Saturday’s LA Galaxy 2023 season opener postponed

Southern California is in the midst of an unprecedented winter storm in modern history, and with it comes a damper on the start of the 2023 MLS season locally, as Saturday’s blockbuster El Trafico clash between the LA Galaxy and LAFC has been postponed due to high risk of inclement weather during the event, including thunderstorms in Pasadena. A make-up date has not yet been announced.

The game was the tentpole match of the opening weekend in MLS, a rivalry clash in a historic venue that was aiming to break the standalone MLS attendance record set last year in Charlotte FC’s Bank of America Stadium, for their game against the Galaxy. But with the broader Southern California region seeing wintry weather more severe and unpredictable than normal in late-February, including legitimate blizzard warnings east of the mountains inland and hail/graupel falling in recent days closer to the coast, that plus the lack of shelter at the cavernous Rose Bowl should a thunderstorm roll through during the game — in a region where thunderstorms are not at all common any time of year — means the game must be postponed for the time being for safety reasons.

To be fair, this is not the only MLS game already postponed this weekend for safety reasons, as the Portland Timbers’ clash against Sporting Kansas City at Providence Park has also been rescheduled due to inclement weather reports, although that game will be played on Monday instead of the originally scheduled Saturday. Given the record-breaking crowd sought for this El Trafico, expect the game to be played later in the year, not on a random weekday, since it is supposed to be an event and not just a run-of-the-mill regular season game.

We’ll keep you posted on news about this game and rescheduling drops as we hear it.

Update:

LA Galaxy and the MLS have announced a new date for the rivalry match to take place. The match against LAFC will now take place on Tuesday July 4th, with kickoff set for 7:30pm PT. The match will still be played at The Rose Bowl, with tickets already purchased being honored for the new date.

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