As the National Women’s Soccer League finals kick off on Saturday in San Jose, Calif., fans of the Washington Spirit and Gotham FC are bringing more than jerseys and banners. They’re bringing an entire culture of singing and chanting that has become central to the league’s game-day experience.

For supporters of the Washington D.C. team, that energy has been building all season. The Spirit Squadron, one of the club’s major fan groups, has spent months preparing the repertoire they’ll unleash from the stands on Saturday.

“We have a chant just for when we score,” said Squadron president Meredith Bartley, of a raucous, snare drum-laced chant celebrating getting the ball into the back of the net. It’s set to the nursery song “The Animals Went in Two by Two.” There’s a chant (with the endearing refrain “You’re my favorite soccer team!”) for when fans are simply having a blast.

And there’s one rooted in local politics. “This season, we’ve started in the 51st minute a ‘Free D.C.’ chant,” Bartley said. The chant nods to the long-standing push for D.C. home rule and statehood, and grew out of heightened tensions earlier this year, when the Trump administration took control of the district’s police force and deployed National Guard troops to the city.

Borrowing from the global soccer canon

Spirit supporters also borrow from the global soccer canon. When the energy in the stadium dips, they’ll sometimes launch into a playful chant appropriated from English Premier League crowds. “Let’s pretend we scored a goal,” they repeat.

New York and New Jersey-based Gotham FC supporters — who will be cheering on the Spirit’s opponents in the championship match — have similarly embraced U.K. soccer songs. One in particular has become an anthem.

John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” famously sung by Manchester United fans at their stadium, Old Trafford, has taken on a new life in the tri-state area. In 2023, Gotham FC fans reworked the song into “Gotham Roads,” a tribute to the team and the region.

“To use ‘Country Roads’ was actually my idea,” said Marge Liguori, who leads Cloud 9, a big Gotham FC supporters group. “I do also happen to be a Manchester United fan. So I kind of borrowed that, but worked with other fans to adapt the lyrics.”

All in it together

For Liguori, the song resonates because it evokes a sense of home. “I think that’s what we find in our arena and in our community with our team,” she said.

This feeling of belonging is paramount to understanding why singing and chanting are such an integral part of sports events.

“Really, the team is more of just a metaphor for the community,” said Max Jack, an ethnomusicologist and anthropologist at Indiana University who has studied the intersection of sports and music. He said singing and chanting allow fans to go through the emotional journey that is a soccer game together.

“It creates a sense of stranger intimacy that is incredibly deep and fulfilling,” Jack said. “It offers something that most people won’t access in their day-to-day life.”

That intimacy extends beyond fan-to-fan relationships. Chants also help build bonds between supporters and the players they root for. After Gotham FC’s 2023 NWSL championship, fans serenaded defender Mandy Freeman as she approached the stands. Freeman wiped away tears as she hugged fans across the railings.

Those interactions — along with the fans’ overall enthusiasm — matter to the team, Jeff Greer, Gotham FC’s vice president of communications, told NPR. “When we hear them chanting, we know that they are at our backs pushing us to victory,” he said.

The Spirit feel the same way. Their home matches at Audi Field in Washington D.C. are known for their high-octane atmosphere. “Our players regularly credit ‘Rowdy Audi’ for being the 12th player on the field,” said Spirit director of communications Ben Kessler. “And a lot of that is because of how creative their chants and cheers are.”

The ranking Democrat on the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, which oversees public buildings, is investigating leadership at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for what he says are “millions in lost revenue, luxury spending, and preferential treatment for Trump allies.”

The committee’s ranking member Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) sent a letter outlining the claims to Kennedy Center president, Richard Grenell. Grenell denied the allegations in a letter that was posted to the Kennedy Center’s social media.

The Kennedy Center’s building is maintained by the federal government, though its programming and staff are supported by a combination of private and federal funds.

Whitehouse’s letter, plus documentation obtained by Democrats on the Senate committee, are posted on its website. The documents appear to show that non-arts groups are getting significant discounts on rental fees at the Kennedy Center. There is a copy of a contract with FIFA that shows the international soccer organization will not pay the usual $5 million in rental fees when it takes over the center for three weeks in order to announce next year’s World Cup draw, as first reported by The Washington Post.

Senate Democrats obtained copies of contracts given to Grenell’s friends and associates, worth tens of thousands of dollars.

In his letter to Grenell, Whitehouse said these and other actions show a “profound disregard” for leadership’s “fiduciary responsibility.”

Allegations of financial mismanagement come at a time of declining audiences, artist cancellations, layoffs and resignations at the Kennedy Center.

An analysis by The Washington Post found that ticket sales at the Kennedy Center have taken a nosedive; on average, 43% of tickets have not been sold since early September. On the same day as the Post‘s reporting, Grenell announced the center had raised “a record-breaking” $58 million from donors and sponsors in 30 days “with more on the horizon.”

In his response to Whitehouse, Grenell wrote that he is “concerned about your careless attacks on me and my team” and that the Senator’s letter is “filled with partisan attacks and false accusations.” Grenell denied Whitehouse’s claims and alleged financial mismanagement by the center’s previous leadership, including “a bloated staff” and “deferred maintenance” that “was quite literally making the building fall apart.” President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act includes $257 million for repairs, maintenance and restoration of the Kennedy Center.

Addressing the claim that FIFA will be using the center for free, instead of paying a $5 million rental fee to the Kennedy Center, Grenell said the international soccer organization has “given us several million dollars, in addition to paying all of the expenses for this event in lieu of a rental fee.…A simple rental fee would not have been enough to cover the magnitude of the event.”

Grenell has slammed previous Kennedy Center leadership a number of times. In this week’s letter to Whitehouse, he wrote that “for the first time in decades, we have a balanced budget at the Kennedy Center.” In May he told the Kennedy Center board the “deferred maintenance of the Kennedy Center is criminal.”

Former Kennedy Center president Deborah Rutter and board chair David Rubenstein rejected Grenell’s characterization of their work. Rutter wrote, “Perhaps those now in charge are facing significant financial gaps and are seeking to attribute them to past management.”

In a statement to NPR from May, Rubenstein said, “financial reports were reviewed and approved by the Kennedy Center’s audit committee and full board as well as a major accounting firm.” That audit committee included board members appointed by Trump during his first term, including U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. At the time, she was a special advisor to Trump and worked on his defense team during his Senate impeachment trial.

Whitehouse is requesting the Kennedy Center supply him with “documents and information about the Center’s financial management practices, expenditures, donors, and contracts under Grenell’s leadership by December 4, 2025.”

This story was edited by Jennifer Vanasco.