With a chance to try something different, Army and Navy instead choose to stick with tradition.
The Army-Navy football game will be played in Philadelphia four times from 2018-2022, returning to its most frequent host city.
The academies announced Tuesday at Philadelphia’s City Hall that Lincoln Financial Field, home of the NFL’s Eagles, will be the site of the 2018, ’19, ’20 and ’22 Army-Navy games.
A news conference was planned by Army, Navy and game sponsor USAA for later Tuesday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The home of the New York Giants and New York Jets is expected to host the 2021 Army-Navy game.
Army-Navy already is scheduled this season for Philadelphia, where the rivals have met 86 times, including the first meeting at Penn’s Franklin Field in 1899. The game usually draws a sellout crowd, and city organizers estimate an economic impact of more than $30 million.
The 2021 Army-Navy game would be the fifth played in East Rutherford.
Yankee Stadium in New York and Fenway Park in Boston were among the other sites bidding to host future Army-Navy games. Also in the mix were M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, and FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland. The old Yankee Stadium was the site of Army-Navy in 1930 and ’31, and the Polo Grounds hosted the game 11 times before that. Since then, the closest it has been to New York City is East Rutherford. Army-Navy has never been played in the state of Massachusetts. Baltimore has been the site of six Army-Navy games, including last season.
“As we made the comparison between various cities, there was no question that Philadelphia is the benchmark,” Navy athletic director Chet Gladchuk said. “We always come back to our roots.”
This year’s Army-Navy game will mark the 11th time Lincoln Financial Field has hosted.
Army snapped a 14-game Navy winning streak in the series last season with a 21-17 victory.
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