The 2025 NWSL Championship game tomorrow should be a classic. On one side, you have the second-seed Washington Spirit, a former champion in 2021, playing in their fifth league final. On the other is eighth-seed Gotham FC, the 2023 champions and defending CONCACAF Champions Cup title holders, who scored late in two consecutive playoff games to get back to the promised land.
You, too, can witness this game on Saturday. I just hope you didn't plan on watching in person, because the final will be played in San Jose, CA, at PayPal Park. That's the National Women's Soccer League home of Bay FC, the team that finished second-from-last in the table.
The venue shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody who was paying attention. The league announced back in June that the final would be played in Silicon Valley, continuing a decade-long tradition of neutral-site finals that kills local fan engagement in their product.
District vs Empire...in Cali?
The 2025 NWSL Championship between the Spirit and Gotham will be the 45th meeting between the teams in all competitions. That surpasses Seattle Reign vs Portland Thorns as the most-played fixture between two NWSL teams.
Knockout competitions seem to bring out the best in both sides. In 2020, coming back from the pandemic, then-named Sky Blue FC needed penalty kicks to knock out the Spirit in front of a raucous crowd of zero fans in Utah. Then last year, the Spirit got their revenge when they eliminated defending champion Gotham from the NWSL playoffs in another penalty kick shootout.
Mind you, both teams are also still in competition in the knockout stage of the 2025/26 CONCACAF W Champions Cup. The two sides played to a scoreless draw in the group stage back in October, but they could meet in the final if they beat their respective Liga MX Femenil opponents next May.
It's a shame that these two rivals will be playing three time zones away from either of their home stadiums — both of which are empty and available this weekend as neither Sports Illustrated Stadium nor Audi Field is currently being used by their respective Major League Soccer tenants. That puts supporters in the position of attending watch parties, with both teams announcing multiple bars and restaurants as places where fans can gather to watch their teams together.
What a missed opportunity. Earlier this year, when Gotham hosted the Spirit at Sports Illustrated Stadium, the decision was made to open additional portions of the upper bowl. A season-high 13,860 were in the stands that day.
Is it really hard to think that even in a cold climate like the Northeast, a championship final wouldn't attract over 20,000 spectators? Heck, the MLS NEXT Pro Cup Final at SIS brought in 9,095 fans earlier this month to see New York Red Bulls II beat Colorado Rapids 2. A fanbase centered on the I-95 corridor could easily double that.
But instead of planning tailgates and pregame meetups, the supporters of a second-seed team chasing a league title are putting together DIY watch party threads on Reddit so that they can experience this match as a collective.
Matthew Mangam
Bound by television
Since 2015, the NWSL have played championship matches at a neutral site. This came after the first two finals were played in Rochester, NY, home to the Western New York Flash, and the small-capacity Starfire Sports Stadium in Tukwila, WA, where Seattle were hosts. Those two venues didn't exactly wow the fans watching at home.
Last year, when Orlando Pride and Washington Spirit played the title match at KC Current's CPKC Stadium in Missouri, NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman said the neutral-site model, from an operational and promotional standpoint, is better than playing at the home of the higher-seeded team.
“This is our opportunity to really deliver what we feel is a best-in-class national event that requires weeks and months of preparation,” Berman said. “It’s the reason that the NFL holds the Super Bowl at a neutral site. It’s an opportunity for us to give all of our partners an opportunity to activate and to help us spread the message of the NWSL and drive all eyeballs to the championship match, which is the pinnacle of our season.”
Has this worked? Yes — according to the NWSL. Since 2018, championship game attendance has remained above 10,000. In 2023, when Gotham won their first NWSL title, a record 25,011 fans were in attendance at San Diego's Snapdragon Stadium. Last year, a capacity crowd of 11,500 packed into KC Current's home venue.
But the fairly obvious reason behind the NWSL's decision is television, even if it's never directly stated. The NWSL currently have a broadcast deal with CBS that was recently expanded earlier this year, and now involves other broadcasters.
