Gotham FC will play Sunday's NWSL semifinal against the Kansas City Current at Icahn Stadium over concerns about the quality of the pitch at Sports Illustrated Stadium, which was described as "atrocious" during the team's quarterfinal win over the Seattle Reign.
The NWSL Shield winners announced the venue shift on Monday, less than a week before the semifinal. Icahn Stadium is a smaller venue on Manhattan's Randall's Island that seats 5,000 and has been sparingly used by Gotham, who have played the vast majority of their home games at Sports Illustrated Stadium in Harrison, N.J. since 2021. Sports Illustrated Stadium seats 25,000 and welcomed nearly 13,000 for Sunday's 1-0 win over the Reign.
The quarterfinal match, though, was marred by complaints about the playing surface from both teams. Reign head coach Laura Harvey described the field as "s—" in a post-match interview with ESPN, while captain Jess Fishlock called it "atrocious." Gotham head coach Juan Carlos Amoros also apologized for the quality of the surface after the NWSL fined the club $10,000 in the build-up to the quarterfinal match.
"We as a team worked extremely hard to earn a home playoff berth," captain Tierna Davidson said in a statement on Monday. "What we got was a field that is not the standard this club, this league or our fans deserve. The quality of the game is not up for debate, so we've made the difficult decision to move to Icahn Stadium on Sunday. A smaller stadium means many of you will not be there, and that is the hardest part of this decision. You have turned every ground where we have played into home, and that does not change on Sunday. We have never needed a perfect setting to make a place ours. Bring everything you have on Sunday, and we will leave it all on the field."
The pitch at Sports Illustrated Stadium appeared to show the wear and tear from recent events, not least of which was Gotham's regular season slate. Gotham are the secondary tenants at the venue, which is owned by New Jersey's Hudson County but counts MLS' Red Bull New York as the primary tenants and operators of the facility. The stadium was also the site of a rugby doubleheader the weekend before Gotham's quarterfinal against the Reign, which led Gotham midfielder Jaelin Howell to describe the surface as "sandy" and "unstable."
The Red Bulls will still play a friendly on Saturday at Sports Illustrated Stadium against Club America. The friendly will take place during the men's international break so several first team players will miss the match, which will serve as the final game of their season since they missed out on the MLS Cup playoffs for a second season in a row.
"We wish Gotham FC the best of luck in their semifinal at Icahn Stadium," Red Bull New York told CBS Sports in a statement. "We look forward to our match on Saturday at Sports Illustrated Stadium."
Not Gotham's first trip to Icahn
Gotham have staged two games at Icahn Stadium in the last year and change – a Concacaf W Champions Cup group stage match in 2025 and their 3-2 win over the Reign in July. There is the perception of convenience for the club's fans based in the city of New York, who would otherwise have to trek to New Jersey to attend a game. As far as public transportation goes, though, Icahn Stadium is only accessible via the M35 bus; a footbridge connecting Randall's Island from 125th Street is also an option, as is venturing to the stadium by car.
"It's nice for folks who live in New York to have a somewhat closer venue," Jen Muller, a longtime member of the official Gotham supporters group Cloud 9, told CBS Sports last year. "I know it's not ideal for a lot of them, too, because there's one bus that comes here but you adapt."
The pitch at Icahn Stadium, which has also hosted New York City FC II matches this year, is not expected to be an issue and was not during the Concacaf match in 2025.
"I don't really want to talk too much about it but the Sports Illustrated Stadium has traditionally been the best pitch in the league," Amoros said at the time, "and the last couple of games, it's definitely been far away from that so this pitch here is outstanding."
Logistics plague NWSL playoffs
Gotham's move to Icahn comes despite the fact that they avoided a scheduling conflict with Sunday's results. The NWSL's broadcast slots for this year's semifinals were Saturday at 12 p.m. ET on CBS and Paramount+ and Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on ABC; the Washington Spirit will host the Utah Royals on Saturday, while Gotham will take on the Current on Sunday.
For Gotham, the Sunday time slot was the preferred option because of a pre-existing scheduling conflict with the Red Bulls' Saturday friendly against Club America. They had to wait out the result of the Spirit's quarterfinal with the Portland Thorns, though, since the Thorns would have been unable to host a semifinal at 9 a.m. local time. Gotham seemed destined to return to Sports Illustrated Stadium once they avoided the scheduling conflict but the quality of the pitch caused new concerns.
The Spirit, meanwhile, avoided a scheduling conflict of their own. They were originally set to host the Royals at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Md., home of the NFL's Washington Commanders, because their usual venue of Audi Field was instead hosting Secretaries' Cup, a Division III college football game between the United States Merchant Marine Academy and the United States Coast Guard Academy. The college football game has since been pushed to a later slot that day, Spirit CEO Kim Stone crediting Audi Field owners D.C. United and sponsor Lafayette Federal Credit Union for underwriting "the additional costs necessary to bring this semifinal match home."
The issues stem from the fact that many NWSL teams are secondary tenants in their home stadiums, the Spirit included – MLS' D.C. United own and operate Audi Field. Some, like the Royals and the Orlando Pride, benefit from sharing ownership groups with MLS clubs, while the Current own and operate CPKC Stadium. The rest often rent the local MLS team's stadium, Gotham and the Spirit included, but it creates other unique conflicts for teams with more control over their venues. The Current's quarterfinal against Angel City on Saturday, for example, kicked off at 11:30 a.m. local time in order to fit the broadcast slot on CBS.
