US Soccer puts historic Chicago headquarters up for sale

US Soccer put up the two buildings it used as headquarters in Chicago for sale. The historic location, named the Kimball House and the Coleman House, are for sale worth a combined $4.2 million.

The houses are located on Chicago’s South loop, which is not far from Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Fire and Chicago Bears.

Individually, the houses differ in value, according to the Chicago Tribune. The Kimball House, which has 14,734 square feet, is available for $2.3 million. The Coleman House, at 12,648 square feet, is $1.9 million. These houses are expected to be sold together, however. Despite serving as residential homes in the past, they have been offices for decades.

That includes US Soccer, which moved its headquarters to Chicago in 1991 from Colorado Springs, leased both the houses until buying them fully in 1996. Since then, all of US Soccer’s operations ran out of Chicago. That trend will continue, despite the sale on the two houses.

US Soccer is moving its operation stronghold to downtown Chicago. Its new home, at 303 E Wacker Drive, is right on the Chicago River

US Soccer and its Chicago headquarters

Keeping the headquarters in Chicago is something of a controversial topic for US Soccer. Part of the federation’s policy is that all coaches must live in Chicago and be able to commute to the two houses, which are now up for sale. Earnie Stewart, the sporting director for US Soccer, says the reason is all about cohesiveness.

“In my mind, it’s unbelievable that our coaches are not together all the time,” Stewart mentioned to Yahoo! Sports. “It’s one thing have formal conversations with each other, and these days you can do everything by computer and WiFi, but we’ve now seen with myself, Kate (Markgraf) and the coaches, when you go to the coffee machine — and I know it sounds very simple — you’re talking about soccer once again.”

Of course, this is not so easy on coaches. Gregg Berhalter purchased a home in Chicago in 2019 strictly because of the policy from US Soccer. In other cases, the policy prevented other coaches from joining the federation.

PHOTO: IMAGO / ZUMA Wire