Oliver Strand
Scheduling the NWSL Championship at a neutral site allows the broadcasters to lock in a time slot no matter who are in the final. The game's kickoff at 8:00 pm ET (5:00 pm in San Jose) is good for CBS.
It avoids the trouble that came in 2021, when the league and CBS scheduled the championship game at Providence Park in Portland, OR, with a 9:00 am kickoff local time — which was 12:00 pm on the East Coast. Players actively complained, and the match was eventually moved to Louisville, KY, and played at 12:00 pm ET.
The NWSL isn't unique in this facet. Strange start times for important games because of television deals happen across sports. If the league believes avoiding this hassle at the expense of a stronger atmosphere, that's their pill to swallow.
This year, the game will be played in prime time, with a kickoff scheduled for 8:00 pm ET. But the pre-selection of the venue reflects the balance of power between a league that needs the network more than the network needs the league.
Megha Gupta
A league running from itself
In just about two weeks from now, it will have been one year since the 2024 MLS Cup Final between the New York Red Bulls and LA Galaxy. That game, which I had the privilege to attend and cover, is a pure representation of why home-field advantage matters in a playoff final.
The sold-out Dignity Health Sports Park rocked under the weight of tens of thousands of Galaxy faithful. The supporters groups had tifos for the moment. The energy was off the charts — credit to the thousands of Red Bull faithful who made their voices heard.
All that to say, it was only possible because the game was hosted by the Galaxy.
TEAMS ON THE FIELD THE MLS ORIGINALS BATTLE FOR #MLSCUP #RBNY WANTS #1 #LAGALAXY WANTS HISTORY LA Galaxy vs the New York Red Bulls is coming up! #MLSCupPlayoffs #NYCSN
— Michael Battista (@battista.bsky.social) 2024-12-07T21:10:55.296Z
Do I still zone out when I hear "tv off" by LA's own Kendrick Lamar, thinking of the thousands of fans yelling "mustard" at the same time? Yes. Do I still think about Galaxy fans singing "Not Like Us" after winning their sixth MLS Cup? Yes.
Those are the moments that stick with you, both the good and the bad.
The NWSL are still, arguably, the best professional soccer league for women in the world. It's home to players from countless national teams, chief among them the US Women's National Team, with 65% of the players called up to the national team for upcoming friendlies playing in the USA.
The league has come a long way from playing their matches in Piscataway, or on Lifetime Network. The NWSL in 2025 are making a case to be considered the most successful women's professional sports league in the country, with higher average attendances than the Women's National Basketball Association.
But they need to see that a neutral-site final is a compromise that takes away from the sport. Yes, the league can plan out the television broadcast, organize fan events, and manage ticket sales in a single market. But with so few actual supporters of the teams playing in the game in attendance at the final, it becomes a little like the Super Bowl, where the real fans are the ones watching at home. Soccer is better when the people in the stadium live and die with every touch of the ball.
MLS went through a similar journey. Between the league's start in 1996 and 2011, the MLS Cup Final was played in neutral venues.
Hudson River Blue Staff
One only needs to look at MLS Cup 2010 to see how badly this can go. The 15th season of the league played the championship game at the newly opened BMO Field in Toronto, Canada. Do you remember the clubs that played in that game? Colorado Rapids and FC Dallas, two teams that had to travel 1,500 miles to play.
Sure, there are downsides to playing the title game at the home of the higher seed. The final venue won't be settled until the week before the game, which complicates ticket sales for fans and the logistics for the broadcasters who need to get equipment and personnel in place within a matter of days. There's also the horror that, gasp, it could be cold in November, and even colder if the higher-seed team is from the Northeast or the Great Lakes.
But the higher-seed team should host no matter the weather or climate. If this isn't a problem in the second division of men's soccer, how is it one in the first division of women's? And if it comes down to CBS being the one who makes these decisions, then that's on a league that doesn't fully realize its value.
