NWSL playoffs scheduling snafu: Washington Spirit keep Audi Field; Gotham move to Icahn

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. Top-seeded Gotham FC, meanwhile, will play their game 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 play their semi-final against the Utah Royals on 14 November (Saturday) at noon, while Gotham FC will host the Kansas City Current on Sunday at 3pm.

The NWSL has had to maneuver through significant venue-availability conflicts in the past few days, balancing two sought-after national television broadcast windows with issues at the stadiums of the semi-finalists with home field advantage. Many of the teams in the league are not the primary tenants or owners of their stadium, meaning they are not able to exert full control or say over scheduling or conditions.

Audi Field has been the Spirit’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.

However, a Division III college football game between the Coast Guard Academy and the Merchant Marine Academy was scheduled to be played at Audi Field on Saturday afternoon, a national TV window that the league would not be willing or able to move.

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 14-year existence, in the event that both the Spirit and top-seeded Gotham advanced to the semi-finals.

The Spirit are not the primary tenants at Audi Field. The stadium is owned and operated by MLS team DC United. The Spirit would not confirm if the college football game has been moved to a different location or date. As of Monday afternoon, it was still listed for its original time of 1pm on Saturday on both schools’ websites.

The location of Gotham’s semi-final against Kansas City was announced Monday afternoon. Though Sports Illustrated Stadium was available for the Sunday slot, the primary cause for concern was the state of the pitch. It has taken much wear-and-tear after hosting soccer and rugby matches in recent weeks, and would have hosted the semi-final just one day after MLS’s New York Red Bulls, the stadium’s owners, play a friendly against Liga MX side Club América.

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 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.

“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,” Gotham captain Tierna Davidson said in the club’s news release about the game relocation.

Icahn Stadium mostly hosts track events and is not well-trafficked, but has a natural grass pitch funded by MLS club New York Cit FC in 2024. It has hosted Gotham games in the past, including a regular-season match in July. Its capacity, though, is just less than half of Gotham FC’s average attendance this season.

“This was an extremely difficult decision, and one we did not take lightly,” said Yael Averbuch West, the president of soccer operations for Gotham FC, said in a statement. “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.

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.”