Which half of Saturday do you get to keep? For anyone living between Gate 1 and Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, that depends on kickoff time. Navy has two home games left in 2026, and their kickoffs are three and a half hours apart. Temple comes to Annapolis on Saturday, November 7, for a 3:30 p.m. kickoff. Memphis follows on Saturday, November 21, at noon. The week after that, Navy plays at Charlotte on November 28, so the Memphis game is the last time this season that the Brigade of Midshipmen marches up Main Street.
The march follows the same route every home game, and the City times its restrictions to the kickoff. On November 7 the disruption falls in the afternoon. On November 21 it falls in the morning. If you plan each Saturday around that, the Historic District and Murray Hill have plenty to offer in the hours the march leaves free.
The Route Stays Put While the Clock Moves
The City of Annapolis issues a press release before each home game. The October 20 release for the October 24 homecoming game lays out the route. The Brigade leaves Gate 1 at Randall and King George Streets, goes up Main Street to Church Circle, then College Avenue to Bladen Street, Bladen to Rowe Boulevard, and across Rowe to Herbert Sachs Drive before crossing Taylor Avenue into the stadium. Parking restrictions apply to Randall Street from King George to Dock Street and to Main Street from Memorial Circle to Church Circle, and they lift once the midshipmen pass.
The route is the same for every game, so the kickoff time decides when it closes. The two most recent City notices show how that works for each kickoff time. The October 24 game started at 3:30 p.m. For a noon game, the closest example is the August 2025 season opener against VMI.
| Sat., Nov. 7 vs. Temple | Sat., Nov. 21 vs. Memphis | |
|---|---|---|
| Kickoff | 3:30 p.m. | Noon |
| Stadium lots open to pass holders | 9:30 a.m. | 7 a.m. |
| Stadium gates open | 1:30 p.m. | 10 a.m. |
| March start, based on the last City notice for this kickoff time | about 2:20 p.m. | about 10:50 a.m. |
| Randall and Main parking restriction, same basis | about 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. | about 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. |
The lot, gate and march-on figures come from Navy's 2026 Football Parking & Fan Guide. The guide says lots open at 9:30 a.m. for 3:30 kickoffs and 7 a.m. for noon kickoffs, gates open two hours before kickoff, and the midshipmen march on 30 minutes before kickoff while Taylor Avenue is closed from Rowe Boulevard to Gate 5. The march start and parking times are the City's figures from those earlier games. The City usually posts each game's notice a few days ahead, so check its press releases for the official November 7 and November 21 times.
November 7 Keeps the Morning and the Evening
On a 3:30 game day, the morning on Main Street is fairly normal. Parking restrictions on Randall and Main begin around 11 a.m. Rolling road closures started at 2:20 p.m. for the October game and reopened in order as the Brigade passed: Randall Street first, then Main Street, Church Circle and College Avenue, Bladen Street and Rowe Boulevard, and finally Herbert Sachs Drive.
St. John's College is in the middle of that afternoon. The campus sits on College Avenue, which is part of the march route. The Mitchell Art Museum has scheduled "Autopsy of an Exhibition: Unburying 'Unburial'" from 2 to 2:45 p.m. that Saturday, a talk on the exhibition currently on view. If you go on foot, the march will pass while you're inside. If you drive, plan to arrive well before 2:20 p.m., or expect College Avenue to stay closed until the Brigade has gone by.
The Museum of Historic Annapolis, at 99 Main Street, has its Valerie Tripp event that afternoon from 2:30 to 4 p.m., and the event is listed as sold out. If you have tickets, expect Main Street to be busy with the march around the start time.
The evening belongs to Maryland Hall. The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra performs "Forces of Nature" on both Friday, November 6, and Saturday, November 7, at 7:30 p.m. Ticket holders can attend a free pre-concert lecture at 6:30 p.m. The program includes Luke Soneral's An Overture: The Mouse and Its Shadow, Reinaldo Moya's Vestida de Mar with violinist Francesca Anderegg, Tchaikovsky's The Tempest, and Stravinsky's Divertimento from The Fairy's Kiss. This program replaced an earlier announced one, so the current concert page is the version to go by. Tickets start at $25, and student tickets are $15. The City's game notices also warn of congestion on Farragut Road, Rowe Boulevard and Taylor Avenue before and after games. If the game ends close to the 6:30 lecture, the Friday performance avoids that traffic entirely.
