By TIM FONTENAULT
New York City FC’s quest to build a training facility has hit a snag in the road.
A civic group in Purchase, New York is suing to prevent 2015 MLS expansion side New York City FC from building a practice field at Manhattanville College, according to a report from Westfair Communications. The Purchase Environmental Protective Association has filed a lawsuit against the club, the college and the town of Harrison’s Planning Board with New York’s Supreme Court.
The group’s lawsuit is the result of concerns about traffic and fear that the club will continue to practice at the facility after their lease expires. The NHL’s New York Rangers tried to build a facility at the school in the mid-1990s, but the project was shut down due to community opposition, and the school’s own hockey team was consequentially left without an on-campus facility.
New York City FC have promised to gift the facility to the school after the lease expires, but not even that has convinced everyone that the deal on the table is a good one.
Co-owned by the New York Yankees and Premier League champions Manchester City FC, NYCFC will begin playing at Yankee Stadium in 2015 while continuing its search for a permanent location for a soccer-specific stadium. The club has reportedly expanded its search for that out of the five boroughs and is considering locations in Westchester County.
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What do you make of this development? Do you see NYCFC training at Manhattanville College when things are all said and done? What other places do you think they could possibly (and realistically) train at? Worried about the whole NYCFC project right now?
Share your thoughts below.