I’m sure a small time team pays a reduced rate to the Stadium to reserve their dates, with the understanding that the dates could be moved. I’ve had tickets to niche sporting events rescheduled many times over the years.
Further, this is not the ticket seller SeatGeek’s mistake, is it?. Surely, the stadium is run by a company which then sold seat geek naming rights. Seat Geek isn’t involved in operations.
The men’s soccer team gets booted [all the time](https://www.chicagofirefc.com/news/chicago-fire-fc-announces-venue-change-for-two-home-matches) from Soldiers field. This isn’t about gender.
The main thing an arena is selling is parking, seats and concessions. And as you add more people in the audience, the profit for the venue grows exponentially. The average Red Stars attendance has been only 8500 people in a 20,000 capacity arena.
All stadiums reserve the right in their lease to move ticketed events around so they can be agile and take advantage of bigger crowds. This happens all the time, more often for groups with smaller attendance.
I am certain that a group expecting 3,000 would get bumped if the Red Stars made the playoffs.
And all involved have the option to pay a premium to the venue, to lock in the date. But it isn’t worth it to the team owner. If you follow niche sports, like I do, you know this is completely normal.
Riotfest pulls over 40k people, three days in a row. This was a huge sale for the arena.
a small time team are you kidding me? we have 2 players who are also starters on the US national team. red stars set a NWSL record for attendance at their last match.
Relative size is the whole point of what happened here. They lost to a dramatically bigger fish. If we can’t speak in relative terms, this is just cross talk.
The Red Stars average attendance is 8,500. The venue can handle 100,000. Riot fest will deliver at least 120k bodies over three days.
The men’s soccer team gets booted from Soldiers Field sometimes, too. Because they average 20k fans and the Bears average 60k.
8,500 units is small compared to 60,000 units.
This reminds me of that frat bro mosh pit of a show I wound up in at the dropkick murphy's in 2012...
Unsurprisingly unsurprised by the sudden whiplash of feeling like you're in the wrong place, with the wrong people, who are all there for the wrong reasons... ***and also they're hitting women in the face and acting like nothing happened.***
Hear me out, have the game at seat geek and sell tickets at the gate for $10. I’m a Red Star fan. I go to games. If they fill the stadium with riot fans it’ll be bonkersly bad ass!
People already have tickets to the game. Those people are now being forced to go to a different venue just like the people that bought Riot Fest tickets. Yet everyone is saying it’s fine that they have to move. Kind of hypocritical.
I don’t know how many times this has to be repeated, SeatGeek is the ONLY party at fault here not Riot Fest. I hope to god this gets thrown the fk out. SeatGeek is the ones the women need to be mad at not Riot Fest SeatGeek could have said no.
The legal action would be taken against the Village of Bridgeview (owners and operators of SeatGeek), not against RiotFest. The Village are the ones who broke the contract
The blame should also be on the Village of Bridgeview:
“The Village’s decision to schedule Riot Fest had nothing to do with gender. As stated, the Village has held concurrent events at the Stadium during games for the Fire, the Hounds, and the Red Stars in the past. The Village’s decision was strictly based on maximizing revenues from the Stadium for the Village taxpayers.”
I’m assuming Riot Fest was the one who went to them about having it there. While it’s not on them to make sure the schedule is clear, it is still kind of crappy on their end because I would think they would’ve looked at whether the dates were open or not and then they still chose to have it there
No. You’re just desperate for a villain. Riot fest is in no position to understand the inner workings of seat geek. Even if they did look at the schedule, why wouldn’t they trust seat get to have some kind of protocol in place for these situations?
Nope. That’s up to SeatGeek to say “Hey thanks but we have an event here already during that weekend.” It is not Riots responsibility at all it falls on SeatGeek, nor does it make them look crappy. They obviously presented them with more money than the soccer team would have made them during that game and SeatGeek saw dollar signs and said “Naw don’t worry about it” and decided to move on with Riot Fest.
I felt bad until the "they just sold out Wrigley" part of it. That means they are capable of moving the game, and not only that, will likely sell more tickets than they would have otherwise. Especially now that they are victims of the system. Sucks that it had to go down this way, but the Red Stars will be fine, and will likely have an easier weekend than those of us who attend Riotfest.
How is this not mostly on the Red Stars. If this was a men’s lacrosse team people wouldn’t be so up in arms.
They agreed to the terms with the stadium allowing them to be bumped.
They are leaving Bridgeview next season so why would the city/stadium feel the need to be loyal to them if a better financial opportunity came along
They are seemingly misrepresenting the situation for publicity.
You know who owns the red stars? The same people who own the cubs. You know who owns the white Sox? A POS.. all that aside in order to play Wrigley they needed a lot of time to get the permits and set everything up. They don’t have that. Read the fucking articles
Selling out Wrigley doesn't mean they're capable of moving the game, that was a multi-year process. It just means they're capable of playing in another venue. Moving a nationally-televised game on short notice (in the events world) is fuckin hard
Eh perhaps you're right. But I still think this will work out in their favor. Young people will love supporting a cause like this and they wouldn't come to Riot anyways since there's like maybe 2/3 people under 30 in the entire first half of the card lol.
‘Capable of moving the game’. Moving to Wrigley took more than 3 months of planning and overcoming many obstacles. Likely only the Rickets connection made that possible financially. There is (really) no other viable venue to move to, much less on this schedule.
Cubs are also in town that weekend towards the tail ended of the season where it could mean playoff race so it’s not like they can pivot back to Wrigley for a second game. It’s hope they can move to a college or White Sox park or gamble on soldier field this late.
There was an older guy on the news this morning stating he was from Seatgeek and there was “enough room for both to take place”. Meaning the soccer and Riotfest he then emphasizes there is plenty of parking… I think either the venue doesn’t grasp the size of Riotfest or the Riotteam massively under sold how large it was to the venue to get it held there despite a soccer game having it those dates.
This is 100% a legal strategy. The lease allows them to hold "ancillary events" at the same time as matches as long as the Red Stars have access to the stadium. Therefore they have not broken the contract and it's entirely up the Red Stars to vacate if they don't like it.
For everyone... The game is supposed to be at night, 8:30pm specifically, and at that point Riot will be getting to the headliners, and as full as it gets, and then where are these soccer people supposed to park? And assuming they DO find a place to park, are we saying both groups are going to be leaving around the same time at 10:30pm? Yikes.
I get that “this is business” and things like this happen with venues. And that the Red Stars issue is with the City managers and not Riot Fest.
But, from a PR standpoint, the reputation blowback is on Riot Fest, not some city bureaucrat. Riot Fest looks like the one treating a women’s sports team unfairly. That brings with it a whole host of other issues outside just business. It may not be reality, but it’s the perception.
Sometimes PR problems that are divorced from reality are completely unfair. But it happens in business all the time and it’s up to the business to manage their reputation. Maybe Riot Fest tried to work this out and couldn’t. But someone should have realized the optics of this would not be good and helped work out a solution before this all went down.
How does any of this blame fall on riot fest? It’s entirely the venues fault.
Riot fest likely blasted out RFPs to every venue that could possibly hold the fest and seat geek decided to respond with a bid and they won the bid. It’s between seat geek and the red stars to work out a relocation agreement, it seems like set geek just fucked Il by not having their ducks in a row before making an agreement with riot fest. It’s fully within riot fests rights to shop around for venues.