November 21 Gives Back the Afternoon
The noon kickoff shifts everything earlier. Under the pattern from the August 2025 noon game, Main Street and Randall Street parking would be restricted from about 7:30 to 11:30 a.m., the march would start around 10:50, and the Brigade would be inside the stadium by about 11:40 a.m. That means the downtown afternoon is clear, and this Saturday has more to fill it.
Here's one way to spend the afternoon on foot, in order:
- The Annapolis Gingerbread Houses open that morning at the Visitors Center, 26 West Street. Local bakers and community creators build the houses, and visitors vote for their favorite. The display opens at 10 a.m. on November 21, so it's already up when the march ends. Visit Annapolis lists it through January 6, and the Inner West Street listing gives January 4, so the display runs into early January.
- "Chime After Chime" runs from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Hogshead Trades Museum, 43 Pinkney Street. Historic Annapolis's resident clockmaker, Stephen Sieracki, shows how clocks count and strike the hours, and participants handle real clock parts and help assemble a working striking mechanism from a grandfather clock. The program is free, with a suggested $5 donation.
- The Museum of Historic Annapolis at 99 Main Street is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays in November and December, so you can stop in on the way back up Main Street.
- KWP's Waiting for Godot opens at Francis Scott Key Auditorium, 60 College Avenue, with performances on Saturday, November 21, and Sunday, November 22. The St. John's listing doesn't show curtain times yet.
Even by the time the College Avenue performance begins, the stadium crowd will be leaving Rowe Boulevard and Taylor Avenue, well away from the Historic District.
Navy's Parking List Includes Your Garages
The time of day matters most to people who park downtown, because Navy points its fans toward the same garages residents use. Stadium lot parking isn't sold on game day. Season passes go to Blue-N-Gold season ticket holders for $200 per regular-sized vehicle. Fans without a pass have a few options. Germantown Elementary at 200 Windell Road charges $35 per vehicle, cash only. The Harry S. Truman Park and Ride runs a shuttle about every 20 minutes, starting five hours before kickoff. Navy also lists four garages: Bladen Street Garage at Bladen and Calvert, Gotts Court at 250 Northwest Avenue, Park Place Garage at West Street and Taylor Avenue, and Whitmore Garage at 37 Clay Street.
For Murray Hill, Park Place Garage is the one to watch, since it sits at the Taylor Avenue end of West Street. On November 7, game traffic heads for those garages in the late morning and early afternoon. On November 21, it starts much earlier, because the stadium lots open at 7 a.m. and the Truman shuttle would begin around 7 a.m. for a noon kickoff. If you're meeting guests downtown or running Saturday errands by car, the open half of the day is a better bet on both dates.
Navy's guide also has a section titled "Our Neighbors." It asks fans to "be mindful of the neighborhood surrounding Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium" and to "respect the private property and the homes of our neighbors." Tailgating is allowed only on stadium property.
The Saturday in Between, and What Comes After
November 14 has no game, and Historic Annapolis has scheduled a colonial food walking tour that day. It stops at the Waterfront Warehouse, the Hogshead Trades Museum and the William Paca House & Garden. Hammond-Harwood House holds its annual Discovering American Art lecture the same day.
After November 21, Main Street has no more march restrictions for the season. Visit Annapolis lists the Grand Illumination tree lighting near Market House and City Dock on Sunday, November 29. The Downtown Annapolis Partnership holds Midnight Madness on the first three Thursdays of December, which fall on December 3, 10 and 17 this year. Shops stay open from 4 p.m. to midnight on the first two of those nights and until 11 p.m. on the third.
Living a few blocks from the march route means planning around the Brigade on game days, and the same goes for showings, open houses and moving trucks. If you're thinking about selling or buying in the Historic District or Murray Hill, Annapolis Fine Property can work game days, Midnight Madness evenings and your street's particulars into the schedule. Get a positive, helpful partner and schedule a consultation.
