By FRANCO PANIZO
The Bronx may be New York City FC’s initial home, but they do not intend to be there for the long-term.
NYC FC has shifted focus in its search for a soccer-specific stadium and is now looking at the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn, the New York Daily News has reported. The 2015 MLS expansion club had recently been working on a site in the Bronx just south of its current home venue, Yankee Stadium, but that didn’t materialize into something concrete and forced New York City FC to look elsewhere.
“We had focused on the Bronx, but that didn’t work out, and we weren’t able to find anything else in the Bronx that made sense,” said Martin Edelman, a member on the board of directors of NYC FC’s co-owner Manchester City. “So we’re looking in Queens and Brooklyn, and each potential (site) has to be analyzed for construction, for access to public transportation, for parking, it’s a very complicated process.
“There’s no rush, but there’s a rush. In other words we’re not going to just settle for something, we’re going to find a place where everybody is comfortable doing it, and it makes economic sense to do it. But we’re not just sitting and waiting for the place to come to us.”
New York City FC had previously considered building a stadium in the Queens neighborhood of Flushing.
They will play their initial home games at Yankee Stadium, beginning with a March 15 meeting with MLS Cup finalist the New England Revolution.
The New York Yankees co-own NYC FC.
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What do you think of NYC FC shifting its search’s focus to Queens and Brooklyn? Which borough do you think has a better chance of being accommodating? Bummed that the Bronx is no longer on the table? Starting to think the club has a better shot of building a stadium on the moon?
Share your thoughts below.
I support the Cosmos and I think you’re nuts. MLS and the Cosmos are not getting together any time soon.
Look at it this way:
Cosmos are in NASL which is an independent league free of drafts/allocations/DPs/whatever other nonsense Don thinks up on the fly.
Just enjoy NASL for what it is and don’t get hung up on MLS.
And for that matter, fans should enjoy MLS for what it is and not get hung up on NASL.
Yeah, I don’t know what Expansion Geek is talking about. Why would the Cosmos want to join MLS ?
This is the 1990s Sounders. They don’t WANT to join MLS. This isn’t MLS snubbing them. MLS wanted a second team, it wasn’t a fit. Now MLS HAS a second team, so it is even less of a fit…if that is possible.
I never thought Los Angeles would have a better future in soccer than New York. New York is full of potential but a team name red bull and nycfc starting in the Bronx then moving doesn’t make sense at all.
Los Angeles has the galaxy and future Los angeles2 and both will have proper names and stadiums, but red bull and nycfc need to treat New York as New York and treat their fans New York style.
This might sound redundant to many MLS fans and soccer fans in the US, but cosmos will only grow from red bull and nycfc mistakes. If cosmos can get their stadium or make their ownership group even better, than cosmos will have the last laugh and garber will come calling sooner than later.
Cart before horse!
So the notion of a team with players and an actual schedule is coming to fruition this March?
So they’re going to spend a few years developing a local fanbase in the Bronx and then tell those people they have to travel over to Queens or Brooklyn if they want to keep watching their team? Boy, this is looking great so far
Man City Jr is having an interesting couple of weeks. First, Lampard can’t come to Yankee Stadium to start his retirement tour just yet. Now, MC Jr are stuck in a baseball stadium like the KC Wizards. Will NYChivas be different than LA Chivas? Who knows.
It’s really tough to take MLS seriously with the circus show that is hand wringing over a 37 y.o., folding clubs, blind draw, supplemental re-entry allocation super homegrown expansion draft, the Miami Beckhams, and every last single entity mechanism that gets cooked up by Gulati, Kraft, and The Soccer Don over Sunday brunch.
Clearly the only option is just to shut the whole league down.
It is amazing how far the whiners, who want MLS to fail, have to reach now.
rumor has it that the Don and a shirtless Nick Chavez are gonna sing the national anthem for nycfcs home opener
Then the teams owners will violate some human rights at halftime
I would be thrilled if they waited until halftime to violate someone’s basic human rights.
I would actually settle for them not being carried in by litter by big slaves.
i am a lifelong Brooklynite
I dont want Man City Lite in my boro
Take that, Don
Well I guess that’s it for the Brooklyn deal, now that some random dude named smith has condemned it.
Yep. My word is la , baby
And I’ll be in Brooklyn long after Man City has divested itself of this nightmare
or “Law” as I meant to write
Sadly, this outfit is spuddering. Brooklyn is thee only chance for an identity. They should no just take a chance I. Staten Island. Rebuild the Yankees’ Minor League Stadium, the area is being developed as a destination. But Sunset Park & Coney Is, maybe ENY
Translation: “We are pretty much stuck in the mud. We are out of real ideas and are going back to square 1. Check back in a year or two. And tell Mr. Garber that he may need to make some changes in that schedule we gave him.”
I think the saga of NYCFC just proves the notion that you can’t do business in many parts of the country without political juice. I’m shocked thought that the owners of the club weren’t aware of this and neglected to grease the palms of the politicians sufficiently before committing to the city. Over here in Vegas big business’s skill in corrupting govenment was good enough to get a publicly funded stadium for a sport that nobody in their right mind will go to in June, July and August. What a country!
It’s not that easy is it? Do you really think the Yankees are novices when it comes to getting things done in NYC? They probably figure they can get something done eventually and until then just play in Yankee stadium. Looks like, in the meantime, if you want to watch top flight soccer in a SSS in the NYC area, you’ll have to come to Red Bull Arena. It’s just as close to many NYC residents as Yankee Stadium so that shouldn’t be a big deal.
Actually Vegas needed MLS if they deal was right. The city has been looking for ways to diversify since the recession in 2008. So even a half sweet deal like the one they got was good enough for them. Any reasonable investment would have work. The second the city found out they weren’t paying for everything they were in.
I’m sure NYCFC understood that, and in Mayor Bloomberg they had a willing partner. Unfortunately, he’s gone, and as long as DeBlasio is there (hopefully just one term) they won’t get a stadium started.
So in Vegas they had no problem finding land for a stadium. Imagine that.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.
Put that b*tch on some barges and make the world’s first “pop-up” stadium.
It would be the ultimate food truck and the hippest ticket in town. Each home game could be in a different parts of Manhattan and even make it out to some of the other five boroughs.
Training fields and offices could be anywhere that was affordable.
Even if you did this for one season (say, while you build a SSS on land) it would be infinitely cooler than watching in Yankees Stadium which, while a mecca of baseball, was NOT BUILD FOR WATCHING SOCCER. Founding fans would get to say “Yeah, I saw a game the opening season when they played on the Floater (okay bad name…).”
BEST COMMENT EVER.^^^
Phil,
Good idea.
The idea of a floating stadium ( not for soccer) in NYC has been floated, pun intended, before.But as you are probably aware getting anything like that approved in NY is a mofo.
Gotta do it international waters. Like, “Smithers, this monkey is going to need most of your skin”
Phil, while I love your imagination…. as a New Yorker and a soccer fan I think that’s an awful idea.
As a human with a brain, that is a horrible idea.
That’s kind of a thing in Singapore: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Float_at_Marina_Bay#mediaviewer/File:1_singapore_flyer_view_2012.jpg
Being a ball boy must suck
“There’s no rush, but there’s a rush.” What is it about the public image of this organization that just feels like they can’t get out of their own way?
Spoiler alert – Westchester FC.
Is NYCFC looking for public financing in their stadium deal?