SEATTLE — Once the United States was announced as a host country for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, it was well known that the tournament would significantly disrupt the 2026 National Women’s Soccer League season. But the full extent of that disruption wasn’t clear until January, particularly for host markets like Seattle.
To host World Cup games at Lumen Field, Seattle Reign’s usual home, the artificial turf venue has to install real grass in line with FIFA’s requirements. The time needed for that grass to be installed and embedded properly meant the Reign had to find an alternate venue for a portion of the season. They settled on ONE Spokane Stadium in Spokane, Wash., where they will host their first three home games of the season. While Seattle is viewing this as an opportunity to expand its reach, many home fans feel disappointed.
The games in Spokane will be against Kansas City Current on March 25, Racing Louisville on March 28 and Denver Summit on April 4. Seattle’s MLS team, the Sounders, will also be displaced, playing in Spokane for its home leg of the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup Round of 16.
Spokane was chosen to keep Reign home games in Washington state, but the 180 miles between the two venues makes it largely inaccessible to season ticket holders and other fans. On the other hand, however, it does provide an opportunity to gain new fans on the eastern side of the state.
“From the beginning, it was important for us to find a solution that keeps Reign FC matches in Washington while creating new opportunities to engage fans across the state. Spokane has always been an incredible home for soccer at all levels with tremendous support, and bringing Reign FC matches to ONE Spokane Stadium allows us to expand our reach, strengthen our statewide connection and deliver an incredible matchday experience during a historic moment for the sport.” Chief Business Officer Maya Mendoza-Exstrom said in a statement.
Spokane’s Tim Hamm, a season ticket holder for USL League One’s Spokane Velocity who has also attended several USL Super League Spokane Zephyr matches, couldn’t wait to get tickets when he heard the Reign might be coming to his city because of the World Cup.
“I want to showcase our little stadium and our little city to away fans while I watch some great players,” Hamm told The IX Soccer. “I haven’t been to many Reign matches, but always have had a good time when I have gone. I look forward to seeing these talented players in a compact setting.”
Reign players similarly expressed their excitement for growing the game’s visibility across Washington.
“Washington is such a big state, it’s nice to be able to go and interact with everyone that’s involved in it,” longtime Reign midfielder Jess Fishlock said. “It’s more football here in Washington, and we get to be more visible for everybody that enjoys the sport. … I’m excited to go and see the people in Spokane, and hopefully some of our fans can travel there and make it like an away day or something. I just think there are endless positives to the situation that is the World Cup coming to Seattle.”
There are a multitude of reasons why ONE Spokane Stadium was chosen as the team’s alternate venue. ONE Spokane Stadium was the only other available and soccer-specific venue in the state that met the NWSL’s standards for competition venues. It also helps that the Reign has a good existing relationship with its primary soccer tenants, the Velocity and Zephyr, as well as with Spokane mayor Lisa Brown. Though the team considered an extraordinary solution like not playing at home for a month, they felt that would more negatively impact the players and their performance.
“We’re trying to win right now. So we wanted to find a place where we could control the venue, control our outcomes as much as possible,” Mendoza-Exstrom said. “And instead of turning a home game into an away game at a neutral site somewhere else in the country, be able to come home after a match and put our athletes in their own beds here in Seattle. So four games on the road, I think, from a sporting perspective, was another fate worse than death. And so it was a balance of those two things.”
Though Mendoza-Exstrom repeatedly compared the Reign’s situation to the three other teams using more than one venue in 2026, they are not the same. For each of the other three teams — Denver Summit (Empower Field at Mile High, Dick’s Sporting Goods Park and Centennial Stadium), Boston Legacy (Gillette Stadium and Centerville Bank Stadium) and Gotham (Sports Illustrated Stadium and Icahn Stadium) — their venues are all within 25 miles of one another. Even Providence Park, the home of the Portland Thorns, is 100 miles closer to Seattle than Spokane.
Still, it is a short flight for the team and a short timespan. So, head coach Laura Harvey said her first response to getting the news was to take a sigh of relief. For a long time, she thought they’d be forced to play even less at Lumen and not at all on the grass. So Harvey is excited that her team gets to play at least one game on the grass in Lumen and is only displaced for three games.
