Major League Soccer’s opening day has been hit by bad weather with Saturday’s scheduled California clash between Los Angeles Galaxy and Los Angeles FC postponed.
The game had been set for the 89,000 capacity Rose Bowl and a crowd of over 70,000 had been expected to attend, possibly setting a new attendance record for an MLS game.
But heavy rain with snow in the Southern California mountains and an expected thunderstorm on Saturday led officials to postpone the game, dubbed locally “El Trafico,” to July 4.
Galaxy said the decision was due to “safety considerations resulting from inclement weather and forecasted thunderstorms in the Los Angeles area”.
The July 4th date could help the bid to break the attendance record with Independence Day a federal holiday.
The game was top of the billing for the opening round of the 2023 season as MLS starts its first year under a new broadcast deal with Apple.
With the deal, worth a reported $2.5 billion, MLS becomes the first league to offer all their games available to stream, via Apple TV, domestically and internationally.
Previously MLS clubs broadcast their games via regional and local television networks with select games shown nationally on various cable sports channels.
The weather also led Portland Timbers to move their opener, against Sporting Kansas City, from Saturday to Monday due to snow and “severe winter weather”.
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