grass...it's awesome. Even the press boxes are great, complete with a fully stacked fridge, food and plasma's.

Now i've heard horror stories about how long it takes to get there and how you have to drive through quasi-Crips and Bloods land to get to the stadium. Uh, one word...DEBUNKED! (Yeah, I threw an exclamation point after debunk, that's how debunked those rumors are). Myself, Kevin Leveille and his girlfriend Meg timed the drive from the city...18 MINUTES...IN TRAFFIC. Let's see, 18 minutes to Toyota awesome Park, compared with what, oh 50 MINUTES...WITHOUT TRAFFIC to tiny bear-nuts-falls Benedictine. Oh, and as far as having to drive down crenshaw and slauson to get to the stadium...no way. It's not a bad area at all...as a matter of fact people were singing and dancing in the streets, showering cars with rose pedals while playing harpsichords made of pure gold...okay, no they weren't, but you get my point, it's not bad.

Toyota Park seats around 20,000 (though it looks smaller than that) and below is a panoramic shot of the stadium.
https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/msienko2/images/Toyota_Park_sm.jpg

[IRISHLAX30]

hopefully they don'y make this move yet benedictine is really close to my house

[Led_Zeppelin]

It's nice to see La Raza is out and advertising :whyme:

[BClax17]

Why would they need a 20,000 seat stadium when they couldn't even get 2,500?

[Irishlax22]

Why would they need a 20,000 seat stadium when they couldn't even get 2,500?
if I had a choice, i would want a new stadium.

[MACDADDY]

that field is pretty nice. and a press box with fridges and plasmas! id move. its better than the field that the dragons played on before the semi finals. the had to play on a small college field

[kamera]

Why would they need a 20,000 seat stadium when they couldn't even get 2,500?

chances are they would get more peopel at the new stadium. the last one apparently was hard to get to for a lot of people and it really wasn't a great place to see a game...terribly hot and it was basically a high school football stadium with the one side of stands thing.

[nnhsfog37]

i think benedictine was perfect for the expansion team. there was never a shortage of seating, so you could sit basically wherever you wanted. Also, benedictine's stadium is less then 3 years old and has sweet new turf. no need to open a 20,000 seat place when less then 2500 seats will be filled.

[Liblax44]

well its first of all the hot bed of lacrosse is the north shore of illinois not down south where bendectine is so if they made the move more people would come to the games and the prices of the tickets are steep

[LaxAttackDonny]

The move to the new Toyota Park is a move decision that if given to the MLL they will take it without a second thought. It's the most probable course right now, move hte current teams to current stadiums that better fit the needs, even though there may be 15,000+ empty seats its better for the image of the league and the team in general, which will help the leagues appeal and growth. Put a good team in a great venue and the crowds will grow, even though they lost every game this year, its a positive move, a more intimate venue for the game. As well, this would be the third team that would be in a soccer specific venue, counting the Rattlers at Paetec and also in my stats I'm counting LA, becuase even though they are in the track and field stadium next door they could be moved in the soccer stadium owned by the ownership group, AEG. That could bring a future positive spin for companies that own soccer teams and soccer specific stadiums to start teams to fill up time in empty venues, becuase from what I'm hearing its already good for soccer team owners to have lacrosse teams because they only cost a fraction of the price.

Well, the move is a positive one for the league and the team.

[NVLAXFAN]

well its first of all the hot bed of lacrosse is the north shore of illinois not down south where bendectine is so if they made the move more people would come to the games and the prices of the tickets are steep

So, the "hotbed" up on the north shore will only support a team that plays locally. Now there's some support! We have more growth down south than up north, but that's not the issue. The issue is players.

They don't need to move to another stadium yet. They should be more concerned about putting a quality team on the field, fill the seats they have, then they can move. Why is that a team that plays so poorly decides that a move to another, fancier stadium will fill seats. Go out, get some players, improve the team and the fans will come.

Please Chicago Machine reps, don't kill the growth in the area by focusing on the stadium. We already have a team like that up north, they're called the Cubs.

[Liblax44]

yes the hotbed of lacrosse in illinois is north shore look at matt kelly and steven brooks to kids from the north shore who play d1 and won ncaa championships im not saying south isnt growing but the north has better players and were into it more

[NVLAXDAD]

yes the hotbed of lacrosse in illinois is north shore look at matt kelly and steven brooks to kids from the north shore who play d1 and won ncaa championships im not saying south isnt growing but the north has better players and were into it more

I think nvlaxfan meant the Machine players, not the high school players.