Gotham FC Are ‘Making Lemonade Out of Lemons’ Amid Stadium Relocation for NWSL Semifinal

It was a chilly 44 degrees and drizzling as Gotham FC players trotted out for training at Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island in Manhattan. A months-long saga led up to this moment, to the team training on an island in the East River, 25 miles away from their usual home, Sports Illustrated Stadium. But ahead of the team’s National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) semifinal match against Kansas City Current, neither players nor staff were letting it get them down.

”There’s been a lot going on, but for us, it’s always about the solution and not the problem,” Gotham manager Juan Carlos Amorós told reporters Saturday. “The mood, to be honest, has been great this week. I think we’ve worked incredibly hard to be in the position that we are in, playing a semifinal at home. That’s what we can control. We control the controllables.”

The uncontrollable problems started with scheduling. Major League Soccer’s New York Red Bulls scheduled a friendly on the Saturday of semifinal weekend despite knowing Gotham’s potential playoff calendar for months. But even with Gotham’s game scheduled for Sunday, concerns over field conditions at the Harrison, N.J. stadium—for which Gotham was fined—still had the team searching for alternative venues.

“We had to make a very quick decision, but Juan [Carlos Amorós] did consult with several of our player leaders,” Gotham’s president of soccer operations Yael Averbuch West tells Sports Illustrated. “Ultimately I was heavily influenced by their very strong recommendation having to do with the playing surface.”

Time to Bring Everything to @IcahnStadiumNYC for the semis 😈

WHY STOP NOW? pic.twitter.com/Q5bS0ojmNN
— Gotham FC (@GothamFC) November 13, 2026

Along with representatives from the NWSL league office, the team searched for weeks, considered several venues across the area and ultimately landed on a familiar spot—the pristine Kentucky bluegrass field of Icahn Stadium.

“It looked good, players were moving well on it, the players were moving well,” Averbuch West says, watching training on Saturday afternoon.

It’s a smaller capacity stadium for Sunday’s clash, with 5,000 permanent seats compared to Sport Illustrated Stadium’s 25,000.

“It’s a really tough decision to make, and it’s ultimately about prioritizing,” Averbuch West explains. “There’s not a perfect answer. For us, as everyone knows, we ultimately prioritized the playing surface bit, which comes at the expense of other things. Often I find there’s no ‘right decision,’ it’s about understanding priorities, and ours as a club was to have the players play on a surface that was of the quality that they deserve.”

Icahn Stadium Is Home Away From Home

Love a crisp autumn day on the pitch 🍂⚽️

See you soon, #GothamFC Fam! pic.twitter.com/2rPcBk1yOM
— Gotham FC (@GothamFC) November 14, 2026

“[The field] is great, we’ve played here twice now, and it’s been good every time we’ve been here,” Gotham captain Tierna Davidson said after Saturday’s practice. “It was great training on it today.”

The team’s two other games at this location came in July against Seattle Reign, when Gotham notched a 3–2 come-from-behind win, and in August 2025, when they won 2–1 against C.F. Monterrey in the Concacaf W Champions Cup group stage. The familiarity is something that makes the stadium feel like a home away from home.

”Even just the simplest things like knowing where the locker rooms are, knowing how to get onto the pitch, knowing what the setup will be, those things do make a difference,” Davidson said.

As the team trained on Saturday afternoon, spirits were high. With the backdrop of Manhattan and under the traffic of the Tri-Borough Bridge, players and staff were fully locked in on what’s in front of them: an NWSL semifinal.

gotham celebrating — Gotham defeated Seattle Reign 1–0 in the quarterfinals. | Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images

But with such a small stadium capacity, the team had to find unique ways to still engage with their fans across the New York–New Jersey area.

“We were incredibly disappointed that we couldn’t welcome all of our fans to our first home semifinal in club history,” Gotham majority owner Carolyn Tisch Blodgett tells Sports Illustrated. “This was a historic moment for Gotham FC, and it was important to us that our entire community had the opportunity to be part of it, even if they couldn’t be in the stadium. That’s why hosting watch parties mattered so much. Our fans have shown up for us time and again, wherever we play, and we wanted to make sure they could share in this moment together. We’re incredibly grateful for their unwavering support.”

From Bloomfield, N.J. to Astoria, Queens, Tisch put down $2,000 at each of the four official watch party locations to make sure the fans who couldn’t fill the seats at Icahn still feel part of the action.

“So many people are behind us, and we knew that not everyone could be here in person,” Averbuch West adds. “So it’s not just having people cheer us on from home, but also to get together and feel the community aspect of cheering for the team is really important. We love that people are gathering all over the place, including here.”

For the players and staff at Gotham, they are giving this semifinal the importance it deserves. In 2025, the team knocked out the shield-winning Kansas City Current in the quarterfinals 2–1 with a stoppage-time goal from Katie [Stengel] Lampson. This time, Gotham get the home field deserving of their own shield win, and they’re considering Icahn their true home away from home.

“We have done a really good job of finding the silver linings, making lemonade out of lemons,” added Davidson, who has showed up big on defense all season long. “I think the setup here tomorrow is going to be really great.”

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