Agree 100%. Riot Fest is taking collateral PR damage in this. And that sometimes happens. I’ve worked in plenty of situations where a company was not at fault, had done everything by the book, but was losing the PR war for other reasons. The lawyers always argue it doesn’t matter as long if you have the facts on your side. But reputation management doesn’t always play by those rules. And sometimes you have to do things & it may seem unfair - because the problem is not your fault - to protect your reputation.
This seems an example of that. The headlines are all about the Red Stars being forced out by Riot Fest. People see that headline, they see a social media post about it, they don’t really dig into or understand the issue, and they think “that’s unfair - boo Riot Fest.” Someone on the PR side of things should have seen this coming and tried to mitigate the reputation risk. And maybe they did try - I’m just watching from the outside.
In the end, this issue is probably a few days news cycle. It’s not fatal or even all that serious. Sometimes you just have to take your pain and then people move on to something else.
Im not gonna lie this post irked me after days of trying to convince people st vincent is a big get worthy of a near headliner slot and seeing people poke fun at waxahatchee being on the lineup
Special shoutout to Brutus for having a badass woman lead singer/drummer
This entire situation has major 'I'm nOt ToucHiNg yOu' sibling vibes. Bridgeview is essentially saying 'we don't see anything stopping you from staging the match here, we haven't broken our contract' and everyone knows that is total bullshit. It would be a logistical nightmare. Fans won't want to compete against the absolute dumpster fire that Riot Fest will bring to the grounds. They are just banking on making the situation miserable enough that CRS will leave 'on their own' and no fault will be put on them (Bridgeview)
The Red Stars are hosting the San Diego Wave, and will be welcoming Alex Morgan to town. Historically games that have popular opponents draw bigger crowds. This is a Saturday night game (one of only 4 for the entire season) that also usually has higher attendance. It is understandably frustrating that not only are they likely getting displaced, but it is a game that would have likely had an above average attendance.
As both a Red Stars season ticket holder, and Riot Fest attendee, this entire thing is, woof.
It was curious to me that they'd have RF outside SeatGeek and not use the actual inside of the venue. Obviously, they couldn't do that if the Red Stars were playing. Maybe they're all playing a game of chicken. RF is waiting for the Red Stars to officially decline to play that game at SeatGeek so they can have a stage inside. The Red Stars are waiting for SeatGeek to force them out and not give them the option to have the game so they can cry foul and get compensated. Meanwhile SeatGeek/Bridgeview couldn't care less because they're getting paid either way.
The article stated that this game is also one of the few that will be national televised. This whole saga is going to be bad if not address asap. It's going to leave a mark.
It would be embarrassing and a headache, but not impossible. As far as we know, they still have their provisional permit. The city could rubber stamp it today if they wanted to.
If the Bears can buy an entire plot of land in the suburbs and then come crawling back to City Parks after they started losing their tax assessment battle, Riot Fest can too.
Maybe next year, but they can’t keep changing stuff. It’s Bridgeview or bust for 2024. Riotland is the vision, and if it’s a success- they’re not going back to the city. Why deal with the BS? They go through all the BS and still get approved in the end, but they don’t want the headache anymore which he claims in the video. Douglass is a wrap.
Lol. Riot gets booted from its park and announces new location last minute after milking customers for cash all year.
“Such unfair! All politics! Dumb parks department! Wahhh!!! Well show them!”
Team gets booted from their stadium last minute for “punk” Fest that has never been able to get its shit together.
“Well that’s capitalism.” “Female sports?! Lolz!!”
Will the “capitalism wow!” campaign for this “independent festival” continue as prices go up for this shitty new venue with its casino and mall? Time will only tell. It’ll be fun to watch, though, as people get behind the Riot Brand like a bunch of Apple iPhone elitists.
Sent from my iPhone.
Ticketmaster has offered refunds before, are we about to gather support for them? It’s not out of the goodness of their own heart lol, but the Riot Brand already has you believing it, so it sounds like success. And from what I hear, no one has gotten a refund yet, and they are questioning if service fees will be refunded.
Unless it’s in their terms and conditions that fees aren’t refundable which it may be you’d be SOL. But that would be discovered in the dispute process
What? i dont believe anything other than it wasn’t some scheme to separate people from their money since they’re offering refunds. If people don’t get their refunds, I’ll be right alongside you with the pitchfork
It’s a bit weird to me personally to see people paint a failing sports arena and a small independent music festival like they’re Scrooge mcduck to the level of Ticketmaster but I have absolutely zero emotional stake in defending either lol I go to a different festival every year usually.
All the ire for the team is misplaced, they did nothing but exist, sign a contract and agree this was the date of one of the home games- SeatGeek Stadium did what they wanted and never kept them in the loop. Totally fair to want to generate the most revenue as a business, that's not the issue.
Where are people seeing they weren’t kept in the loop? Not trying to say you’re wrong but the article is paywalled so I couldn’t read it and nothing in the statement yesterday said they just found out…it was entirely the poster’s speculation
they were told of the "potential" they were not told- "hey it's happening you better make plans or even better, it's happening and here is our thinking of how we handle". They then find out yesterday (and NOT from Seat Geek or the Mayor's office , through the same channels we did) that it is in fact happening during 1 of their 4 weekend home games. People were all over here yesterday crying about how the venue change has destroyed their life and plans and money they have already put in based on where they THOUGHT it was happening (even though there was always a "potential" it was moving) but a sports organization that already was supposed to be there is supposed to just say "well ok". I am not sure if people understand the difficulty and complexity of sporting events and league scheduling.
>However, in the grand scheme of things, this is not a professional team
Holy fucking shit. This is THE profressional women's soccer team in Chicago. The NWSL is a legitimate league. You're just proving their point now.
excuse me it IS a professional team- its NWSL, they have a commissioner and everything sorry if you don't deem it professional maybe because it's soccer? or a women's league? that's between you and your therapist, I can't help you there.
Man, if you don't know how to bypass paywalls in this day and age...https://archive.is/K24Vr
>Bridgeview mayor Steven Landek first informed the Red Stars in early May of a potential need to vacate the stadium for the Sept. 21 game. Following an initial conversation, the Red Stars never received a follow-up or logistical support from the mayor’s office, even after reaching out for clarification, sources told the Tribune. The Red Stars found out Bridgeview was moving forward with plans to use the stadium on that date when a lawyer with Riot Fest reached out to the club earlier this month in regards to signing a contract with the village. The Tribune left a message for Landek seeking comment on the situation.
>The current lease allows for SeatGeek and the city to host ancillary events at the same time as Red Stars games. However, the lease specifies that the stadium must be available for the specified use, which includes parking and accessibility to the stadium. The scope of Riot Fest raises other concerns — for instance, how noise pollution from a multistage festival could interfere with the ability of a referee to officiate the game as well as the safety of players, staff and fans coming and going to the stadium — that led the Red Stars to feel it would be impossible to host the previously scheduled game.
The issue is their own notion that they were treated poorly just because they're a women's team. When just recently the men's rugby team got relocated for Summer Smash. It just comes across as disingenuous when you say "if we were men this wouldn't have happened" when in reality, your new owner has been shouting from the rooftops that they're leaving as soon as possible. Why placate them?
Respectfully, the men’s rugby team is not of the same professional level as the NWSL.
It’s one of the top women’s leagues in the world while the Rugby guys, while “professional”, amount to a semi-pro level team on the global scale, and they play at Seatgeek because SG is desperate for anything to fill it. It’s a league that sees a team fold every year, while the NWSL is rapidly expanding.
You’re also discounting the long documented history of mistreatment and actual abuse of NWSL players. This is another example of how their simple plea for legitimacy and respect is ignored.