“Do we want it to impact us zero, of course? But that was unrealistic to think that way,” Harvey said. “So honestly, the fact that it takes us out of the city for I think 11 days, and we’re not going to be there the whole time, we’re going to be able to come back to Seattle — just from a player perspective, being able to sleep in their own beds and stuff like that … This is probably the most painless, I think, it could’ve been for us. So that’s my honest reaction, and I think that’s been the reaction of the players too.”
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The stadium in Spokane also offers a unique experience because of its small capacity compared to Lumen Field. ONE Spokane Stadium holds around 5,000, while Lumen Field, built for the Seattle Seahawks, can hold up to 68,740 people. Hamm agreed with Mendoza-Exstrom’s stated thinking that they will sell out in Spokane, having seen a real excitement for “the big team.” The football stadium, meanwhile, often feels empty as the Reign’s attendance has decreased, averaging just 7,864 fans per game last season.
“We’re usually in huge stadiums, they get filled up, but you feel a little far from the fans. I’m excited to be that close,” forward Emeri Adames said. Referring to her time with the U.S. U-23 team in England playing in smaller stadiums, she added, “We got a lot of fans, and it was so fun. I mean they were rooting against us, but still, they were right there and you can feel the atmosphere is so alive.”
Mendoza-Exstrom also expressed the team’s desire to maintain a relationship with Spokane fans, with possibilities like hosting training camp or preseason friendlies there.
“This is not a one-and-done. The idea is not to go to Spokane and say, ‘Come be our fan,’ and then not provide ways for you to be our fan in the future,” she said. “I think all options are on the table and it’s really exciting.”
Conflict with season ticket holders
Though the team knew it would be affected by the World Cup, it didn’t find out the full extent until receiving the schedule’s final draft in early January. So, they went into season ticket renewals selling 15 home games. When the entire impact became clear, knowing the small capacity of the stadium in Spokane and the distance, the Reign removed those three games from season ticket packages. Season ticket members were told that if they wished to attend they could access an exclusive pre-sale with a 10% discount, and that more details on compensation for the lost games would be coming.
Season ticket member consolation finally came, at least partially, with the Jan. 24 announcement that the U.S. women’s national team would be playing in Seattle for the first time since 2017 — hosting Japan at Lumen Field on April 14 — and that this could be included in their memberships.
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Existing season ticket members were offered two options: a partial refund in the form of account credit that could only be used on 2026 Lumen Field Reign ticketing products (it doesn’t carry over to the next season and can’t be used for Spokane tickets) and their seat for the U.S. game, or a larger regular refund. The Reign confirmed to The IX that the refund was calculated based on the value of the three games within the package they have, factoring in match demand/opponent.
The Reign knew at the time of the Spokane announcement about the U.S. game at Lumen Field, but were unable to make the deal known until U.S. Soccer announced the April friendly matches. So when Mendoza-Exstrom spoke to reporters on Jan. 15, hours after the schedule was publicly announced, she could only say that options would be coming soon, and she thought they were very exciting and would be well received. The overall message, even before the game ticket and refund were offered, was that the club is committed to its fans and understands the reaction.
“We recognize that those three games were displaced and we’ll take care of you, because that’s what we do,” Mendoza-Exstrom said. “At the end of the day, we want you to feel like you’re a member of this club and you get the opportunity to see our team play. If you want to travel across the state, please, come join us.”
That sentiment wasn’t necessarily felt by season ticket members who had a range of reactions to the news. Initially, there was a lot of frustration with the club for removing three matches and not saying when more information would be available.
Multiple season ticket members who spoke to The IX expressed that they felt the club’s communication was insufficient and added to their frustration. Jono Berry pointed to Spokane being announced without any definitive notice to members about what remedy might be provided and when. Others pointed to the lack of explanation for the games being so far away, while Matt Lubin found the tone of the team’s messaging aggravating.
