NWSL playoff venue changes Washington Spirit Gotham FC, Digi Mart USA News: The Washington Spirit will play their NWSL semifinal at Audi Field after the club reached a deal to avoid playing a playoff game at Northwest Stadium, home of the NFL’s Washington Commanders. Top-seeded Gotham FC will play at the 5,000-seat Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island in New York City because of poor pitch quality at Sports Illustrated Stadium, their usual home.
The Spirit will face the Utah Royals on Saturday, November 14, at noon, while Gotham FC will host the Kansas City Current on Sunday at 3 p.m. The NWSL has worked through significant venue-availability conflicts, balancing two sought-after national television broadcast windows with issues at the stadiums of semifinalists with home-field advantage.
Audi Field has been the Spirit’s full-time home since 2023 and has hosted raucous crowds during the team’s playoff runs, including Sunday’s 4-1 win over the Portland Thorns. However, a Division III college football game between the Coast Guard Academy and the Merchant Marine Academy was scheduled at Audi Field on Saturday afternoon, in a national TV window the league would not be willing or able to move.
ESPN reported earlier this week that the NWSL had prepared scenarios in which the Spirit would play at Northwest Stadium, a 64,000-seat venue in Landover, Maryland, where the team has never played in its 14-year existence. The Spirit are not the primary tenants at Audi Field, which is owned and operated by MLS team DC United.
The Spirit would not confirm whether the college football game had been moved, and as of Monday afternoon it was still listed for its original 1 p.m. Saturday time on both schools’ websites.
The primary concern for Gotham’s semifinal was the state of the pitch at Sports Illustrated Stadium, which has taken significant wear after recent soccer and rugby matches and would have hosted the game one day after the New York Red Bulls, the stadium’s owners, play a friendly against Liga MX side Club América. During Gotham’s 1-0 quarterfinal win over Seattle on Sunday, the field was patchy and sandy, with many visible brown spots.
Reign captain Jess Fishlock described the field as “atrocious,” and Gotham coach Juan Carlos Amorós apologized for the conditions, saying the club had attempted to mitigate them without success.
Reign head coach Laura Harvey told ESPN, “Let’s be real, there’s no way a playoff game should be played on that,” adding, “I just can’t believe they’ve allowed it. They knew it last week.” The league reportedly fined Gotham $10,000 for the poor conditions in its regular-season finale on November 4.
Gotham captain Tierna Davidson said in the club’s news release, “We as a team worked extremely hard to earn a home playoff berth. What we got was a field that is not the standard this club, this league or our fans deserve.” Icahn Stadium mostly hosts track events and is not heavily trafficked, but it has a natural grass pitch funded by MLS club New York City FC in 2024.
It has hosted Gotham games before, including a regular-season match in July, though its capacity is just under half of Gotham FC’s average attendance this season.
Yael Averbuch West, president of soccer operations for Gotham FC, said in a statement, “This was an extremely difficult decision, and one we did not take lightly.” She added, “After thoughtful consultation with coach Juan Carlos Amorós, our team captains and our ownership, we felt it was important to prioritize a playing surface that appropriately allows our athletes to perform at their best.” She continued, “We fully understand and appreciate the impact this has on our fans, and we are equally disappointed that we won’t have the opportunity to play in front of more of our supporters at our home stadium.
Unfortunately, we were faced with a difficult situation, and at the end of the day, the game is played on the field.”
