The Chicago Riot was an

indoor soccer Indoor soccer or arena soccer (known internationally as indoor football, fast football, or showball) is five-a-side version of minifootball, derived from association football and adapted to be played in walled hardcourt indoor arena. Indoor socc ...

team that played in the Major Indoor Soccer League. They were based in

Villa Park Villa Park is a football stadium in Aston, Birmingham, England, with a seating capacity of 42,682. It has been the home of Premier League side Aston Villa since 1897. The ground is less than a mile from both Witton and Aston railway stations ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, near

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, and they played their home games at the

Odeum Expo Center The Odeum Expo Center was a convention center located in Villa Park, Illinois. It featured of exhibit space at the North Hall and of exhibit space at the South Hall. Both halls had pitched roofs as high as . The South Hall was also used as ...

Namesake

The team is named after the numerous riots in Chicago's history, such as the

Lager Beer Riot The Lager Beer Riot occurred on April 21, 1855 in Chicago, Illinois, and was the first major civil disturbance in the city. Mayor Levi Boone, a Nativist politician, renewed enforcement of an old local ordinance mandating that taverns be close ...

(1855), the

Haymarket affair The Haymarket affair, also known as the Haymarket massacre, the Haymarket riot, the Haymarket Square riot, or the Haymarket Incident, was the aftermath of a bombing that took place at a labor demonstration on May 4, 1886, at Haymarket Square (C ...

(1886), the

Aldermen's Wars The Alderman's wars was a series of murders and violent rioting between warring Alderman Johnny "de Pow" Powers and Anthony D'Andrea from 1916 until 1921. Over a period of five years, over 30 deaths were reported during the struggle for control ov ...

(1916–1921), the

Chicago Race Riot of 1919 The Chicago race riot of 1919 was a violent racial conflict between white Americans and black Americans that began on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, on July 27 and ended on August 3, 1919. During the riot, 38 people died (23 black and ...

, the

Memorial Day massacre of 1937 In the Memorial Day massacre of 1937, the Chicago Police Department shot and killed ten unarmed demonstrators in Chicago, on May 30, 1937. The incident took place during the Little Steel strike in the United States. Background The incident aro ...

, the Division Street Riots (1966), the

1968 Chicago riots The 1968 Chicago riots, in the United States, were sparked in part by the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Rioting and looting followed, with people flooding out onto the streets of major cities. Soon riots began, primarily in black u ...

which followed the

assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Martin Luther King Jr., an African-American clergyman and civil rights leader, was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, at 6:01 p.m. CST. He was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he died at 7 ...

, the Democratic National Convention protests later that year, and the

Days of Rage The Days of Rage were a series of protests during three days in October 1969 in Chicago, organized by the emerging Weatherman faction of Students for a Democratic Society. The group planned the October 8–11 event as a "National Action" ...

(1969).

Ownership

Peter Wilt Peter Wilt is a soccer executive who was the first President and General Manager of the Chicago Fire in Major League Soccer, led an effort to bring an expansion MLS franchise to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and maintains strong connections to the sp ...

served as the principal owner, as well as the president and CEO. Wilt is a key figure in the history of Chicago professional soccer, having served as the first President/GM of

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

's Chicago Fire, later becoming CEO of

Women's Professional Soccer Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) was the top-level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play on March 29, 2009. The league was composed of seven teams for its first two seasons and fielded six teams for the 2011 sea ...

Chicago Red Stars The Chicago Red Stars are a professional women's soccer club based in Bridgeview, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. A founding member of the Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league, they have played in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) sin ...

before leaving to start the Riot.

Year-by-Year

External links

Official website
Association football clubs established in 2010 Villa Park, Illinois Defunct indoor soccer clubs in the United States Indoor soccer clubs in the United States

Riot A riot is a form of civil disorder commonly characterized by a group lashing out in a violent public disturbance against authority, property, or people. Riots typically involve destruction of property, public or private. The property targete ...

Major Indoor Soccer League (2008–2014) teams 2010 establishments in Illinois 2011 disestablishments in Illinois Soccer clubs in Illinois Association football clubs disestablished in 2011 {{Chicago-stub