Soccer fans from New York received great news this week. The city is getting its first-ever soccer stadium. MLS Cup 2021 champions New York City FC have formed a partnership alongside Mayor Eric Adams, Council Member Francisco Moya, labor unions, and the Queens Development Group that will bring a new mixed-use, mixed-income neighborhood to the Willets Point community in Queens.
According to MSL, the whole area includes a 25,000-seat dedicated stadium. It will be built with entirely private funds, as well as 2,500 units of 100% affordable housing. The soccer stadium has a 2027 target debut date.
“When we founded our league 27 years ago, we had a theme that we wanted to be a league for a new America, a country that’s diverse, that’s young, that’s connected with passion, with a global game, the beautiful game,” said MLS Commissioner Don Garber.
“Now here we are today. The personification of that dream, of that vision, has been living in cities across America and throughout Canada. Today is one of the most momentous days in the history of our great league.”
‘We have come home to Queens’
NYCFC originally joined MLS in 2015 as an expansion team. It has primarily played at Yankee Stadium, a Major League Baseball venue in the Bronx. They’ve also played at Red Bull Arena and other venues in the Tri-State Area when scheduling conflicts arose.
“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.”
This new project would keep NYCFC in New York’s five boroughs.
NYCFC’s stadium will be within walking distance of the subway system’s Mets-Willets Point station and the Long Island Rail Road. They’re expected to share parking with the Mets.
Aside from NYCFC’s stadium, the project will contain more than 40,000 square feet of public open space. Also, it will have a 250-key hotel and ground-floor retail shops. The entire project may generate $6.1 billion in economic impact over the next 30 years, creating 1,550 permanent jobs and 14,200 construction jobs.