Top Stories

NYC FC moving forward with temporary training facility in Westchester County

NYCFCPosesYankeeStadium (AP)

By DAN KARELL

New York City FC seem adamant that their game-day home will be within the five boroughs of New York City. However, that ideal isn’t extending to their training facilities, for now.

On Tuesday evening, the town of Harrison’s planning board approved a reported $10 million project funded by NYC FC to upgrade the athletic facilities at Manhattanville College, located in Purchase, N.Y., a hamlet of Harrison. NYC FC’s current plan is to use those facilities as their training ground.

The planning board voted 4-2 to approve the measure.

A source close to the situation told SBI that having the planning board approve the project was one of the last hurdles to jump over and that an official announcement will be made in the coming days.

According to a document on the Purchase Environmental Protection Association’s website, Manhattanville and NYC FC’s plan is to renovate and upgrade the current athletic facilities, with the document making clear that no new buildings will be built and there will be no expansion beyond the Manhattanville Athletic Department’s current footprint.

The project calls for a portion of Kennedy Gymnasium to be upgraded, including the removal of an indoor pool, upgrading the artificial and natural turf fields that are already located on campus, and the creation of a new half-sized grass field on an area that currently has tennis courts. Manhattanville no longer has Men’s and Women’s tennis, making the courts available to be demolished and the space turned into something else.

The current artificial turf field will be resurfaced, which is years overdue, and the grass field will have underground heating placed in. In addition to these improvements, new fencing, walkways, signing, and lighting will be added.

NYC FC is expected to fully fund the improvements and in return, be able to use the facilities as a temporary practice facility. The document states that once the team finds their own “standalone training facilities,” the upgraded facilities on Manhattanville’s campus will be donated to the college “in perpetuity.”

Although there is a main entrance off of Purchase St., NYC FC players and staff will enter the facilities in the back of the university by the athletics fields, from Manhattanville College Road.

NYC FC announced earlier this week that they will be playing at least their first season in Major League Soccer at Yankee Stadium, the baseball home of co-owners, the New York Yankees. The New York Times reported last week that NYC FC would be spending their first three seasons at Yankee Stadium.

Comments

  1. As a Phili fan, I hope that the new Man City team quickly realizes that even with all their Yankee and Quatra $ that all the B/S of working with NYC and the unions and kick backs etc has a big price? They should stay up in NY state

    Reply
  2. I’m an instant fan of NYC FC. I am already a Yankees fan, so this is perfect and best of all, the team will actually plays their matches in New York. Since MLS announcement a few years ago, that they were looking for a second team in New York, I’ve been anxiously awaiting its arrival. I was hoping the team would have a SPS in Queens, but this is fine in the interim. The location of the practice facility doesn’t really matter at this point, since NYC FC doesn’t have a permanent home. However, Purchase, NY is a nice place and would be a nice drive on a weekend to see the practive squad.
    I went to a few New York (really New Jersey) Red Bull Matches but I hated the fact that I had to go over two bridges (or tunnels) and pay those ridiculously expensive tolls. Now, I will only have to take one bridge, or better yet, take the subway.

    Reply
    • NJ Transit to Newark, then PATH to Harrison would be faster from midtown. Or it’s 22 minutes direct from WTC. Plus, Yankee Stadium isn’t exactly close to most of the city. The excuses about it being hard to get to RBA from the city just don’t hold water. Getting back to the city can be tough but the new PATH station will eventually alleviate that problem.

      Reply
    • New Yorkers’ aversion to travel is odd to me as an Angelino. NYC has fantastic public transit. Angelinos are jealous of your subway system. But I don’t understand how a 35-45 minute train ride is too much to bear. It beats sitting in freeway traffic. I’ll bet the average driving time for Galaxy fans is 30-45 minutes to the StubHub Center, which is in a pretty crappy location in its own right.

      Every soccer stadium that’s not located in the heart of its respective city has the same problem: People just don’t have the initiative to make the commute out of their comfort zone. I guess that’s why the Pacific Northwest clubs are doing so well in attendance; they’re all walking distance from their respective urban cores. Hopefully NYCFC ends up in a good, pedestrian-friendly location.

      Reply
      • For what it’s worth I drove 90 miles each way for Sounders home matches every game for four years from Bellingham, Wash. Lots of people did. I guess it’s just more of an event in the PNW than in NYC. Then again, not a lot to do in Bellingham, Wash., all the major league sporting events are either 60 miles and a border wait to Vancouver or 90 miles to Seattle.
        I drove 4 1/2 hours from Austin a couple weekends back to watch the Sounders in Dallas. But that was more of a one-off than a season ticket kind of thing.
        Hopefully eventually enough people will get pumped in greater NYC that the commutes aren’t considerd an issue.

      • I grew up in Brooklyn, but I have lived in NJ for years and I still can’t understand New Yorkers’ aversion/fear/stubbornness when it comes to traveling to NJ to see RBNY. An hour on the subway to see the Mets or Yankees is fine, but an hour to Harrison is horrific. Smh

      • It all comes down to whether you care, if you cared enough you endure it like they do for Jets and Giants football. Not enough people in USA care enough about the domestic soccer game, that is the sad truth. You are right, its not far…but when you are waffling anyway its a convenient excuse.

      • But the idea that people will suddenly start to care and make the trip to the Bronx when they won’t make the equally long trip to RBA is what puzzles me.

  3. AS A PHILI FAN,, I HOPE THE REALITY OF TRYING TO WORK WITH UNIONS AND ALL THE B/S KICK BACKS ETC THAT IS PART OFF NYC FINALLY CATCHES UP TO THE MANCHESTER ARAB CITY ORG AND THEY STAY UPSTATE

    Reply
  4. Factoid – This training facility is farther away from midtown NYC than Cosmos or Red Bull’s facility.

    In about 3 years when they realize they have no hope of building in the city, they will be in Yonkers and be known as Westchester City FC.

    Reply
  5. Meanshile, Randy Levine of the Yankees was quoted as saying that i considering locations for a permanent stadium, the club would not restrict itself to the five boroughs, but instead would also considers sites outside of NYC proper.

    Reply
    • They are making it up as they go along. Temporary stadium. Temporary training facility. This is really starting to bad for MLS. Not that they care obviously.

      Reply
    • I wonder if Reyna will merge in his New York Soccer Club (NYSC) youth teams and make it part of NYCFC? Will the youth teams also play in Purchase?

      Reply
  6. Saw the renderings on ESPN yesterday of what the MLS pitch is going to look like in Yankees stadium. Can’t ask for a much better scenario, really. The pitch is full sized, no infield dirt, very nice grass, and pretty decent sight lines.

    Reply
    • As a D.C. area native and current Rapids season ticket holder I hate N.Y. but having 2 teams in NY is a good thing for MLS. There’s like 10 million people there and a ridiculous amount of money. MLS needs more causal sports fans and this team will bring more people in then say a team in St Louis or San Antonio. Even though St Louis has a huge soccer history.
      And who cares where they train.

      Reply
      • It’s ok. As a lifelong New Yorker, I hate DC & don’t even pay attention to Colorado. It all evens out.

  7. Though not a fan of NYCFC, it’s tough to say anything bad when there’s a pic of Mariano Rivera posted with the article.

    Reply

Leave a Comment