“The continued positive spin the club tries to push on games being over four hours away is disheartening,” Lubin told The IX. “This is an unfortunate situation, but one the club has known about for much much longer than was communicated. I think there was a great opportunity to extend an olive branch to a very weary fan base with the subsequent options. Instead, we got one offering ticket credits we don’t need and the other the bare minimum.”
To Lubin’s point, Mendoza-Exstrom confirmed that plans to accommodate the tournament have been in process for a while.
Lubin is among a handful of season ticket members who asked for a full refund of their tickets as a result of this situation, as he felt it was the last straw among myriad disappointments. Several weeks after his initial request, Lubin said he was able to speak to someone with the power to provide refunds, but was told they couldn’t offer more than a small partial refund because of Ticketmaster. Rather than losing his seats and eating roughly 60% of the ticket value, Lubin said he is likely to keep his membership and try to resell the tickets.
Another member, Becca Homa, felt misled by the team, saying they were getting 15 games and that the email, acting like moving the matches across the state was a positive, “missed the mark.”
While frustration with the team’s communication was expressed by every season ticket member who spoke to The IX, many were relatively satisfied with the team’s solution in the end given a situation they had minimal control over.
“The USWNT game went a long way towards making me happier — it’s not a replacement for missing three league matches, but it’s a very cool separate thing,” John Curry told The IX.
“Ultimately, I can live with making one trip out to Spokane and missing the other two matches, I’m just disappointed at the poor planning on display by both the team and the league.”
While it doesn’t change the fact that they can’t watch their team in person, prices were at least adjusted to a degree. And the prospect of seeing the U.S. women’s national team in Seattle, which has lately featured plenty of Reign players and charges higher ticket prices, at least eases the blow.
“Getting our seats for the US–Japan friendly is a huge perk,” Berry said as one of a crew of nine fans with season tickets together. “But it was slightly annoying that they only gave us an option for a full refund OR US–Japan with a ticket credit that can only be used on seat upgrades or additional tickets. I would have most preferred the national team ticket and a refund of the remainder.
“Part of the reason we’re okay with the ticket credit thing in the end is that I’m not really mad that the money is staying with the team. All in all, pretty content where it settled out, just hope that the team learns and is able to be more proactive in communication moving forward, especially with season ticket holders.”
USWNT’s long-awaited return to Seattle
The U.S. women’s national team has only played in Seattle twice, and the last time was in 2017. The team playing at Lumen Field is only possible because of hosting the World Cup and the real grass they will play on being installed.
The April 14 match is part of a three-game series between the United States and Japan across Washington, California and Colorado during the April FIFA window. One of international women’s soccer’s most storied rivalries and two of the world’s top-ranked teams, it is expected to be an interesting matchup.
The return also comes at a fortuitous time for Seattle, as several Reign players are looking like the future of the team.
Claudia Dickey has earned seven caps, all starts, and is competing to be the starting goalkeeper for World Cup qualifying and the subsequent 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Jordyn Bugg, still just 19-years old, has made six senior appearances and is looking like the team’s centerback for years to come. Midfielder Sam Meza was called up again and appeared in January games after earning her first cap on June 29, 2025. Forward Maddie Dahlien and midfielder Sally Menti also earned their first senior national team appearances in the January friendlies. Not to mention players who have been receiving youth national team call-ups, and players like Mia Fishel, who is looking to return to the team after injury.
To continue to encourage the growth of its fan base in Seattle, the Reign is offering a special ticket bundle. The bundle includes the April 14 U.S. match and Reign FC’s match against defending NWSL Champion Gotham FC on May 15, both at Lumen Field. And the U.S. match is automatically included with all new memberships.
“Seattle is ready to host the world’s best, and this match marks the beginning of an exciting moment for our club, our players and women’s soccer in our city. Most importantly, our players are part of the next generation of USWNT talent, and having the opportunity to compete on their home pitch is incredibly meaningful for them,” Mendoza-Exstrom said in a statement.
So, whether it is the opportunity to see the best women’s players in the U.S. at Lumen Field or ONE Spokane Stadium, the visibility of the women’s game is continuing to grow in Washington, even though season ticket members were left frustrated with how it was handled.
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