A soccer friendly between Argentina and Puerto Rico scheduled for October 13 in Chicago has been relocated to Miami. The reason? Well, that depends on who you ask … and even then, it’s a bit unclear.
The exhibition match was scheduled to take place on Monday at Soldier Field, and was originally announced on September 18, with tickets going on sale the following day. Now, less than three weeks after the announcement, the game has suddenly been moved out of Chicago entirely.
The reason? Well, the promoter of the match has made no official announcement, which is very unusual. But a spokesperson for the Chicago Park District, which owns the stadium, said that the reason for the relocation was poor ticket sales.
Meanwhile, an undisclosed representative of the Argentine Football Association apparently said that it was due to “unrest” in Chicago, attributing the relocation to the immigration crackdown by the federal government in the city.
But which one is it? Or is it both?
Could poor ticket sales be due to the “Messi effect”?
Even though Lionel Messi is scheduled to play in the match, Chicago fans could be leery that it will actually happen. Messi missed the Chicago Fire vs. Inter Miami matches in both 2023 and 2024 due to injury, and with many fans spending a lot of money on tickets to see him, there’s hesitation from the locals to buy high-priced tickets if there seems like there might be any reason for Messi not to play. And with Inter Miami already having qualified for the upcoming MLS playoffs, it’s not hard to imagine that he might skip the match, even though he’s “supposed” to play.
Tickets for 2025’s Chicago-Miami match at Soldier Field showed a noticeable price drop from the previous years, and the Fire offered numerous deals and promotions to get tickets sold. So it’s not unreasonable to believe that fans didn’t buy tickets as eagerly as the promoter might have expected them to.
Or could poor ticket sales be due to the current immigration crackdown?
The sales window for this match happened after ICE agents were sent to Chicago to round up and deport illegal immigrants. There have also been suggestions that ICE would be at the stadium during the match, and that threat may have scared away many potential attendees.
And the spectacle of people being questioned, detained, or arrested on the Soldier Field grounds is probably something that the promoters – or television networks – didn’t want.
So when the suggestion is made that the relocation was due to “unrest”, that might be technically true, even if that “unrest” has been artificially manufactured.
If it was due to poor sales, moving the game made sense
As many Chicago Fire fans can tell you, a largely empty Soldier Field can be a depressing place to play – and certainly doesn’t look good on television. If the relocation was actually due to poor ticket sales (regardless of what caused that), then moving the game to Messi’s home market probably made sense.
And by eliminating the travel, maybe Messi would be more likely to play. That would certainly help put more fans in seats.
But if it wasn’t poor ticket sales, then the Trump administration cost the city of Chicago this event
This is where things become more infuriating for the city of Chicago. If tickets had been selling well, or were not selling well due to the current immigration crackdown, then Chicago has lost a high-profile sporting event for a manufactured reason.
In addition, fans who might have made plans to travel to Chicago to see this match may now be stuck with non-refundable plane tickets or hotel reservations.
Bottom line
The game is now supposedly going to be played on Tuesday, October 14, at Chase Stadium in Ft. Lauderdale, but as of this publication, tickets have not been made available on Ticketmaster, Chase Stadium’s primary ticket seller. Given how soon the match is supposed to be played, that doesn’t leave a lot of time to get tickets sold. We wouldn’t be surprised to see it rescheduled to a later date, though the promoter will have to coordinate scheduling with Inter Miami and MLS if they want Messi to participate.
But beyond this one match, the entire situation calls into question the impact that the immigration crackdown may have on sports in general. There’s nothing to say that this couldn’t be a recurring problem at any stadium where the federal government chooses to deploy agents. If ICE decided to position itself outside of Soldier Field for Bears games, or the United Center for Bulls games, then both might suffer at the gate if fans of foreign descent decide it is safer to stay away.
And, of course, the upcoming World Cup is an entirely different matter. What should have been a slam dunk for the United States as a host of the world’s most popular and beloved sporting event may turn into a debacle that embarrasses the country on the world stage. Donald Trump already stated that he might want to relocate World Cup matches out of certain cities, despite the fact that he has no authority to do so. But that doesn’t mean the federal government couldn’t change the dynamics of these events by mobilizing ICE agents to host cities.
So … are we seeing the beginning of politics having a direct impact on live sporting events? Only time will tell, but this is a first domino that nobody should be happy about.
