I’m not exactly a football / soccer fan, but any interest I have in the sport is directed to my home team, the New York Red Bulls. Yes, technically the NYFC team in New York City (known as The New York City Football Club) would technically be my home team as the Red Bulls play in New Jersey and NYFC plays in Yankee Stadium in my home borough of the Bronx, but I dislike to a fault all things Yankees, so the Red Bulls are my team. Over the years, I’ve been to two games in Red Bull Arena in Harrison New Jersey, and really enjoyed the experience.
Huge American Flag on display for the national anthem at Red Bull Arena on Sept 11, 2015
Since it is my home team that is involved in this news, I found it super interesting that the Red Bulls will be playing their upcoming 2018 CONCACAF Champions League match vs Olimpia in the national stadium in San Jose Costa Rica, because Olimpia’s home country of Honduras currently has quite a bit of political instability following recent elections. In addition, also interesting, due to sanctions placed on the Honduras team, they must play six consecutive games ‘behind closed doors’, or with no fans in the stadium. Most of the info I’ve found on that is in Spanish, but you can see the English press release with more details in this tweet.
So, even if I was in Costa Rica for the game on Feb 22, I wouldn’t be able to watch it because the stadium will be empty. Since it is a home and home series, I certainly could catch the 2nd game in Red Bull Arena on March 1.
The interesting point of this to me is that of all the countries in Central America this match could be moved to, they chose Costa Rica. It makes me feel good that the country we’ve chosen to invest in and visit, purchase real estate, and potentially live in down the line, is considered to be a stable enough environment to host these sorts of international competitions over the other countries in the region.
Action from Red Bulls game in July 2011
UPDATE: The Red Bulls and CD Olympia played to a 1-1 draw in the match played behind closed doors at the National Stadium in San Jose Costa Rica.
We are Scott and Caroline, 50-somethings who spent the first 20+ years of our adult lives in New York City, working traditional careers and raising 2 kids. We left full-time work in our mid-40’s for location-independent, part-time consulting projects and real estate investing, in order to create a more flexible and travel-centric lifestyle. 
Financial independence and early retirement is not something we originally focused on, but over time realized it was possible. Our free report, 