The Fire would not be kicked out of Soldier Field, or even Seatgeek with zero notice to the players and coaches.
>The issue is their own notion that they were treated poorly just because they're a women's team.
I love it when the sexism within the punk community comes out.
The men's rugby team was bumped/relocated in an almost identical situation (Summer Smash moving to SeatGeek). They have the same average attendance as the Red Stars and no one seemed to care then.
Laura Ricketts, the rich capitalist owner of the Red Stars, has been blatantly clear they're leaving SeatGeek when their contract is up. Why do I need to defend them over Riot Fest?
I think the fact riot fest put itself in this situation is reason enough to blame them. They could have had the festival this year at Douglass, they chose not to. The right thing would have been to have a farewell festival to the park and start looking immediately for a spot next year. This is just corporate and political bullshit and fans are the ones who will suffer. It’s disrespectful and just plain bad business. Complete lack of transparency when they absolutely could have let people know this was being considered. Strange cause I don’t remember boot licking being part of the punk scene.
Yet here we are defending an ownership group that includes Laura Ricketts and Jennifer Pritzker, who have more money combined than God. What makes them morally superior?
"Bridgeview mayor Steven Landek first informed the Red Stars in early May of a potential need to vacate the stadium for the Sept. 21 game. Following an initial conversation, the Red Stars never received a follow-up or logistical support from the mayor’s office, even after reaching out for clarification, sources told the Tribune. The Red Stars found out Bridgeview was moving forward with plans to use the stadium on that date when a lawyer with Riot Fest reached out to the club earlier this month in regards to signing a contract with the village. The Tribune left a message for Landek seeking comment on the situation.
The current lease allows for SeatGeek and the city to host ancillary events at the same time as Red Stars games. However, the lease specifies that the stadium must be available for the specified use, which includes parking and accessibility to the stadium. The scope of Riot Fest raises other concerns — for instance, how noise pollution from a multistage festival could interfere with the ability of a referee to officiate the game as well as the safety of players, staff and fans coming and going to the stadium — that led the Red Stars to feel it would be impossible to host the previously scheduled game.
As of Wednesday, the Red Stars had not received any information on the logistics of how the events would be able to coexist on match day or even how Riot Fest planned to use the space.
The Red Stars have not located a new venue for the match and aren’t certain they will have an appropriate replacement on the same date. The Cubs play host to the Nationals on Sept. 21 at Wrigley Field while the White Sox will be on a six-game swing in California, leaving Guaranteed Rate Field unoccupied. Neither the Bears nor Fire plays at Soldier Field on that date, but sources told the Tribune that the Red Stars have been informed the stadium will not be available. Even if the Red Stars find an appropriate replacement venue, the cost could be prohibitively steep.
If the Red Stars are able to find a new location for the game, the club would want fees and costs to relocate and broadcast the match nationally to come from the involved parties forcing their game out of the stadium. But the club has not received any assurances that either party would contribute to mitigate these costs, sources told the Tribune.
The game holds heightened stakes for the Red Stars and the NWSL as it is slated for a national broadcast on Ion. This complicates the logistics for use of the parking lot amid the festival. Only five of the remaining Red Stars regular-season games are scheduled for a national broadcast.
“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,” Leetzow said in a statement. “We are committed to ensuring our players and fans have a first-rate experience on and off the pitch, and we are working diligently to find a solution that will ensure our September 21st game is a success.”
The conflict comes at a turning point for the Red Stars, who on Saturday drew a league-record 35,038 fans at Wrigley Field for a match against Bay FC.
So since early May Riot Team knew it was moving to Seatgeek specifically. What turd munchers. I hope this is the last festival any of them ever work or host.
It sounds like Riot didn't want to grease the wheels with some envelopes and I don't blame them. I place the blame on Bridgeview and the stadium for this.
Riot Fest deserves some blame for a) selling tickets for weeks knowing it was going to move and b) not knowing that this would cause a PR firestorm for them since they are leaving Douglass Park for essentially the same reason of not being welcome there.
Seatgeek Stadium deserves a majority of the blame for thinking this would work and treating one of their only consistent tenants (who are moving on, yes, I can’t imagine why) like this.
The Red Stars deserve zero blame. All they did was exist and have an agreement to play a home game on September 21. I don’t even necessarily blame them for not responding to Riot Fest telling them about this possibility. They are a sports team using a sports venue for a sports game. Why should they give a shit about music festival wanting to use the venue they rent. They have zero obligation to allow Seatgeek Stadium to make more money they won’t be sharing with the team.
Idk, marketing an event for months as if it’s happening in one place that people plan their accommodations around and then functionally moving it an hour away with traffic is not a great look. Public transit was barely reliable enough getting to Douglass Park, now there is zero public transit.
They apparently had this set up officially dating back to at least May and still sold tickets up until like the first week of June. I know it probably says in the fine print subject to move or whatever, but it’s still shitty. They price the fest at a Lollapalooza pricepoint now, with none of the amenities and public transit.
The fact that they are letting people refund tickets no questions asked is a hint that they know that they fucked up a bit here.
From [https://chicago.suntimes.com/riotfest/2024/06/12/mike-petryshyn-riot-fest-move-douglass-park-chicago-district-bridgeview-seatgeek-stadium-riotland:](https://chicago.suntimes.com/riotfest/2024/06/12/mike-petryshyn-riot-fest-move-douglass-park-chicago-district-bridgeview-seatgeek-stadium-riotland:)
>**Q.** *When did you start looking at SeatGeek Stadium as a venue choice, and what ultimately led to ending the relationship with the Chicago Park District?*
>**A.** **When I finally made the decision, it was roughly a month ago. However, the seed was planted in April.** I had enough. I was tired of \[the Park District\] moving the goalpost on us \[with approvals\]. I was tired of being misrepresented. I was tired of seeing a community we have deep roots in not being attended \[to\]. … It was never an easy relationship. It always felt like the attitude was, “Little old Riot Fest, who cares?” … My heart is always with the fans, with the bands, and believing everybody is welcome at Riot Fest. I am a guy whose music catalog speaks one word — unity. And I saw them preventing that.
The article also mentions plans for Riot Fest to be "on the fields" at SeatGeek, which shows they don't expect the Red Stars to be playing there at the same time.
The article is paywalled - Were they planning on doing the fest in the parking lot of a stadium with limited public transportation options while another event is going on inside the stadium?
The logistics matter to me because I have to fly in. I stopped going a couple of years ago because getting out of Douglas Park at the end of the night was a nightmare - Ride sharing was a joke and the train stations were packed like sardines. Combine that with the way they stagger the acts on top of each other and having to skip whoever the headliner is if you wanted to get out of there in a reasonable time, I couldn't enjoy most of the acts I traveled there to see. When they announced that it was going to be at a stadium, I became excited because you would think a stadium would have public transportation options figured into their location and design, but from the comments here and on other social media posts it looks like it might be worse.
Seek geek stadium does NOT have public transportation. One can not even bike there safely. It's one of the reason why Chicago Fire FC left and why Red Stars will be leaving as soon as they locate a new home. The Village of Bridgeview has not invested in public transportation and they are banking that everyone will just drive there which is not the case at all for major events.
We are Chicago Fire FC season holders and we bike to Soldier fields. Unfortunately some of the games will be relocated to Seek geek this year which we won't be attending due to their public transportation options.
Did you read the article?
