The Navy Yard-Ballpark Metro station

Scott Ableman / Flickr

On Tuesday, WMATA decided to keep trains running late for the upcoming Nationals Wild Card game and the Mystics WNBA finals game.

Now, the transit agency is extending its offer, announcing Thursday that as long as the sports teams move on in the postseason, Metro will keep trains running late for fans.

“For the remainder of the Nationals season, Metro will ‘flex’ its operating hours by committing to customers attending the game that trains will continue running and Navy Yard-Ballpark Station will remain open for 20 minutes after the end of the game,” the agency says in a statement announcing the extended hours. On Nationals game days, the Navy Yard station will be the only one open for customers to enter—the rest will be exit-only, per WMATA’s release.

The same policy will apply to Mystics spectators if the team’s finals matchup against the Connecticut Sun goes to a fifth game on Thursday night at the Entertainment and Sports Arena, according to the transit agency.

Metro plans to foot the bill for these late closures, a departure from its usual practice. Normally, Metro only keeps trains running late on game nights if a sponsor pays $100,000 to offset the cost.

But Metro has done things like this in the past—after a 2018 Capitals playoff game went late, the agency kept trains running 20 minutes past the end of the game, spokesperson Dan Stessel told WAMU this week. “We announced during the game that trains would wait 20 minutes past the end of the game,” he said. “Otherwise this packed arena would have been stranded.”

Nearly 25 percent of the Nationals fans attending Tuesday’s game used the Metro to get home, according to the agency. The Metro board plans to look more deeply into the agency’s policies regarding game night schedules.

“Today’s commitment to keep trains running 20 minutes after all Nationals and Mystics postseason games lets the region’s fans choose Metro and know that we’ll be there to get them home,” Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld said in the release. “This approach is a bridge to address the immediate concerns of customers until the Board can take a fresh look at the policy.”