Interesting bit of news: the USA vs. Poland match scheduled for late July that has been rumored to be played at Soldier Field in Chicago, now apparently faces competition from Hartford, reportedly "with help from Sunil Gulati." http://www.ussocceruk.com/news/?CatTypeId=2&ContentId=1387 The venue in Hartford would be UConn's new Rentschler Field: FYI, The Magpie
personally, i don't think the u.s. is going to get away from their recent let's bang the place out with "away" fans during friendly matches philosophy. its just too valuable to the ussf wallet and too valuable for player prep in building their us against them mentality. maybe the n.y./n.j area has their fair share of eastern europeans....but the ussf seems to somewhat regularly ignore the chicago area now-a-days and its seems time to send a "shout out" their way. no way this goes away from the new soldiers field. (well, imo)
Rentschler Field holds 40,000, is supposed to be designed to also accomodate soccer and is located near a reasonable Polish population as well. (Though not nearly the same size as Chicago.) In addition, UCONN has a long tradition of soccer success; witness the women's reaching the finals. I am not all that certain that many less people would come from the Hartford area - as a one-time event. How many would you expect to get in Chicago?