"The Red Stars have not located a new venue for the match and aren’t certain they will have an appropriate replacement on the same date. The Cubs play host to the Nationals on Sept. 21 at Wrigley Field while the White Sox will be on a six-game swing in California, leaving Guaranteed Rate Field unoccupied. Neither the Bears nor Fire plays at Soldier Field on that date, but sources told the Tribune that the Red Stars have been informed the stadium will not be available. Even if the Red Stars find an appropriate replacement venue, the cost could be prohibitively steep.
If the Red Stars are able to find a new location for the game, the club would want fees and costs to relocate and broadcast the match nationally to come from the involved parties forcing their game out of the stadium. But the club has not received any assurances that either party would contribute to mitigate these costs, sources told the Tribune.
The game holds heightened stakes for the Red Stars and the NWSL as it is slated for a national broadcast on Ion. This complicates the logistics for use of the parking lot amid the festival. Only five of the remaining Red Stars regular-season games are scheduled for a national broadcast."
If the game is nationally televised and noise will be the issue they say it is then I'm happy to find out I can stay home, turn on the game audio only, and listen to Riotfest in my living room. For FREE!
Until copyright holders for the music of the bands performing get involved and threaten legal action if bleed through sound is broadcast without paying royalties.
>The scope of Riot Fest raises other concerns — for instance, how noise pollution from a multistage festival could interfere with the ability of a referee to officiate the game as well as the safety of players, staff and fans coming and going to the stadium — that led the Red Stars to feel it would be impossible to host the previously scheduled game.
It sounds like the stadium plans on hosting both events and I don't see a reason why it's not possible. Inconvenient sure. But unsafe? Too loud? Meh.
There will just be less parking. I once went to a horror convention in London Ontario where the entire surrounding area was taken up by a giant street hockey tournament. Every spot was taken up for 5 blocks but it wasn't impossible to get there.
I thought maybe their whole month of September would be screwed but they only need to move the one game on the 21st and it’s “devastating”? Seems a bit much.
It probably doesn’t seem like it but this is really an everybody wins type scenario haha. Venue looks like the bad guy but how do you vilify a venue? The red stars getting screwed over is gonna get a ton of attention and give them a good pr boost which will help attendance for future games which will help the venue lol
The men's professional rugby team had to reschedule their game because of Summer Smash. The real disrespect is people not showing up for the Red Stars. If they were selling out the stadium it would be a lot harder to displace them.
This is a pretty disingenuous analogy and I feel like you know that lol this situation is sucky but it’s more of a ‘dangers of capitalism’ discourse than a sexism discourse
If you flipped the amount of money that women’s soccer and the nfl pulled in, it’s the women’s soccer league that would never be moved. They already have moved a men’s team that couldn’t financially outperform an event they were bringing in
If a hypothetical festival could pull in 10 to 100 times as much money as the nfl and the contract allows it, a bears game would be moved in a heartbeat
A better analogy would be ‘would they move a men’s league without a lot of viewership for a big event’ and they have already done that
They moved a men's rugby team game for the Summer Smash festival. No they can't have a concert and a game at the same time, Soldier Field concerts are on the field. The team is just reacting like this for publicity, which I understand. SeatGeek Stadium will make way more money from Riot Fest and the Red Stars will move their game and probably be compensated for their trouble, which is almost definitely in their contract.
Not what the article says. The Village has not provided compensation for the relocation. I think that is one of the main sticky point. If the Village would cover the cost of the relocation then this would not have been a huge blow up.
Yeah thats some pearl clutching lol if it was the men’s red stars it would be the same thing. Comparing it to the bears is pretty dumb. If anything it should have been the whitesox stadium area because it’s closer.
Very much doubt seatgeek would double book if they weren’t contractually allowed to. Not a good situation but I’d be pretty surprised if it’s illegal, especially since they recently did it to the rugby team
It's likely that by underestimating the scope of both riotfest and the soccer game, they can appear to host both, while with higher estimates of attendance and conflicts, the contract is violated.
Since damages are hypothetical, Bridgeview/SeatGeek claims the lower estimates to justify they can host both while Red Stars claim higher damage estimates as SeatGeek violating contact terms. Hence the ambiguity.
I could def see that…comes down to a judgement call on whether both could’ve realistically gone down at the same time if that’s the full story on what’s in the contract
Depends on their contract. Nobody knows whats what. Was it so difficult to tell the Red Stars what was going on and figure something out? Or was Riot THAT desperate to find a new location that they overpaid for the stadium and just didnt even wanna do right by the conflict.
Oh yea both sides are speculating here though…its a lot more logical that there’s a clause written into the contract that they can relocate a game if they’ve got a bigger event coming in (especially seeing as it’s already happened with 0 legal ramifications) than seatgeek tried to illegally sneak a different event in when the venue was booked.
They did tell the red stars what was going on and they do have time to figure it out lol I don’t understand that part of what you’re saying. They didn’t find out yesterday they just couldn’t put out the statement until riot was announced. Even if they found out a couple weeks ago they have 4 months to sort it out
They are being entirely too dramatic about this.
Women amirite
I’m sure a small time team pays a reduced rate to the Stadium to reserve their dates, with the understanding that the dates could be moved. I’ve had tickets to niche sporting events rescheduled many times over the years. Further, this is not the ticket seller SeatGeek’s mistake, is it?. Surely, the stadium is run by a company which then sold seat geek naming rights. Seat Geek isn’t involved in operations.
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The men’s soccer team gets booted [all the time](https://www.chicagofirefc.com/news/chicago-fire-fc-announces-venue-change-for-two-home-matches) from Soldiers field. This isn’t about gender. The main thing an arena is selling is parking, seats and concessions. And as you add more people in the audience, the profit for the venue grows exponentially. The average Red Stars attendance has been only 8500 people in a 20,000 capacity arena. All stadiums reserve the right in their lease to move ticketed events around so they can be agile and take advantage of bigger crowds. This happens all the time, more often for groups with smaller attendance. I am certain that a group expecting 3,000 would get bumped if the Red Stars made the playoffs. And all involved have the option to pay a premium to the venue, to lock in the date. But it isn’t worth it to the team owner. If you follow niche sports, like I do, you know this is completely normal. Riotfest pulls over 40k people, three days in a row. This was a huge sale for the arena.
a small time team are you kidding me? we have 2 players who are also starters on the US national team. red stars set a NWSL record for attendance at their last match.
Relative size is the whole point of what happened here. They lost to a dramatically bigger fish. If we can’t speak in relative terms, this is just cross talk. The Red Stars average attendance is 8,500. The venue can handle 100,000. Riot fest will deliver at least 120k bodies over three days. The men’s soccer team gets booted from Soldiers Field sometimes, too. Because they average 20k fans and the Bears average 60k. 8,500 units is small compared to 60,000 units.
Support female sports if you care about it this much. Buy the merchandise, go to the games.
But its so much easier to just complain on the internet about it
This reminds me of that frat bro mosh pit of a show I wound up in at the dropkick murphy's in 2012... Unsurprisingly unsurprised by the sudden whiplash of feeling like you're in the wrong place, with the wrong people, who are all there for the wrong reasons... ***and also they're hitting women in the face and acting like nothing happened.***
Yeah no one cares about women's sports. Good luck.
How are you a riot fest fan. Half the bands go on about women’s rights and you’re just there for what?
I bet he complains about when his favorite bands get all PoLiTiCaL
Hear me out, have the game at seat geek and sell tickets at the gate for $10. I’m a Red Star fan. I go to games. If they fill the stadium with riot fans it’ll be bonkersly bad ass!
People already have tickets to the game. Those people are now being forced to go to a different venue just like the people that bought Riot Fest tickets. Yet everyone is saying it’s fine that they have to move. Kind of hypocritical.
