By DAN KARELL
If all goes to plan, New York City FC could be neighbors with the New York Yankees.
The Major League Baseball club, who is part owner of NYC FC with Manchester City of the English Premier League, have submitted a new proposal for a soccer-specific stadium that would be located just south of the new Yankee Stadium, according to a report in the New York Times.
The report states that the NYC FC executives are looking to build a 25,000 to 30,000 seat arena that would be close to public transportation and would not take up any parkland. The club is also interested in building the stadium in an area where there are already a large number of soccer fans.
“We’ve had preliminary discussions,” President of the Yankees Randy Levine said to the Times, “but we’re a long way from any decision. We’re also considering sites in Queens and Brooklyn.”
MLS, after working for more than a year to secure a stadium in Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, backed out of that proposed site once the NYC FC franchise was announced in May, instead deciding that it would be up to the new club’s ownership to find and build a stadium.
The potential Bronx site is a seemingly complicated project, not too different to the challenges facing D.C. United. NYC FC is looking at a nine acre swath of land to build their stadium, and currently on the proposed land site sit a parking lot, which is crucial for Yankees games as there isn’t much parking in the area, as well as a 100,000 square foot factory and a highway ramp to enter the Major Deegan Expressway.
Levine said that NYC FC wouldn’t played on the same day as Yankees home games, though it could become an issue with mid-week CONCACAF Champions League and U.S. Open Cup games once the team finally begins play in 2015.
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What do you think of this report? Do you like this site for a soccer stadium? Do you see NYC FC successfully acquiring the land? Do you see the club using another site in NYC instead?
Share your thoughts below.