News AC Milan – Chelsea FC Match Set for Record-Breaking Attendance by Brian Quarstad on 27 July 2016

Records are made to be broken and that’s exactly what will happen on August 3 when AC Milan faces off against Chelsea FC at US Bank Stadium. Relevent Sports, the parent company of the�International Champions Cup competition, will report this morning that they have sold over 55,000 tickets to the event.

The former all-time attendance record for Minnesota soccer has been in place for 38 years. It was set when the Minnesota Kicks drew 46,370 to Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington on June 13, 1978. Like the AC Milan -�Chelsea FC midweek matchup, the Kicks game was played midweek (on a Tuesday night). The opponents were the New York Cosmos and both teams had earned reputations as being two of the old NASL’s best teams. Despite the large crowd supporting the Kicks, they lost to the Cosmos 4-2.*

The preseason friendly between AC Milan and Chelsea FC is part of the International Champions Cup competition that takes place every summer in the U.S. It is also a landmark event as it will be the first game of any kind played in new US Bank Stadium that was recently completed at a cost of $1.061 billion. The stadium seats more than 66,000.

Making the number of tickets sold even more remarkable is that Minnesota United will also be playing a league game that very same evening in Blaine, Minn. Relevent Sports had previously reported to FiftyFive.One, that the majority of tickets sold were from the Twin Cities metropolitan area. This bodes well for Minnesota United when they move to MLS and have a soccer-specific stadium of their own in the Midway area of St. Paul.

AC Milan and Chelsea FC will be flying into the Twin Cities on Thursday night and will be training at undisclosed locations as they continue to work on the preseason fitness.

Real grass will be laid over the artificial turf on Friday giving it time to settle in. Relevent Sports is bringing in an national expert this time to avoid the issues they had in 2014 with dangerous seams in the sod that was laid at TCF Bank Stadium.

Both teams have announced their squads traveling�to the U.S.

AC Milan

Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Donnarumma, Gabriel, Alessandro Livieri, Diego Lopez

Defenders: Ignazio Abate, Luca Antonelli, Davide Calabria, Mattia De Sciglio, Rodrigo Ely, Gabriel Paletta, Alessio Romagnoli, Jherson Vergara, Ivan De Santis

Midfielders: Andrea Bertolacci, Giacomo Bonaventura, Keisuke Honda, Juraj Kucka, Riccardo Montolivo, Andrea Poli, El Hilali, Zanellato

Attackers: Carlos Bacca, Luiz Adriano, Alessandro Matri, J�r�my Menez, M’baye Niang, Suso, Lucas Vidolini

Chelsea FC

Goalkeepers: Asmir Begovi?, Thibault Courtois, Jamal Blackman

Defenders: Branislav Ivanovi?, Gary Cahill, John Terry, C�sar Azpilicueta, Kurt Zouma, Baba Rahman, Matthew Miazga, Michael Hector, Ola Aina

Midfielders: Cesc Fabregas, Oscar, Nemanja Mati?, Willian, Kenedy, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, N’Golo Kant�, Nathaniel Chalobah

Forwards: Eden Hazard, Pedro, Juan Cuadrado, Lo�c R�my, Diego Costa, Michy Batshuayi, Bertrand Traor�, Victor Moses

*A few diligent readers drew our attention to the May 29, 1984 match the Minnesota Strikers played against the Tampa Bay Rowdies that drew 56,621. This match was double-billed as a Beach Boys concert, so it has an asterisk next to it as being called the largest attendance for a “soccer match.”

Tags: AC Milan, Chelsea FC, International Champions Cup, Relevant Sports, US Bank Stadium