The city of New York is getting its first soccer-specific stadium according to an announcement made by mayor Eric Adams and NYCFC.
The project, which will be in conjunction with city councillor Francisco Moya, the Queens Development Group, and various labour unions, will see the Willets Point community in Queens, NY receive a 25,000 seat stadium in time for the 2027 season.
The stadium will reportedly be 100% privately funded and will also include the construction of 2,500 affordable housing units. The location of the proposed stadium will be near Citi Field (home of the New York Mets) as well as the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre (home of the US Open).
Walking distance from the city’s subway system, the project will also create 40,000 square feet of public open space in addition to 250 retail locations.
The 2021 MLS Cup Champions joined the league in 2015, and have played games at both Yankee Stadium and Red Bull Arena as they sought out a more permanent home in the city that never sleeps.
“Our fans were itinerant spectators who needed new GPS coordinates to attend games week to week in different locations,” said NYCFC vice chairman Marty Edelman. “But that incomplete condition ends today. We have come home to Queens, to Willets Point.”
NYCFC will pay roughly $780M to build the new state of the art facility, which also helps fulfill a guideline from MLS head offices as well. Commissioner Don Garber has made it known in the past that the league prefers that its teams play out of soccer specific facilities.
That desire has resulted in recent expansion teams such as Austin FC and FC Cincinnati constructing their own stadiums as a condition of their approval.
For the time being, NYCFC plans to continue operating out of similar venues in and around the tri-state area as they have for the past several years.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: Arturo Pardavila III. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.