Gotham FC will play Sunday's NWSL semifinal against the Kansas City Current at Icahn Stadium, a 5,000-seat venue on Manhattan's Randall's Island, after concerns over the playing surface at their usual home, Sports Illustrated Stadium, prompted a late relocation. The 25,000-seat arena in Harrison, N.J., where Gotham have played since 2021, was available, but worries about player safety drove the move to a ground the club has used only twice before.
The decision followed Gotham's 1-0 quarterfinal win over the Seattle Reign, after which head coach Juan Carlos Amoros said he felt 'the obligation to almost apologize for the state of the pitch,' adding that 'as a league, we should be having a better surface.' Captain Tierna Davidson said in a statement that the team 'worked extremely hard to earn a home playoff berth' but got 'a field that is not the standard this club, this league or our fans deserve,' calling the reduced capacity 'the hardest part of this decision.'
The dispute centered on Gotham's relationship with MLS' Red Bull New York, the primary tenants and operators of Sports Illustrated Stadium. RBNY installed a new pitch during MLS' World Cup break, finished by the team's July 25 loss to Charlotte FC, with more than 20 matches possible on it by year's end. The field had been one of the country's best, winning the Sports Turf Management Association's professional soccer award in 2021.
Gotham raised concerns with their landlords before a Nov. 1 match against the Royals, with damage from a USA Rugby Fall Series doubleheader on Oct. 30 still visible. The match went ahead, and the NWSL fined Gotham $10,000 for the field's condition even though the club does not manage the venue. The NWSL Players Association said it was unaware of the punishment, and a source said RBNY did not know either; many learned of it only when Reign coach Laura Harvey mentioned it after the quarterfinal.
A field consultant working for the league inspected the pitch the Friday before the quarterfinal and said it met FIFA standards, and representatives from the NWSL, the Professional Referee Organization and the NWSLPA deemed it playable on Sunday morning, a source familiar with the situation said. Players disagreed. Reign captain Jess Fishlock called it 'atrocious,' Gotham midfielder Jaelin Howell described it as 'sandy' and 'unstable,' and attacker Jaedyn Shaw worried her planted foot would slip on corner kicks. Sand from the rugby doubleheader and faint rugby lines were still visible.
After the quarterfinal, Gotham and the NWSL discussed fixes with RBNY, including re-sodding the field or stitching artificial threads into the existing grass, multiple sources said. The hybrid option might have been ready for Sunday's semifinal, but the league could not guarantee completion before RBNY's Saturday friendly against Club America, so RBNY declined to proceed. RBNY said in a statement that the pitch 'was cleared for every match played there this season' and that 'the experts and the league couldn't guarantee' the work in time; the club still plans to play the friendly on the same surface with no changes beforehand.
Icahn Stadium is not unfamiliar. Gotham hosted a Concacaf W Champions Cup group game there in August 2025, when Amoros called its pitch 'outstanding' while noting Sports Illustrated Stadium had 'traditionally been the best pitch in the league.'
The switch compounded a postseason already strained by scheduling. The league's semifinal broadcast slots, Saturday at noon ET on CBS and Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on ABC, collided with venue conflicts: RBNY's friendly blocked Gotham from the Saturday window, and the Washington Spirit nearly had to move to Northwest Stadium because the Secretaries' Cup college football game was set for Audi Field. Late talks with D.C. United and sponsor Lafayette Federal Credit Union's help underwriting costs kept the Spirit at Audi Field. The Boston Legacy, meanwhile, shifted home games from Gillette Stadium to Pawtucket, R.I., during the World Cup and will remain there in 2027 while White Stadium is built.
The episode highlights a structural issue: around half of NWSL teams are secondary tenants with little control over their buildings. Gotham plan to move to Etihad Park in 2028, but that stadium will be run by New York City FC, leaving them as secondary tenants again. Kansas City, owner and operator of CPKC Stadium, is considered the league's gold standard, yet even the Current had to kick off their quarterfinal at 11:30 a.m. local time to fill the CBS window. Venue control now weighs heavily in expansion, with MLS-owned clubs in Atlanta and Columbus set to join in 2028.
