Audi Field was busy Sunday. On the pitch, the Washington Spirit dominated the Portland Thorns, breezing through the NWSL quarterfinals with a score of 4-1. And on the phone, across team offices and in the corporate suites, club executives were rushing to ensure the organization could keep hosting its playoff run there at Audi Field.
Team leadership began the day with the belief that a semifinal match could not happen at their usual home of Audi. The stadium had a scheduling conflict that seemed unresolvable — and so the Spirit had reserved Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland — the home of the Commanders — for a potential game to be played on Nov. 14. They did not believe they would be making any further stadium arrangements. That changed over the course of the quarterfinal win on Sunday.
At halftime, Spirit executives began making calls. Shortly after the match was final, Audi Field had been secured for the Spirit match next Saturday. The process took just a few hours. This account of how the arrangement came together is based on interviews with two people with knowledge of the events.
The club originally believed there was no way to play a semifinal at Audi Field on the afternoon of Nov. 14 because of a variety of factors — including the fact that broadcast windows meant the date and time could not be moved, and that the stadium was already booked that day for the Secretaries’ Cup, the Division III football rivalry between the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy whose location was announced in August.
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Audi Field is operated by D.C. United. Scheduling for the venue is handled by the MLS team. The Spirit has been a full-time tenant since 2023 and has played at least a portion of its schedule at the stadium since 2019.
If the Spirit could not play a potential semifinal match at Audi, team leadership wanted to go as big as possible for an alternate location. They did not consider any venues smaller than the 20,000-seat Audi Field and ultimately ended up reserving the biggest stadium in the metro area: Northwest Stadium seats 64,000, and with the Commanders on the road this week for Thursday Night Football, the building was available for the weekend.
“The Commanders deserve a lot of credit here,” said a person involved in the discussions. “They didn’t hesitate.”
Earlier in the season, the Spirit played an NWSL-record-breaking match in Denver, held in the Broncos’ stadium with a crowd of more than 63,000. This would have been a chance to break that record — and to do it in their home market with a playoff game. “It was an opportunity to do something bigger to showcase women’s sports,” the person said.
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But there was uncertainty about making that come together so quickly. There had been months of hype and marketing behind NWSL games in similarly large stadiums. This one would have only a few days. There were also worries about relocating the Spirit’s biggest game of the year to an unfamiliar stadium not built for soccer.
The team’s president of soccer operations, Haley Carter, went to Spirit CEO Kim Stone with concerns about relocating a playoff match to a new environment. Players wanted to be at Audi. Leadership understood — but it did not seem like a possibility. Stone and her team kept building out the contingency plan for Northwest Stadium.
Then the Spirit opened its quarterfinal with a powerful show of intensity. Before the first half was over, the club was up 3-0, with a sold-out crowd buzzing at Audi Field.
At halftime, Carter went to see Stone in the field-level suite where the executive was seated by the Spirit’s owner, Michele Kang.
Carter made one last pitch for leadership to explore any final options for playing the next game at Audi. Stone asked for a few minutes to make some calls.
First, she huddled with Kang, who became the majority owner of the Spirit in 2022. She agreed the best course of action would be doing whatever possible to host the semifinal at Audi. Kang gave her blessing to Stone to explore all options.
Stone’s first halftime call was to Danita Johnson, D.C. United’s president of business operations. By the end of the game, they had reached an understanding that if the Spirit or a sponsor underwrote the cost of shifting the Secretaries’ Cup, the club would be able to play at Audi Field at noon on Nov. 14. (D.C. United released a statement late on Sunday, reading in part, “Audi Field is proud to host the Secretaries’ Cup between the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and U.S. Merchant Marine Academy on Saturday, November 14. We are working closely with the Academies on event-day logistics.” That would likely move the football game into the evening, but as of Tuesday morning the team was still working to finalize a kickoff time, according to a spokesperson.)
Were a sponsor not found, Kang was prepared to shoulder the cost, according to a person with direct knowledge of her thinking. But the club needed only a few minutes to find a willing partner. Stone asked for input from the Spirit’s vice president of corporate partnerships, Doug Vinci. He immediately thought of Lafayette Federal Credit Union — whose leadership was in attendance at the game. They reached a deal “on a handshake” shortly after the match was over. The credit union agreed to underwrite the cost of accommodating the semifinal match.
“It’s the fastest deal we’ve ever done,” the person said.
The Spirit will now host the Utah Royals at 12 p.m. on Saturday at Audi Field. If they advance? No further venue shuffling will be necessary. The NWSL Championship is booked for 8 p.m. on Nov. 21 at Audi Field.
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