Denver Summit-Utah Royals match pushed back by 6 hours due to extreme heat, as NWSL weather policy receives scrutiny

A matchup between the Denver Summit and the 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. MT.

The NWSL said that 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 it builds a new stadium in Denver. Centennial, CO, 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 coming from the western part of the country. Both of those issues will only be exacerbated by the altitude, an ever-present issue when playing in Denver, which sits one mile above sea level.

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 with climate change. Last August, a game between the Kansas City Current and Orlando Pride was delayed by more than three hours due to excess heat.

Initially, the league’s focus seemed to be on money lost, rather than safety: The Athletic reported after that game that NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman had threatened to fine the Current over a disagreement on whether it was safe to play, with Berman citing the potentially high cost of missing their 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.

However, more changes are likely coming this offseason. A summer marred by wildfire smoke across the country has raised additional weather issues that can affect games.

In the Queens Classic last month, when Gotham FC beat the Washington Spirit in 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 that the air quality was less than ideal to play in, even with two hydration breaks per half to try and combat the effects of the smoke.

During a midseason press conference on Wednesday, Berman said that it 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.