Denver Summit FC to play home debut at Mile High Stadium
When the Denver Summit FC plays in front of its fans for the first time, the match will be in the state’s largest sports venue. The professional women’s soccer team announced Monday its inaugural home game will be at noon March 28 at Empower Field at Mile High Stadium.
The NWSL season starts March 18, with the Summit playing on the road before its Denver debut at the 76,125-seat home of the Denver Broncos. Sales for the match, branded as “The Kickoff,” go on sale Nov. 12 on the team’s website. The Summit’s opponent for the opener and the schedule for its 15 home games are expected to be announced in January.
The Denver team was announced in January as the National Women’s Soccer League’s 16th team. The ownership group, led by Denver businessman Rob Cohen, paid a NWSL record $110 million franchise fee for the team.
In April, fans broke another league record with 10,000 season ticket deposits ranging from $30 to $100. That number has since surpassed 15,000 with 67% of those purchasing tickets as of November.
The team is hoping to accomplish another feat in March by hosting the most attended professional women’s sports event in U.S. history. That title is held by Bay FC when the San Francisco NWSL team played in August against Washington before 40,091 fans at Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants.
“When I think about Empower Field at Mile High, it’s a symbol where dreams come true, and this is something that this match will represent,” Cohen said Monday at a news conference. “If this game goes the way we think it is, I think it will send a very loud message to the rest of the league that Denver Summit FC is here to stay.”
At the announcement event Monday, Summit FC president Jen Millet said the team was looking for a venue that could accommodate the size of community support they’ve received, and have championship DNA inside its walls.
Clearly we have that here at Mile High,” Millet said.
After playing at Mile High, the team will move to a temporary 12,000-seat stadium next to its training center in Centennial for two seasons. The team plans to move into a proposed 14,500-seat stadium by 2028. That venue would sit south of downtown Denver, on a vacant parcel of land known as Santa Fe Yards, bounded by Interstate 25 and Santa Fe Drive.
The new stadium, expected to cost $150 million to $200 million, will be built by the ownership group. But it will likely benefit from large property tax breaks, and $70 million from the city of Denver, which will purchase the property and build surrounding infrastructure.
A hesitant city council approved the city’s funding in May. The site returns to the council for zoning approval this month, starting at the South Platte River Committee on Nov. 12.
This is a developing story that will be updated.