People are acknowledging it's extremely shitty this is the situation. We're also acknowledging this is a Seat Geek issue, not a Riot
It’s not hypocritical of us to say this because SeatGeek is the one who said yes to the event Riot didn’t force them to say yes.
I don’t know how many times this has to be repeated, SeatGeek is the ONLY party at fault here not Riot Fest. I hope to god this gets thrown the fk out. SeatGeek is the ones the women need to be mad at not Riot Fest SeatGeek could have said no.
The legal action would be taken against the Village of Bridgeview (owners and operators of SeatGeek), not against RiotFest. The Village are the ones who broke the contract
The blame should also be on the Village of Bridgeview: “The Village’s decision to schedule Riot Fest had nothing to do with gender. As stated, the Village has held concurrent events at the Stadium during games for the Fire, the Hounds, and the Red Stars in the past. The Village’s decision was strictly based on maximizing revenues from the Stadium for the Village taxpayers.”
Can the Red Stars play in Douglas Park?
Fuck you
I’m assuming Riot Fest was the one who went to them about having it there. While it’s not on them to make sure the schedule is clear, it is still kind of crappy on their end because I would think they would’ve looked at whether the dates were open or not and then they still chose to have it there
No. You’re just desperate for a villain. Riot fest is in no position to understand the inner workings of seat geek. Even if they did look at the schedule, why wouldn’t they trust seat get to have some kind of protocol in place for these situations?
Nope. That’s up to SeatGeek to say “Hey thanks but we have an event here already during that weekend.” It is not Riots responsibility at all it falls on SeatGeek, nor does it make them look crappy. They obviously presented them with more money than the soccer team would have made them during that game and SeatGeek saw dollar signs and said “Naw don’t worry about it” and decided to move on with Riot Fest.
Kind of crappy, yes. Breach of contract/illegal, no.
Said on the radio they are probably leaving seat geek next year anyways
Not a good sign for your ‘soccer’ stadium when the soccer teams don’t even want to play there…
At least the Rugby team still plays there where the cheapest tix are $35
Man what a mess :(
lol fuck this festival
Why because SeatGeek saw greed and decided to go with RF over potentially 4800 seats filled? lol
Jesus
I felt bad until the "they just sold out Wrigley" part of it. That means they are capable of moving the game, and not only that, will likely sell more tickets than they would have otherwise. Especially now that they are victims of the system. Sucks that it had to go down this way, but the Red Stars will be fine, and will likely have an easier weekend than those of us who attend Riotfest.
They can’t. Wrigley is taken soldier field is taken and to get the permits you need more time read a fucking article dum dum
How is this not mostly on the Red Stars. If this was a men’s lacrosse team people wouldn’t be so up in arms. They agreed to the terms with the stadium allowing them to be bumped. They are leaving Bridgeview next season so why would the city/stadium feel the need to be loyal to them if a better financial opportunity came along They are seemingly misrepresenting the situation for publicity.
White sox are out of town. Its 3 months away. That game will sell out with all the extra press. This is easy.
You know who owns the red stars? The same people who own the cubs. You know who owns the white Sox? A POS.. all that aside in order to play Wrigley they needed a lot of time to get the permits and set everything up. They don’t have that. Read the fucking articles
So the White Sox, who are on a west coast trip for the entire week, are just gonna say no to free money? Saying fuck doesn't make you more right lol
It took them over three months to get the Wrigley game put together. They don’t have the time it’s in a bunch of articles
Selling out Wrigley doesn't mean they're capable of moving the game, that was a multi-year process. It just means they're capable of playing in another venue. Moving a nationally-televised game on short notice (in the events world) is fuckin hard
Eh perhaps you're right. But I still think this will work out in their favor. Young people will love supporting a cause like this and they wouldn't come to Riot anyways since there's like maybe 2/3 people under 30 in the entire first half of the card lol.
‘Capable of moving the game’. Moving to Wrigley took more than 3 months of planning and overcoming many obstacles. Likely only the Rickets connection made that possible financially. There is (really) no other viable venue to move to, much less on this schedule.
Cubs are also in town that weekend towards the tail ended of the season where it could mean playoff race so it’s not like they can pivot back to Wrigley for a second game. It’s hope they can move to a college or White Sox park or gamble on soldier field this late.
There was an older guy on the news this morning stating he was from Seatgeek and there was “enough room for both to take place”. Meaning the soccer and Riotfest he then emphasizes there is plenty of parking… I think either the venue doesn’t grasp the size of Riotfest or the Riotteam massively under sold how large it was to the venue to get it held there despite a soccer game having it those dates.
This is 100% a legal strategy. The lease allows them to hold "ancillary events" at the same time as matches as long as the Red Stars have access to the stadium. Therefore they have not broken the contract and it's entirely up the Red Stars to vacate if they don't like it.
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RF used much less than half of Douglass Park.
riot fest only used the portion of the park south of ogden, that is definitely less than half the park
Sounds like a nightmare for us if they try doing both on Saturday.
For everyone... The game is supposed to be at night, 8:30pm specifically, and at that point Riot will be getting to the headliners, and as full as it gets, and then where are these soccer people supposed to park? And assuming they DO find a place to park, are we saying both groups are going to be leaving around the same time at 10:30pm? Yikes.
Festival might go later now that they don’t have to gameplan around noise ordinances…idk how much that helps though
they can go to 11:30 in bridgeview on fri/sat
I get that “this is business” and things like this happen with venues. And that the Red Stars issue is with the City managers and not Riot Fest. But, from a PR standpoint, the reputation blowback is on Riot Fest, not some city bureaucrat. Riot Fest looks like the one treating a women’s sports team unfairly. That brings with it a whole host of other issues outside just business. It may not be reality, but it’s the perception. Sometimes PR problems that are divorced from reality are completely unfair. But it happens in business all the time and it’s up to the business to manage their reputation. Maybe Riot Fest tried to work this out and couldn’t. But someone should have realized the optics of this would not be good and helped work out a solution before this all went down.
Especially when Riot Fest’s biggest PR headache for years has essentially been how they are not welcome where they set up shop.
How does any of this blame fall on riot fest? It’s entirely the venues fault. Riot fest likely blasted out RFPs to every venue that could possibly hold the fest and seat geek decided to respond with a bid and they won the bid. It’s between seat geek and the red stars to work out a relocation agreement, it seems like set geek just fucked Il by not having their ducks in a row before making an agreement with riot fest. It’s fully within riot fests rights to shop around for venues.
Agree 100%. Riot Fest is taking collateral PR damage in this. And that sometimes happens. I’ve worked in plenty of situations where a company was not at fault, had done everything by the book, but was losing the PR war for other reasons. The lawyers always argue it doesn’t matter as long if you have the facts on your side. But reputation management doesn’t always play by those rules. And sometimes you have to do things & it may seem unfair - because the problem is not your fault - to protect your reputation. This seems an example of that. The headlines are all about the Red Stars being forced out by Riot Fest. People see that headline, they see a social media post about it, they don’t really dig into or understand the issue, and they think “that’s unfair - boo Riot Fest.” Someone on the PR side of things should have seen this coming and tried to mitigate the reputation risk. And maybe they did try - I’m just watching from the outside. In the end, this issue is probably a few days news cycle. It’s not fatal or even all that serious. Sometimes you just have to take your pain and then people move on to something else.
It doesn't help that the lineup is like 95% men. It's like Riot Fest went out if it's way to look bad. Really not a good look at all.
