Chicago Red Stars to Play Bay FC at Wrigley Field

The Chicago Red Stars are using their Ricketts family connections to finally play a soccer game within Chicago’s city limits in 2024. The Red Stars announced that they will host expansion team Bay FC at Wrigley Field on June 8 with the match scheduled to kick off at 6:30 PM CT.

There will be no Cubs games at Wrigley after June 5, allowing multiple days for the grounds crew to set up the pitch on the North Side.

The Red Stars, who call SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview home, are among the teams in Chicago looking for a new stadium. Success will be marked by attendance at the match, which needs to reach five figures in order to prove worthy of changing venues for promotional reasons.

"Wrigley Field is one of the most iconic sports venues in the country,” said Chicago Red Stars goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher in the announcement. This is a unique opportunity for us to bring further visibility to our team and women’s soccer.”

Chicago remains one of the two undefeated teams in the NWSL after finishing at the bottom of the table in 2023.

Analysis

The only qualm this writer has with this whole event is about player safety. I’ve spent enough years watching soccer matches at baseball stadiums to know that those venues are not ideal for soccer players. Is a soccer match at Wrigley Field a spectacle many of us can get excited about? Absolutely. But pitch conditions are my biggest concern about this event.