Editorial: A McDonald's Happy Meal for the Chicago Fire and The 78 in more ways than one

The announcement that McDonald's has bought the naming rights to the new $750 million Chicago Fire stadium expected to open in 2028 strikes us as good news for Chicago in several different ways.

One is that Joe Mansueto's rising team, which is privately funding this 22,000-seat stadium for the most part, has picked a family-friendly moniker in McDonald's Park, more entertaining for fans than some mouthful of initials heralding a bank or mortgage company. We appreciate being saved from having to write Crypto.com Field or United Wholesale Mortgage Park, or, perish the thought, some casino or pot-infused name, for the next decade. We can live with McDonald's Park.

Has a nice ring, actually. Beats Louisville's KFC Yum Center and Hartford's Dunkin' Park.

Another is that the expansive new "flagship" McDonald's eatery that's part of the deal is going to be open to the public even when there is no game at the new stadium, now under construction within the Chicago neighborhood developed by Related Midwest and known as The 78. That will help this new entertainment district thrive beyond game-day crowds.

A third is that McDonald's prides itself on affordability; at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, it's generally the lowest cost option for a quick lunch. That should mean - really ought to mean, Mr. McDonald's CEO - that families going to watch the Fire don't have to pay Wrigley Field prices for a half-time snack. We'll be watching to see how that plays out, but unless the fast-food giant plans to raise prices on game day, it won't sell many burgers and fries the rest of the time at a restaurant that might be as large as 20,000 square feet unless it offers its customary value. That should, in turn, put market pressure on stadium concessionaire Levy Restaurants to keep its own prices reasonable.

Our friends at The Wall Street Journal framed this news as a notable turnaround in how the city's most important global headquarters feels about its hometown, citing as evidence the prior appearance in our pages of a senior McDonald's executive's lament of a lack of a business-friendly environment in Chicago. We wouldn't go quite that far in terms of McDonald's having seriously considered an eventual exit; and some corporations have, of course, named stadiums far from their headquarter cities.

But it's still a healthy new commitment to Chicago from this important company headquartered in the West Loop.

Atlanta has the Mercedes Benz Stadium, home to the NFL's Atlanta Falcons, as well as soccer; it's no coincidence that the German automaker's U.S. headquarters is located in an Atlanta suburb. It's also worth noting that while McDonald's long has been all over the World Cup and global soccer in general, this will be McDonald's Corporation's first foray into stadium naming rights.

So while the name "McDonald's Park" sounds ubiquitous, it's also unique in this context. For now, anyway.

There's also a charitable component, McDonald's says, through its long-standing Ronald McDonald House endeavor and other community commitments. If you take what the company is saying at face value, its partnership with the Fire will go beyond what is typical with other naming rights deals.

Perhaps most important of all, it's good to be reminded in our endless Chicago Bears stadium saga that naming rights are yet another lucrative form of income for stadium owners and teams; Forbes estimates brands collectively spend close to $1 billion a year sticking their names on stadiums.

This income stream does not apply, of course, to venues with historic names like Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, Dodger Stadium and Soldier Field, where any change would result in a backlash and fans, essentially, refusing the name. Major League Baseball has a lot of this problem, to its chagrin. But it's a way for new facilities like the one for the Fire to bring in lots of dough by playing one potential namer off another. Reportedly, McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski and Fire owner Mansueto consummated the bones of the deal themselves.

McDonald's hasn't disclosed how much they are paying for this privilege. They also haven't said how they determine which lucky franchisee gets this particular gig, one that we suspect will do very nicely.

Still, on the former matter, industry sources have estimated that the deal is somewhere in the $10 million a year range. That's a nice move forward for U.S. soccer, the Fire and, of course, Chicago.

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This story was originally published May 15, 2026 at 5:08 PM.