Audi Field in Washington, D.C., will host the 2026 NWSL Championship on Nov. 21, the league announced on Wednesday.
The game will mark the second time in four years that the venue has hosted the league’s final, which is staged annually at a predetermined venue.
“Washington, D.C. has become one of the premier destinations for women’s soccer, with an incredibly engaged fan base, a vibrant soccer culture and a community that continues to champion the growth of our game,” NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman said in a statement.
“As soccer captures the attention of fans across the country this year, the NWSL Championship will serve as a fitting culmination of a landmark year for our sport in the region.”
Audi Field is the home of the NWSL’s Washington Spirit and MLS’ D.C. United
The NWSL team is averaging over 15,000 fans per game this year at the venue known as “Rowdy Audi” for its loud acoustics.
Read more:Need a pre-World Cup soccer fix? There’s plenty to watch, if you know where to look
Washington has played in front of announced sellout crowds of 19,215 fans for all three weekend home matches to date this season.
“Hosting the NWSL Championship at Audi Field is an incredible honor for our fans and this city,” Spirit CEO Kim Stone said in a news release.
“Audi Field is one of the best soccer atmospheres in the country, and DC shows up for women’s sports like few cities in the world. A fan base this passionate deserves events like this.”
Audi Field hosted the 2022 NWSL Championship that saw the Portland Thorns FC beat the Kansas City Current 2-0 in front of over 17,000 fans.
The Spirit have finished runners-up in each of the past two finals, which were played in San Jose, California, and Kansas City, Missouri.
Read more:Why yellow cards are the most controversial bet at the World Cup
Only one team (North Carolina Courage, 2019) has won the NWSL Championship on its home field in 12 previous editions of the final.
The match has been hosted at a predetermined site since 2015.
Berman has said repeatedly that the league plans to stick with that format, rather than the highest-seeded finalist hosting. Much of that has to do with the expansion of the NWSL Championship into a week-long event, and the league’s widespread venue challenges.
Most teams are secondary or tertiary tenants in their home stadiums.
The NWSL requires a stadium to be free of other events for several days prior to the Saturday night final to prepare for the game and surrounding events.
Read more:EFL slams ‘deplorable’ Southampton for pressuring staff to spy
The league hosts a bidding process among its teams each year before selecting the host for the game.
Berman told ESPN in March that there was interest in the game “from several big markets.”
Columbus, which was recently awarded a 2028 NWSL expansion team, will host the NWSL Challenge Cup final between Kansas City and Gotham FC later this month.
That match was awarded to Columbus prior to their official acceptance as an expansion team.
“It’s not a definite no, but I think our preference will be, where we can find the right solution, the right venue, the right market, to bring it to an NWSL city,” Berman told ESPN about the final.
Read more:Tim Ream named as captain of USMNT for 2026 World Cup
“I view the NWSL Championship, especially with what it’s become, as a gift back to the community. It gives us an opportunity to celebrate the best of the league.
“Of course, with all the ancillary programming we bring to market, there are many reasons — and I think we’ve effectively made it a place where players from other teams want to come even if they are not playing.
“So, it’s become a Super Bowl of sorts. And because of that, whatever community hosts the NWSL Championship, gets the benefit of basically seeing everyone in the league, not just the two teams that are playing in the NWSL Championship.”
Berman told ESPN in March, “I believe that if we wanted to fill a 60,000-seat venue [for the NWSL Championship], we could — if the circumstances were right.”
The NWSL has played several one-off regular season games in MLB and NFL stadiums in recent years, which has allowed teams to attract larger crowds than their usual stadiums could hold.
Read more:BTS, Cardi B, Lainey Wilson, Muse, Snoop Dogg and others will perform at iHeartRadio Music Festival
Denver Summit FC set an NWSL attendance record in March with an announced crowd of 63,004 fans at Mile High, home of the NFL’s Broncos, for the team’s first home game.
Sources have suggested in previous years that some teams have explored the idea of trying to bring the league’s marquee event to their market but not in their typical home stadium. Many teams play in venues that hold around 20,000 fans.
“We’ve definitely looked at the different options that exist in a community that is an NWSL city, without being anchored only to the specific and literal venue where the NWSL team plays,” Berman told ESPN.
“We sort of think about the market more broadly, which is that any of the venues in an NWSL city could make sense. And where there is an appropriate professional facility that is an alternative, we’ll look at that, too, and we have looked at that.”
