It was supposed to be the home of soccer in Illinois — a place set up to provide the authentic soccer atmosphere Soldier Field lacked — and yet, $98 million Toyota Park is repeatedly being passed over for international soccer games in favor of Soldier Field.
Last Saturday, Soldier Field featured a friendly between the women’s national teams of Mexico and Poland.
It marked the fifth soccer event to take place at Soldier Field since June, including the Gold Cup semifinal and final, the Chicago Trophy tournament, the U.S. women’s national team’s friendly against New Zealand, and the U.S. men’s team’s friendly against Brazil.
Toyota Park, which houses the Illinois Soccer Hall of Fame, hosted three international soccer friendlies over the summer.
Two of those games included the Fire, which plays all of its home games in the Bridgeview stadium.
One of the reasons Toyota Park has been passed over is because of its 20,000-seat capacity — far less than the crowds that witnessed the Gold Cup games and the U.S.-Brazil friendly.
“Toyota Park is an excellent facility,” CONCACAF general secretary Chuck Blazer said in December. “But the key here is that the Gold Cup [final] has averaged more than 60,000 fans and we needed a sufficient facility that could hold those numbers.”
Fire general manager John Guppy insisted there is no need to make Toyota Park bigger at this time.
“A 20,000-seat stadium is perfect for 98 percent of the games here in the Chicago area,” Guppy said. “I’m not sure how many times Brazil is going to play in Chicago. Having two events as big as a Brazil friendly and the Gold Cup in one summer is an anomaly.”
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“Look at our last few Fire games. The environment has been tremendous. I wouldn’t give that up for a 30,000-seat stadium with 10,000 empty seats.”
The Chicago Trophy tournament and the U.S.-New Zealand exhibition failed to draw 20,000 fans and the Mexico-Poland drew only 4,422. Why aren’t those games taking place at Toyota Park?
According to Marcin Malarz of JM World Entertainment, promoters of the Mexico-Poland exhibition, several factors went into choosing Soldier Field over Toyota Park.
“The downtown location is more convenient,” Malarz said. “And Soldier Field has beautiful architecture. You should see the look on the player’s faces when they see the 60,000-seat stadium. You don’t see that everywhere. It takes their breath away.
“We know Soldier Field and have a good relationship with them because we’ve done two games there previously. And we have future games here next year that are too big [attendance-wise] for Toyota Park. We didn’t want to jump from one to the other and break relationships.”
As for the Chicago Trophy tournament, the competition was meant to show Chicago’s capabilities of hosting the 2016 Olympic Games committee, which is why the downtown stadium was used.
The tournament organizers at no point were in discussions with Toyota Park and signed a three-year contract that will keep the event at Soldier Field the next two years.
Scheduling conflicts prevented the U.S.-New Zealand exhibition from taking place at Toyota Park. The U.S. soccer federation wanted Toyota Park to host the game on Aug. 12 but turned to Soldier Field because of the potential that Toyota Park would hold a concert that date. The concert never materialized.
When asked why Toyota Park gets passed over for some of these events, Guppy blamed inexperienced promoters “who have a different perception from what reality is. They think their games are going to draw more than they do.
“There are soccer games that should take place at Toyota Park,” he said. “There are games that should take place at Soldier Field. And then there are games that shouldn’t take place at all.”
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