A matchup between the Denver Summit and Utah Royals has been significantly postponed due to extreme heat and other environmental factors, the NWSL announced Friday.
The match, which was set to kick off at 2 p.m. MT on Saturday in Denver, has been rescheduled to 8 p.m.
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The NWSL said the decision to push back the match was made after consulting with climate experts, doctors from both teams and the NWSL Players’ Association.
“The healthy and safety of our players, staff, officials and fans remains our top priority and will continue to guide our decision-making in this matter,” the league wrote in a statement.
Saturday’s match will be held at Centennial Stadium, the Summit’s temporary venue while the team builds a new stadium in Denver. Centennial, Colorado, where the stadium is located, is just southeast of Denver.
Temperatures are set to near 100 degrees in Denver on Saturday. In addition, the area will be affected by air-quality issues stemming from wildfires in the western part of the country. Both of those issues will be exacerbated by the altitude, an ever-present issue in Denver, which sits one mile above sea level.
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That combination, per the league, led to “unique medical considerations that warranted additional precaution beyond the operational standards established in the league’s Gameday Heat Safety Policy.” The league’s policy, which uses the wet bulb globe temperature to measure safety risk, is usually used to factor humidity and cloud cover into the baseline heat.
The NWSL’s weather policy has been criticized over the past few years, especially as weather conditions worsen due to climate change. Last August, a game between the Kansas City Current and Orlando Pride was delayed more than three hours due to excess heat.
The Athletic reported after that game that NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman had threatened to fine the Current over a disagreement about whether it was safe to play, with Berman citing the potentially high cost of missing the game’s broadcast window.
With the league’s heat policy facing scrutiny (and Berman’s alleged threat receiving backlash) after that game, the NWSL updated its weather policy ahead of the 2026 season, adding additional hydration breaks during games within a set wet bulb globe temperature range.
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More changes are likely coming this offseason. A summer marred by wildfire smoke across the country has raised concerns about additional weather issues that can affect games.
In the Queens Classic last month, when Gotham FC beat the Washington Spirit at Citi Field, the game proceeded as scheduled despite an air quality index of 170 — just below the NWSL’s threshold for postponing the match. Players after the game said the air quality was less than ideal for playing, even with two hydration breaks per half to try to combat the effects of the smoke.
During a midseason news conference Wednesday, Berman said the league would be reassessing policies at the end of the season and acknowledged that the Gotham-Spirit game would be used as a “data point” in that analysis.
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