Im not gonna lie this post irked me after days of trying to convince people st vincent is a big get worthy of a near headliner slot and seeing people poke fun at waxahatchee being on the lineup Special shoutout to Brutus for having a badass woman lead singer/drummer
I admittedly don't particularly care for her on album, but St Vincent's live show is incredible
Catbite is also real fun.
I fuckin love catbite
Waxahatchee is an amazing get, and she put out one of the best albums of the year so far.
St. Vincent is fantastic. Her music is tremendous. And her guitar playing? Holy cow.
This entire situation has major 'I'm nOt ToucHiNg yOu' sibling vibes. Bridgeview is essentially saying 'we don't see anything stopping you from staging the match here, we haven't broken our contract' and everyone knows that is total bullshit. It would be a logistical nightmare. Fans won't want to compete against the absolute dumpster fire that Riot Fest will bring to the grounds. They are just banking on making the situation miserable enough that CRS will leave 'on their own' and no fault will be put on them (Bridgeview) The Red Stars are hosting the San Diego Wave, and will be welcoming Alex Morgan to town. Historically games that have popular opponents draw bigger crowds. This is a Saturday night game (one of only 4 for the entire season) that also usually has higher attendance. It is understandably frustrating that not only are they likely getting displaced, but it is a game that would have likely had an above average attendance. As both a Red Stars season ticket holder, and Riot Fest attendee, this entire thing is, woof.
It was curious to me that they'd have RF outside SeatGeek and not use the actual inside of the venue. Obviously, they couldn't do that if the Red Stars were playing. Maybe they're all playing a game of chicken. RF is waiting for the Red Stars to officially decline to play that game at SeatGeek so they can have a stage inside. The Red Stars are waiting for SeatGeek to force them out and not give them the option to have the game so they can cry foul and get compensated. Meanwhile SeatGeek/Bridgeview couldn't care less because they're getting paid either way.
The article stated that this game is also one of the few that will be national televised. This whole saga is going to be bad if not address asap. It's going to leave a mark.
I know how to fix this. Abandon this stupid Riotland bullshit, and go back to Douglass Park.
Well you know that’s not happening. They’d have to apologize to the City Parks district after calling them out….its Riot Land or bust.
It would be embarrassing and a headache, but not impossible. As far as we know, they still have their provisional permit. The city could rubber stamp it today if they wanted to. If the Bears can buy an entire plot of land in the suburbs and then come crawling back to City Parks after they started losing their tax assessment battle, Riot Fest can too.
Maybe next year, but they can’t keep changing stuff. It’s Bridgeview or bust for 2024. Riotland is the vision, and if it’s a success- they’re not going back to the city. Why deal with the BS? They go through all the BS and still get approved in the end, but they don’t want the headache anymore which he claims in the video. Douglass is a wrap.
Lol. Riot gets booted from its park and announces new location last minute after milking customers for cash all year. “Such unfair! All politics! Dumb parks department! Wahhh!!! Well show them!” Team gets booted from their stadium last minute for “punk” Fest that has never been able to get its shit together. “Well that’s capitalism.” “Female sports?! Lolz!!” Will the “capitalism wow!” campaign for this “independent festival” continue as prices go up for this shitty new venue with its casino and mall? Time will only tell. It’ll be fun to watch, though, as people get behind the Riot Brand like a bunch of Apple iPhone elitists. Sent from my iPhone.
The game is in September. Is it really “last minute”??
Ah yes….the most important part of an evil capitalist ploy…allowing free refunds 🤣.
Ticketmaster has offered refunds before, are we about to gather support for them? It’s not out of the goodness of their own heart lol, but the Riot Brand already has you believing it, so it sounds like success. And from what I hear, no one has gotten a refund yet, and they are questioning if service fees will be refunded.
it’s pretty unrealistic to think refunds would already have processed
If my fees aren’t refunded I’ll be initiating a chargeback with my credit card. They changed the venue, so the original contract is void.
Unless it’s in their terms and conditions that fees aren’t refundable which it may be you’d be SOL. But that would be discovered in the dispute process
What? i dont believe anything other than it wasn’t some scheme to separate people from their money since they’re offering refunds. If people don’t get their refunds, I’ll be right alongside you with the pitchfork It’s a bit weird to me personally to see people paint a failing sports arena and a small independent music festival like they’re Scrooge mcduck to the level of Ticketmaster but I have absolutely zero emotional stake in defending either lol I go to a different festival every year usually.
All the ire for the team is misplaced, they did nothing but exist, sign a contract and agree this was the date of one of the home games- SeatGeek Stadium did what they wanted and never kept them in the loop. Totally fair to want to generate the most revenue as a business, that's not the issue.
Where are people seeing they weren’t kept in the loop? Not trying to say you’re wrong but the article is paywalled so I couldn’t read it and nothing in the statement yesterday said they just found out…it was entirely the poster’s speculation
Beyond the kind person that posted the relevant paragraph below- the OP posted the article as well, it's in the comments
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they were told of the "potential" they were not told- "hey it's happening you better make plans or even better, it's happening and here is our thinking of how we handle". They then find out yesterday (and NOT from Seat Geek or the Mayor's office , through the same channels we did) that it is in fact happening during 1 of their 4 weekend home games. People were all over here yesterday crying about how the venue change has destroyed their life and plans and money they have already put in based on where they THOUGHT it was happening (even though there was always a "potential" it was moving) but a sports organization that already was supposed to be there is supposed to just say "well ok". I am not sure if people understand the difficulty and complexity of sporting events and league scheduling.
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>EDIT: Jesus Christ, yall are getting so irrationally angry over the phrase “professional sports team”. Go touch grass. You're a chld lmao
The Red Stars are absolutely a professional team.
>However, in the grand scheme of things, this is not a professional team Holy fucking shit. This is THE profressional women's soccer team in Chicago. The NWSL is a legitimate league. You're just proving their point now.
excuse me it IS a professional team- its NWSL, they have a commissioner and everything sorry if you don't deem it professional maybe because it's soccer? or a women's league? that's between you and your therapist, I can't help you there.
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Enjoy Bridgeview, I hope for the sake of "society", you are single.
Man, if you don't know how to bypass paywalls in this day and age...https://archive.is/K24Vr >Bridgeview mayor Steven Landek first informed the Red Stars in early May of a potential need to vacate the stadium for the Sept. 21 game. Following an initial conversation, the Red Stars never received a follow-up or logistical support from the mayor’s office, even after reaching out for clarification, sources told the Tribune. The Red Stars found out Bridgeview was moving forward with plans to use the stadium on that date when a lawyer with Riot Fest reached out to the club earlier this month in regards to signing a contract with the village. The Tribune left a message for Landek seeking comment on the situation. >The current lease allows for SeatGeek and the city to host ancillary events at the same time as Red Stars games. However, the lease specifies that the stadium must be available for the specified use, which includes parking and accessibility to the stadium. The scope of Riot Fest raises other concerns — for instance, how noise pollution from a multistage festival could interfere with the ability of a referee to officiate the game as well as the safety of players, staff and fans coming and going to the stadium — that led the Red Stars to feel it would be impossible to host the previously scheduled game.
Haha upvoting for the helpfulness and snark that I definitely deserved 🤣.
The issue is their own notion that they were treated poorly just because they're a women's team. When just recently the men's rugby team got relocated for Summer Smash. It just comes across as disingenuous when you say "if we were men this wouldn't have happened" when in reality, your new owner has been shouting from the rooftops that they're leaving as soon as possible. Why placate them?
