There are a lot of tickets available for Sunday’s seemingly attractive exhibition between the U.S. national team and Brazil, and that begs the question:
Is there such a thing as too much soccer in Chicago?
Many are wondering if one of the busiest soccer summers in Chicago has left fans exhausted and short of discretionary income.
A visit from FIFA’s top-ranked team doesn’t come around often. Neither does two-time FIFA World Player of the Year Ronaldinho and world-class midfielder Kaka. And yet, Soldier Field is expected to attract about 40,000 fans for the match, leaving 20,000 seats empty.
Chicago is no stranger to visits from international soccer teams — superclubs Real Madrid, AC Milan, and Chelsea appeared the last two summers. But this year has been different. In fact, it could be the most soccer-heavy since Soldier Field was the site for a handful of World Cup games in 1994.
The Gold Cup tournament kicked things off in June, attracting more than 50,000 fans for the semifinals and a sellout crowd for the final between the United States and Mexico. The Fire brought some international flavor to Toyota Park when it faced Poland’s MKS Cracovia Krakow on June 22 before 15,817 fans.
Scotland’s Celtic FC, a club with a strong following in Chicago, faced the Fire on July 22. The friendly also marked the long-awaited Fire debut of Mexican striker Cuauhtemoc Blanco and drew an announced crowd of 15,719 with ticket prices ranging from $35 to $75. In comparison, Fire tickets normally range from $15 to $60.
The saturation of soccer began to be felt toward the end of July with the Chicago Trophy tournament, which included Mexico’s Toluca, Poland’s Wisla Krakow, Spain’s Sevilla and Italy’s Reggina Calcio.
Fans evidently thought ticket prices between $45 and $80 were too expensive because tournament organizers were forced to offer tickets at 2-for-1.
After the Chicago Trophy tournament came the Superliga game Aug. 1 between Mexico’s Club America and Monarcas Morelia at Toyota Park. The 9 p.m. game attracted only 10,623 fans. Tickets for this game ranged from $25 to $60.
On Aug. 12, the U.S. women’s national team faced New Zealand in one of its final stops before the World Cup, attracting just 7,015 fans to Soldier Field.
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And just when soccer fans thought they could allow their bank accounts to recover, U.S. soccer announced Brazil was coming to Chicago, with ticket prices from $40 to $250.
There are millions of people that would give anything to see the Brazilians play, but apparently organizers caught Chicagoans at the wrong time.
That’s not to say the U.S. Soccer Federation should have told the five-time World Cup champions, “That week isn’t good, how ’bout a rain check?”
When Brazil makes time for you, you make time for Brazil.
Unfortunately, the federation had less than a month to promote the match. Combine that with the opening weekend of the NFL — the Bears’ game starts at the same time as the U.S.-Brazil match — and, well, maybe 40,000 isn’t so bad after all.
But it isn’t what it should be. It isn’t what it could have been.
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