Game will be played in Saturday noon broadcast window
Shift to Northwest Stadium was reportedly in play
Gotham location TBD amid ‘atrocious’ pitch conditions
The Washington Spirit will play their NWSL semi-final 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.
The club announced late Sunday night that they will play their semi-final against the Utah Royals on 14 November (Saturday) at noon.
Audi Field has been the NWSL team’s full-time home since 2023, and it has hosted raucous crowds for the team’s playoff runs, including Sunday’s 4-1 win over the Portland Thorns to advance to the semi-final.
A Division III college football game between the Coast Guard Academy and the Merchant Marine Academy was previously scheduled for that same afternoon at Audi Field. ESPN reported earlier this week that the NWSL had been preparing scenarios that would see the Spirit play their playoff game on Saturday at Northwest Stadium, a 64,000-seat venue in Landover, Maryland, roughly 10 miles north-east of downtown Washington where the team have never played a game in their 13-year existence, in the event that both the Spirit and top-seeded Gotham advanced in this weekend’s quarter-finals.
The Spirit, as is the case with many teams across the NWSL with their respective stadiums, are not the primary tenants at Audi Field. The stadium is owned and operated by MLS team DC United. The Spirit could not confirm if the college football game has been moved to a different location or date.
The league also announced that Gotham’s semi-final against the Kansas City Current will take place at 3pm on 15 November (Sunday), but it did not announce a location. The Shield winners regularly play at Sports Illustrated Stadium in Harrison, New Jersey, and with the Spirit’s home semi-final set for Saturday, they are cleared to play in the Sunday late-afternoon broadcast window.
The issue now, though, is the conditions of the field at Sports Illustrated Stadium. It has taken much wear-and-tear after hosting soccer and rugby matches in recent weeks. The stadium is scheduled to host a New York Red Bulls friendly match a day before Gotham’s playoff game.
During Gotham’s 1-0 win over Seattle in their quarter-final on Sunday afternoon, the venue’s field was patchy and sandy, with many visible brown spots. Reign captain Jess Fishlock described the field as “atrocious”. Gotham coach Juan Carlos Amoros apologized for the conditions and said the club – which is a tenant at and not an owner of the stadium – attempted to mitigate the circumstances without success.
“Let’s be real, there’s no way a playoff game should be played on that shit,” Reign head coach Laura Harvey told ESPN. “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 their regular-season finale game on 4 November.
Gotham’s semi-final could be played at Icahn Stadium, a 5,000-seat stadium on Randall’s Island in New York City where the club has played several games in recent years.
“While some circumstances are outside our control, we’ve proactively evaluated multiple scenarios and their tradeoffs to prepare for every potential matchup, with the goal of minimizing disruption to players, clubs and fans while protecting competitive integrity,” the league said in a statement before the quarter-finals. “These challenges also reinforce why stadium infrastructure and meaningful control or influence over venue availability have been central to our growth strategy for years.”