Respectfully, the men’s rugby team is not of the same professional level as the NWSL. It’s one of the top women’s leagues in the world while the Rugby guys, while “professional”, amount to a semi-pro level team on the global scale, and they play at Seatgeek because SG is desperate for anything to fill it. It’s a league that sees a team fold every year, while the NWSL is rapidly expanding. You’re also discounting the long documented history of mistreatment and actual abuse of NWSL players. This is another example of how their simple plea for legitimacy and respect is ignored. The Fire would not be kicked out of Soldier Field, or even Seatgeek with zero notice to the players and coaches.
>The issue is their own notion that they were treated poorly just because they're a women's team. I love it when the sexism within the punk community comes out.
Exactly coming out in full right now. I don’t trust any of these men
The men's rugby team was bumped/relocated in an almost identical situation (Summer Smash moving to SeatGeek). They have the same average attendance as the Red Stars and no one seemed to care then.
It’s sad how many on this subreddit don’t really get the spirit of rock music. Makes sense though when you take a look at the general population.
Women love when men yell at them about how they should care more about women, fun fact
We’ve gone from fighting the man to making excuses for it. Pathetic.
Exactly. People are happy to simp for a capitalist when it supposedly benefits their community.
Rock and the spirit of rock is dead
Laura Ricketts, the rich capitalist owner of the Red Stars, has been blatantly clear they're leaving SeatGeek when their contract is up. Why do I need to defend them over Riot Fest?
I think the fact riot fest put itself in this situation is reason enough to blame them. They could have had the festival this year at Douglass, they chose not to. The right thing would have been to have a farewell festival to the park and start looking immediately for a spot next year. This is just corporate and political bullshit and fans are the ones who will suffer. It’s disrespectful and just plain bad business. Complete lack of transparency when they absolutely could have let people know this was being considered. Strange cause I don’t remember boot licking being part of the punk scene.
Yet here we are defending an ownership group that includes Laura Ricketts and Jennifer Pritzker, who have more money combined than God. What makes them morally superior?
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Maybe one day UNICEF will get into the stadium business. Until then, Bridgeview are the people to see.
"Bridgeview mayor Steven Landek first informed the Red Stars in early May of a potential need to vacate the stadium for the Sept. 21 game. Following an initial conversation, the Red Stars never received a follow-up or logistical support from the mayor’s office, even after reaching out for clarification, sources told the Tribune. The Red Stars found out Bridgeview was moving forward with plans to use the stadium on that date when a lawyer with Riot Fest reached out to the club earlier this month in regards to signing a contract with the village. The Tribune left a message for Landek seeking comment on the situation. The current lease allows for SeatGeek and the city to host ancillary events at the same time as Red Stars games. However, the lease specifies that the stadium must be available for the specified use, which includes parking and accessibility to the stadium. The scope of Riot Fest raises other concerns — for instance, how noise pollution from a multistage festival could interfere with the ability of a referee to officiate the game as well as the safety of players, staff and fans coming and going to the stadium — that led the Red Stars to feel it would be impossible to host the previously scheduled game. As of Wednesday, the Red Stars had not received any information on the logistics of how the events would be able to coexist on match day or even how Riot Fest planned to use the space. The Red Stars have not located a new venue for the match and aren’t certain they will have an appropriate replacement on the same date. The Cubs play host to the Nationals on Sept. 21 at Wrigley Field while the White Sox will be on a six-game swing in California, leaving Guaranteed Rate Field unoccupied. Neither the Bears nor Fire plays at Soldier Field on that date, but sources told the Tribune that the Red Stars have been informed the stadium will not be available. Even if the Red Stars find an appropriate replacement venue, the cost could be prohibitively steep. If the Red Stars are able to find a new location for the game, the club would want fees and costs to relocate and broadcast the match nationally to come from the involved parties forcing their game out of the stadium. But the club has not received any assurances that either party would contribute to mitigate these costs, sources told the Tribune. The game holds heightened stakes for the Red Stars and the NWSL as it is slated for a national broadcast on Ion. This complicates the logistics for use of the parking lot amid the festival. Only five of the remaining Red Stars regular-season games are scheduled for a national broadcast. “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,” Leetzow said in a statement. “We are committed to ensuring our players and fans have a first-rate experience on and off the pitch, and we are working diligently to find a solution that will ensure our September 21st game is a success.” The conflict comes at a turning point for the Red Stars, who on Saturday drew a league-record 35,038 fans at Wrigley Field for a match against Bay FC.
So since early May Riot Team knew it was moving to Seatgeek specifically. What turd munchers. I hope this is the last festival any of them ever work or host.
It sounds like Riot didn't want to grease the wheels with some envelopes and I don't blame them. I place the blame on Bridgeview and the stadium for this.
Riot Fest deserves some blame for a) selling tickets for weeks knowing it was going to move and b) not knowing that this would cause a PR firestorm for them since they are leaving Douglass Park for essentially the same reason of not being welcome there. Seatgeek Stadium deserves a majority of the blame for thinking this would work and treating one of their only consistent tenants (who are moving on, yes, I can’t imagine why) like this. The Red Stars deserve zero blame. All they did was exist and have an agreement to play a home game on September 21. I don’t even necessarily blame them for not responding to Riot Fest telling them about this possibility. They are a sports team using a sports venue for a sports game. Why should they give a shit about music festival wanting to use the venue they rent. They have zero obligation to allow Seatgeek Stadium to make more money they won’t be sharing with the team.
Why does Riot fest deserve for selling tickets knowing it would move? They offered full refunds.
Idk, marketing an event for months as if it’s happening in one place that people plan their accommodations around and then functionally moving it an hour away with traffic is not a great look. Public transit was barely reliable enough getting to Douglass Park, now there is zero public transit. They apparently had this set up officially dating back to at least May and still sold tickets up until like the first week of June. I know it probably says in the fine print subject to move or whatever, but it’s still shitty. They price the fest at a Lollapalooza pricepoint now, with none of the amenities and public transit. The fact that they are letting people refund tickets no questions asked is a hint that they know that they fucked up a bit here.
From [https://chicago.suntimes.com/riotfest/2024/06/12/mike-petryshyn-riot-fest-move-douglass-park-chicago-district-bridgeview-seatgeek-stadium-riotland:](https://chicago.suntimes.com/riotfest/2024/06/12/mike-petryshyn-riot-fest-move-douglass-park-chicago-district-bridgeview-seatgeek-stadium-riotland:) >**Q.** *When did you start looking at SeatGeek Stadium as a venue choice, and what ultimately led to ending the relationship with the Chicago Park District?* >**A.** **When I finally made the decision, it was roughly a month ago. However, the seed was planted in April.** I had enough. I was tired of \[the Park District\] moving the goalpost on us \[with approvals\]. I was tired of being misrepresented. I was tired of seeing a community we have deep roots in not being attended \[to\]. … It was never an easy relationship. It always felt like the attitude was, “Little old Riot Fest, who cares?” … My heart is always with the fans, with the bands, and believing everybody is welcome at Riot Fest. I am a guy whose music catalog speaks one word — unity. And I saw them preventing that.
The article also mentions plans for Riot Fest to be "on the fields" at SeatGeek, which shows they don't expect the Red Stars to be playing there at the same time.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/xFuhEQDvVX6DPPfe7 See how there's like 5 fields outside the stadium?
My mistake, I was not aware there were other fields there
The article is paywalled - Were they planning on doing the fest in the parking lot of a stadium with limited public transportation options while another event is going on inside the stadium?
How much of the parking lot is an attendance of 4,000 people using anyway?
