Op-Ed: The Chicago Red Stars and Riot Fest Got Shafted

The powers that be could have handled this way an advance, leaving both sides in a ball of confusion

By: Zachary Draves

A weekend ago, the Chicago Red Stars were riding high after setting an NWSL attendance record of 35,038 fans at their historic match at Wrigley Field. Then four days later, they get some unexpected news.

They were told that their pre scheduled game on September 21st against San Diego Wave FC at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview had to be relocated to make room for the music festival Riot Fest, which is set to take place September 20-22.

In an official statement, Chicago Red Stars President Karen Leetzow says that this decision reflected the treatment of women’s sports versus men’s sports.

“It is unfair and unfortunate to have our club put in this situation, shining a light on the vast discrepancies in the treatment of women’s professional sports versus men’s professional sports. We are committed to ensuring our players and fans have a first-rate experience on and off pitch, and we are working diligently to find a solution that will ensure our September 21st game is a success.”

(Courtesy: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports)

Team NBS Media reached out to the Village of Bridgeview, which has a contractual partnership with the Red Stars, for a comment, but got no response.

But according to Chicago’s WGN-TV, village spokesperson Ray Hanania said that they were in contact with the team back in April about the possibility of rescheduling the game and that the contract says that SeatGeek Stadium can play host to concurrent events.

According to the spokesperson, the Red Stars didn’t respond back. Leetzow denies and said that they followed up with the Village for clarification and they got no response.

As for Riot Fest, this will be a change in venue for them after playing at Chicago’s Douglas Park since 2015. In recent years, local residents have complained about issues of loud noise, damages to the park, being left out of large sections of the park, and youth sports teams being forced to relocate.

The Chicago Park District told Block Club Chicago that this decision was a “surprise”.

In an email interview with Team NBS Media, a spokesperson for Riot Fest said when asked about why this happened “we have zero to do with Seat Geek and their other partnerships.”

Then when asked about what they were told, they said “it’s my understanding that we weren’t told anything.”

With the few details available, this appears to be on the Village of Bridgeview and the Chicago Park District for not sorting this out way earlier, leaving both the Red Stars and Riot Fest in a state of unnecessary scrambling.

The Red Stars have to look for an alternate location for their game and Riot Fest has less than three months to work out logistics to accommodate an expected daily crowd of 50,000 fans.

The Red Stars released their official schedule back in January and September 21st was marked down for 7:30 pm CST at SeatGeek. The village had to have been okay with that otherwise if there was a foreseeable dilemma, the schedule wouldn’t have come out as it did.

This all could have been worked out prior to April when both the Village and the Red Stars were in communication and yet here we are.

It is beyond disappointing that a team that worked diligently at the grassroots level to drum up support and then put on the biggest crowd in professional women’s soccer history being casted aside in just a matter of days.

This is also on the Chicago Park District for moving the goalposts on their end and not securing an alternate location ahead of time.

According to the Chicago Sun Times, Riot Fest Co-Founder Michael Petryshyn said that the change in location was due to the Park District moving the approval process to secure an official permit over April and May.