Stadium Hunting: D.C. United

Traveling the World to Find Some Beautiful Stadiums

6 min readNov 17, 2025

This story is going to have a lot of lore. Some might say it will have too much lore, but I think this entry of Stadium Hunting will show off the beauty of Audi Field, the extent of how much this goal of visiting every stadium means to me, and the lessons I learned during my solo trip.

Where Did It Start?

Well this specific story started before the Seattle Sounders article I wrote. In fact this story started while I was starting my Masters in Social Work. I was offered an opportunity: turn my focus to substance use research in return for a free trip the Washington D.C. to discuss substance use and reformation in New Jersey. I mean shit, a pretty big commitment to make for most. Me personally, it was just another thing to add onto the accomplishment belt, so I took the chance. Keep in mind, I had no interest in substance use at the time, I have never even taken a class in it during my Bachelors and now I was being asked to make it everything I would know. So for many months I worked in Substance Use Disorder (SUD). I took a masters course, my internship was helping teens through their substance use journey, I was collecting research about SUD and using my personal experiences to influence all my other courses. Months of sacrifice until April arrived. I was fresh off my Seattle trip, and working on planning my work trip to D.C. to present what I had learned. One thing was more important than the research though…”is there a game that weekend?”. Best believe there was a game. There was one issue though, the game was taking place after the conference and the NASW was not paying for me to fuck around in the capital. I had to be smart, I submitted my paperwork for reimbursement and immediately after I changed my flight to the day after. Although I couldn’t stay in the hotel for an extra night, I made the decision that I would roam D.C. all night with nothing but my carry on and my pride. The trip arrived, I departed on Mother’s Day for the capital. I arrived to D.C. and went straight for the hotel to drop my bags and to further my plans.

The Day of the Game

After my work was done, it was time to set my plan into motion. I had gotten my plane ticket pushed back an extra day to leave the following morning than originally expected. I left my hotel room and I was tasked with wasting time until the game started. So I took off with just my carry-on luggage. I ubered out into the greater D.C. area where I first dropped off my bag. I left my bag at a gym that was offering day lockers and began to walk towards the general area of the stadium which was around a 40 minute walk. Instead of walking the entire way there, I stumbled across one of those city scooters and paid to speed up my process. I took the scooter for a ride in what I thought was the right direction but accidently headed like 10 minutes in the wrong direction. I fixed course and ended up near the stadium in around 30 minutes. Bumpy ride, almost busting ass, and barely wanting to ride it again. I left the scooter behind and started my walk around the space. I had like 3 hours to kill so I took a lap around their party district outside of the field and then I took a quick peak at the National’s stadium. I then took a pit stop at a bar in which I killed about 2 hours by watching the Premier League. Finally, with an hour to go I finally started to walk towards the stadium which was still about 10 minutes from where I was. Once I got to the stadium, I was surprised with the vibe of the stadium. There wasn’t really anything going on that would hype people up so instead I just went straight inside to see if I had better luck. I bought my jersey and took a lap around the outside of the field. I have to admit, it was cool being able to walk around the stadium but at the same time, it was weird because everything is above you so basically, you are walking around and under the entire field, seats, bleachers. Small lap as well, I burnt through the lap.

The Supporters Section and Game

Once I got to the supporters section, it was cool the way it was set up. In Seattle, there were seats but at Audi Field, it was just barricades and standing. I liked the feel of it because you were forced to be apart of the show and you couldn’t chicken out and just sit through the show. I took myself as level to the field as possible to have a good view of the field and of the entire supporter section. This is where we get into another side story that took place. A couple arrived next to me which I thought nothing of because obviously there’s only so much space and we are supposed to be part of the show. The lady starts talking to me, sorta flirtly but also just curious. She asks me where I’m from and what I’m doing at a game, the usual stuff. I explained my situation and she was interested in how I even got to D.C. to begin with. As we’re chopping it up, her man busts in between us, drunk as hell. He starts asking me questions about soccer and my nationality. He starts breathing down my neck about how his soccer team (some team from Chile) beat some random soccer team from Ecuador (not even the team I support). Then out of nowhere, this guy just whips out cigarettes and starts puffing in the stands. It takes maybe 5 minutes before security comes and warms him to put it out. After security leaves, he starts smoking another one. Again, he gets a warning. By this point, the stands are filling up and people are chanting, they are getting rowdy. This man takes his shirt off and starts bouncing on the barricade rails that are meant to hold people in each area. He starts screaming chants he obviously doesn’t know and gets yelled at by security again. I tried to talk to the lady again but to no success because this guy was acting a fool. Anyway, the supporter section was electric, even though D.C. lost horribly to the Red Bulls of all team (yuck) the crowd didn’t stop. I left before full time and sadly I did not get to say goodbye to that flirty lady as she disappeared somewhere during the game.

D.C. and the Aftermath

After the game ended, I took another scooter as far as I could to pick up my carry-on. I ended up dropping ship with the scooter because I had to take a short cut through a residential area because the gym was going to close and I was going to lose my luggage. Once I got my carry-on, I started my hike to the airport. I knew that physically I was not going to make it to the airport by walking — it was about 3 hours walking and it was across the highway. Instead I just started walking until I couldn’t anymore. I made it through 2 towns, a park, a few monuments, and a back alley before I gave up. It was about 1am before I called an uber to leave me at the airport. I slept on the floor in the general area as the airport itself didn’t open again until 5am the following morning.