After the Spirit plays its NWSL semifinal match Saturday at noon in Audi Field, the stadium will switch the playing surface from pro soccer to college football, load in new vendors, swap out team signage around the building and prepare for the service academy rivalry known as the Secretaries’ Cup — all in just a few hours.
“The Spirit earned the right to play a playoff match in front of their home crowd, and the cadets earned the right to play the Secretaries’ Cup on the stage that was promised to them,” Danita Johnson, president of business operations for D.C. United and Audi Field, told The Washington Sun. “We weren’t willing to choose between them, so we found a way to do both.”
Some last-minute dealmaking over the weekend allowed the Spirit to keep its semifinal game at Audi. That had been in doubt as the NWSL semifinal bracket solidified: Audi was booked months ago for the NCAA Division III Secretaries’ Cup, played annually between the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, at 1 p.m. That would have made it impossible for the Spirit to host that day at 12 p.m.
Audi Field scheduling and operations are managed by D.C. United. (The Spirit are a full-time tenant of the stadium.) A scheduling conflict looked inevitable.
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The NWSL did not want to push the Spirit game to a different time because of broadcast considerations and did not want to push the game to another day because of how it would affect the other side of the semifinal bracket. (No. 1 seed Gotham FC, which has seen its own stadium drama this week, plays on Sunday, with the additional day of rest a perk of being the highest seed.) The Secretaries’ Cup had been scheduled for months and had been in conversations with D.C. United leadership about hosting the game for nearly a year.
Spirit leadership prepared to host in another venue and secured Northwest Stadium, home of the Commanders, in Landover, Maryland. But the club knew that would not be ideal: It did not want to stage a do-or-die match in an unfamiliar stadium that was not built for soccer.
D.C. United decided the best course of action was hosting both events on the same day, with the Spirit at noon, and the Secretaries’ Cup in the evening.
“We understood the importance of Audi Field to the Spirit, as we always have, but we also have our commitment to the Secretaries’ Cup,” Johnson said. “It was trying to figure out: Is there a way that we could do something special? And that’s what is coming to life currently.”
As of late Tuesday, D.C. United was still working alongside the service academies to finalize a kickoff time for the Secretaries’ Cup.
Changing the field from soccer to football will involve painting yard lines and installing goalposts. It will be the venue’s first time attempting this kind of same-day turnover.
“It’s something new for us here at Audi Field, but we’ve seen it done in other venues, and we’re excited for the challenge,” Johnson said.
The Spirit found a sponsor to underwrite a portion of the cost associated with shifting the schedule like this. (That portion was “in the low six figures,” according to a person with knowledge of the deal.) D.C. United is paying roughly $500,000.
“This was never about financial gain for Audi Field or our ownership group,” Johnson said. “It’s an additional cost to our organization, and we’re prepared to take that on, being good partners to both.”
The Secretaries’ Cup has been played annually for nearly 50 years and traditionally alternated between the home fields of the two academies. Last year, it was played in Boston at Fenway Park, and Audi Field was publicly announced as the site of the 2026 game back in August.
The game has a slew of additional programming, including a ticketed fan fest, and could not be bumped to another day: This is the last weekend of the Division III football regular season and the selection show for the 40-team playoff bracket is held on Sunday.
“We’ve made a commitment to them well in advance, and I think honoring that commitment has remained a priority for us throughout this process,” Johnson said of the Secretaries’ Cup. “So we’ve been having extensive conversations with our organizers to work through the complexities of hosting two major events in the same day.”
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