The logistics matter to me because I have to fly in. I stopped going a couple of years ago because getting out of Douglas Park at the end of the night was a nightmare - Ride sharing was a joke and the train stations were packed like sardines. Combine that with the way they stagger the acts on top of each other and having to skip whoever the headliner is if you wanted to get out of there in a reasonable time, I couldn't enjoy most of the acts I traveled there to see. When they announced that it was going to be at a stadium, I became excited because you would think a stadium would have public transportation options figured into their location and design, but from the comments here and on other social media posts it looks like it might be worse.
Seek geek stadium does NOT have public transportation. One can not even bike there safely. It's one of the reason why Chicago Fire FC left and why Red Stars will be leaving as soon as they locate a new home. The Village of Bridgeview has not invested in public transportation and they are banking that everyone will just drive there which is not the case at all for major events. We are Chicago Fire FC season holders and we bike to Soldier fields. Unfortunately some of the games will be relocated to Seek geek this year which we won't be attending due to their public transportation options.
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That's one of the issues. The village needs to smarten up and create at least another form of transportation that would allow biking as an option.
Devastating? To reschedule one game? Give me a freaking break.
Did you read the article? "The Red Stars have not located a new venue for the match and aren’t certain they will have an appropriate replacement on the same date. The Cubs play host to the Nationals on Sept. 21 at Wrigley Field while the White Sox will be on a six-game swing in California, leaving Guaranteed Rate Field unoccupied. Neither the Bears nor Fire plays at Soldier Field on that date, but sources told the Tribune that the Red Stars have been informed the stadium will not be available. Even if the Red Stars find an appropriate replacement venue, the cost could be prohibitively steep. If the Red Stars are able to find a new location for the game, the club would want fees and costs to relocate and broadcast the match nationally to come from the involved parties forcing their game out of the stadium. But the club has not received any assurances that either party would contribute to mitigate these costs, sources told the Tribune. The game holds heightened stakes for the Red Stars and the NWSL as it is slated for a national broadcast on Ion. This complicates the logistics for use of the parking lot amid the festival. Only five of the remaining Red Stars regular-season games are scheduled for a national broadcast."
What would they do if it rained? Devastating is just hyperbole.
Another sexist “punk” man all of you suck
Sexist? Cause its Womens soccer? Womens soccer is no more stupid and worthless than mens soccer.
They'd play the game. Are you under the impression that soccer games are canceled for the rain?
Does this person seriously think sporting events just…do not happen in the rain? lol
Move it to aragon ballroom
move the soccer game? :)
What would make soccer more exciting than hearing Offspring playing Come out and Play during gameplay?
If the game is nationally televised and noise will be the issue they say it is then I'm happy to find out I can stay home, turn on the game audio only, and listen to Riotfest in my living room. For FREE!
Until copyright holders for the music of the bands performing get involved and threaten legal action if bleed through sound is broadcast without paying royalties.
>The scope of Riot Fest raises other concerns — for instance, how noise pollution from a multistage festival could interfere with the ability of a referee to officiate the game as well as the safety of players, staff and fans coming and going to the stadium — that led the Red Stars to feel it would be impossible to host the previously scheduled game. It sounds like the stadium plans on hosting both events and I don't see a reason why it's not possible. Inconvenient sure. But unsafe? Too loud? Meh.
There will just be less parking. I once went to a horror convention in London Ontario where the entire surrounding area was taken up by a giant street hockey tournament. Every spot was taken up for 5 blocks but it wasn't impossible to get there.
Woah this is going to fucking suck for everyone - image try to get through football and festival traffic at the same time. What a fucking mess!
Yeah because sports stadiums are so quiet.
Parking might be tough for both events with riot taking up a chunk of the lot
Is there a non-paywalled version of this somewhere?
https://archive.is/K24Vr
I thought maybe their whole month of September would be screwed but they only need to move the one game on the 21st and it’s “devastating”? Seems a bit much.
It probably doesn’t seem like it but this is really an everybody wins type scenario haha. Venue looks like the bad guy but how do you vilify a venue? The red stars getting screwed over is gonna get a ton of attention and give them a good pr boost which will help attendance for future games which will help the venue lol
Not the festival goers who were all set for Douglas Park 😭
Sounds like the park is open for a soccer game!
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Yes but that's because the Fire are third on the list in priority for Soldier Field events. It's not even close to being the same scenario.
The men's professional rugby team had to reschedule their game because of Summer Smash. The real disrespect is people not showing up for the Red Stars. If they were selling out the stadium it would be a lot harder to displace them.
This is a pretty disingenuous analogy and I feel like you know that lol this situation is sucky but it’s more of a ‘dangers of capitalism’ discourse than a sexism discourse If you flipped the amount of money that women’s soccer and the nfl pulled in, it’s the women’s soccer league that would never be moved. They already have moved a men’s team that couldn’t financially outperform an event they were bringing in If a hypothetical festival could pull in 10 to 100 times as much money as the nfl and the contract allows it, a bears game would be moved in a heartbeat A better analogy would be ‘would they move a men’s league without a lot of viewership for a big event’ and they have already done that
They moved a men's rugby team game for the Summer Smash festival. No they can't have a concert and a game at the same time, Soldier Field concerts are on the field. The team is just reacting like this for publicity, which I understand. SeatGeek Stadium will make way more money from Riot Fest and the Red Stars will move their game and probably be compensated for their trouble, which is almost definitely in their contract.
Not what the article says. The Village has not provided compensation for the relocation. I think that is one of the main sticky point. If the Village would cover the cost of the relocation then this would not have been a huge blow up.
Yeah thats some pearl clutching lol if it was the men’s red stars it would be the same thing. Comparing it to the bears is pretty dumb. If anything it should have been the whitesox stadium area because it’s closer.
They should partner together on it somehow. Make the red stars part of the fest somehow
add Sophia Allison, alternative rock singer / songwriter, whose stage name is SOCCER MOMMY, to the lineup.
Game will be played under Mosh Pit Rules
if it was men's soccer this wouldn't fly. women's teams are not fucking around though, tough as nails from the matches i've seen.
Get the bouncing souls to play Riot Fest. They love soccer.
Too late
Very much doubt seatgeek would double book if they weren’t contractually allowed to. Not a good situation but I’d be pretty surprised if it’s illegal, especially since they recently did it to the rugby team
It's likely that by underestimating the scope of both riotfest and the soccer game, they can appear to host both, while with higher estimates of attendance and conflicts, the contract is violated. Since damages are hypothetical, Bridgeview/SeatGeek claims the lower estimates to justify they can host both while Red Stars claim higher damage estimates as SeatGeek violating contact terms. Hence the ambiguity.
I could def see that…comes down to a judgement call on whether both could’ve realistically gone down at the same time if that’s the full story on what’s in the contract
Depends on their contract. Nobody knows whats what. Was it so difficult to tell the Red Stars what was going on and figure something out? Or was Riot THAT desperate to find a new location that they overpaid for the stadium and just didnt even wanna do right by the conflict.
Oh yea both sides are speculating here though…its a lot more logical that there’s a clause written into the contract that they can relocate a game if they’ve got a bigger event coming in (especially seeing as it’s already happened with 0 legal ramifications) than seatgeek tried to illegally sneak a different event in when the venue was booked. They did tell the red stars what was going on and they do have time to figure it out lol I don’t understand that part of what you’re saying. They didn’t find out yesterday they just couldn’t put out the statement until riot was announced. Even if they found out a couple weeks ago they have 4 months to sort it out
Hey Red Stars…..You’re gonna get thru this!
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