From Yankee Stadium and Citi Field to Barclays Center and Madison Square Garden, New York City is home to some of the most iconic stadiums on the planet.
While there is no shortage of sporting monuments, there is one thing that has eluded the Big Apple for the past 400 years: a football stadium.
Despite the sport’s rapid rise in the United States over the past two decades, the world-famous city has never boasted a dedicated soccer stadium on its shores: One of the state’s two designated clubs plays in New Jersey and the other shares a home with its MLS rival and two baseball teams.
But in 2027 this will finally change.
Two years ago, MLS franchise New York City FC received the green light from government officials to build its own 25,000-seat stadium in Willets Point, Queens, right across the street from Citi Field, the home of MLB team the Mets.
New York City FC is set to begin construction on its new 25,000-seat stadium
The $780 million project, which will be privately financed and will be considered the most expensive stadium in MLS by far (surpassing Inter Miami’s $350 million stadium), is expected to be completed in time for the 2027 season, with construction set to begin later this year.
The road to this point has been long and arduous for the persistent executives of NYCFC and City Football Group, who outlined their plans to build a soccer stadium in New York City more than a decade ago. Despite massive setbacks along the way and fears that it would never come to fruition, they never wavered from that bold promise.
“I think a lot of other organizations would have walked away a long time ago,” chief operating officer Jennifer O’Sullivan told DailyMail.com at a press day to reveal NYCFC’s stadium plans on Tuesday.
“There’s a reason the Jets, Giants and Red Bulls are in New Jersey. A lot of people told us that would never happen. ‘This is crazy, they’re going to waste a lot of time and money.'”
“But here we are, 10 years later, doing what people told us could never happen.”
Flushing Meadows, Belmont Park, South Bronx (twice), Inwood. Over the past decade, NYCFC looked at all possible locations before finally settling on Queens, the site they had initially chosen when they first pitched in 2011.
In 2022, the team finally reached an agreement with the New York City government to build the desired 25,000-seat stadium at Willets Point, marking the end of an arduous journey to gain that approval.
The stadium, which will be New York City’s first soccer-specific stadium, is set to open in 2027 in Willets Point, Queens.
The MLS franchise has not had its own headquarters since its founding in 2013.
DailyMail.com got a look at the plans and designs for the stadium at an NYCFC event on Tuesday.
“This should have failed five or six times,” admitted Jon Stemp, head of infrastructure for NYCFC owners City Football Group. “We designed five or six stadiums in different locations, but we couldn’t get the political leadership we needed in the city. Now we’re done with this site and this project with an incredible group of partners, friends and political leaders who made it happen.”
Even when the dream of bringing a soccer stadium to New York City seemed to have no future, the franchise never considered following the Red Bulls to New Jersey. That was totally out of the question.
“This isn’t just about building a new stadium, it’s about building a new neighborhood for the first time in decades in New York,” O’Sullivan added. “To be part of such an important and crucial project for the city is the best thing you could ask for.”
An agreement on naming rights for the proposed new stadium has yet to be finalised, with the deal expected to be signed in 2026.
However, NYCFC executives are convinced that their stadium will be like no other in the sporting stratosphere.
In addition to a stunning “Cube”-shaped entrance that features “a seven-story wraparound entry gate,” the team’s new home will also include a host of luxury and premium hospitality suites, gourmet dining options and an enclosed stadium structure that will help create more buzz in the 25,000-capacity stadium.
CEO Brad Sims said of the new stadium plans at Tuesday’s media event: “It makes you feel like it’s a real thing. It’s almost like a pinch-me moment, because this organization has been fighting for this for so long, over 10 years, and I couldn’t be more proud of this club.”
It features a large number of luxury hospitality suites, which will be available at a premium price.
Gourmet dining options will be offered for fans wishing to purchase a VIP experience.
CEO Brad Sims discussed the team’s decade-long battle to gain approval for the stadium.
“We promised the fans and the city that we would build the first soccer-specific stadium in the city, within the five boroughs, and we never wavered from that promise. Obviously, through a lot of tough situations, tough times, venue changes — all the things that have happened over the last 10 years, it would have been very easy at some point to say it’s not worth it and it can’t be done.
“From that point of view, one feels proud. We made this promise and we will be able to keep it.”
After not being able to call any one place home since the club’s inception in 2013, Sims expects his fan base to grow significantly when that changes in three years. Fans will no longer be forced to travel between Yankee Stadium, Citi Field and Red Bull Arena throughout the season. They’ll now be able to make memories in their own stadium.
The project will also see 2,500 affordable housing units, 250 key hotels and commercial properties, a 650-seat elementary school and 115,000 square feet of public open space created in the area as part of a broader commitment to building community.
Since launching season ticket deposit plans in August, NYCFC has received tremendous interest from potential suitors, an estimated 40 percent of whom were never in its databases before the new stadium was approved.
“There are football fans who want an authentic and true football experience,” Sims added.
NYCFC has been forced to travel between other New York stadiums for the past 11 years.
But starting in the 2027 season, they will play home games in their new stadium.
Ticket prices will also be segmented, allowing both high rollers and working-class New Yorkers to enjoy a piece of the action at the team’s new home.
Players will also reap the rewards of competing under the same roof for 50 percent of the season. In 2023, NYCFC ranked 17th out of 29 teams in home performance while moving from stadium to stadium.
“We have players who live close to Yankee Stadium, but when you go to Citi Field, it’s a long drive,” Sims admitted.
“We’ve even had situations where we’ve had to get players a hotel for a game at Citi Field. They treat it almost like it’s an away game, just to make sure they don’t get stuck in traffic or spend three hours sitting in their car cramped.”
While they will have to work with the Mets to ensure their respective schedules don’t conflict (the two teams can never host games within hours of each other due to their proximity) and to ensure both can host other events at their home venues, the coast is finally clear for the birth of the first bona fide soccer community in New York City.
With Lionel Messi arriving in MLS, former Premier League manager Mauricio Pochettino taking over as USMNT head coach and the small matter of the World Cup on the way in 2026, NYCFC’s new stadium comes at the perfect time with soccer booming in the United States.
The club is looking to create a dynasty after securing its first MLS Cup in 2021, and O’Sullivan is convinced they are destined for “astronomical” growth as a franchise.
“This is no longer just a retirement league, it’s a league that is developing its own talent in its own right, and it’s taken time for that to happen,” he said. “But if you come back in five, 10, 15 years… the growth will be almost astronomical.”
City Football Group hopes NYCFC stadium will become an iconic landmark in New York
“If you look at where we are in our first 10 years of existence as a club and what we’ve achieved and what we’ve done, that growth of the game in the US is driving that.”
Passion for soccer in the United States is growing at an unprecedented rate and NYCFC expects it to increase even further when its new stadium opens in 2027.
Stemp, who previously worked for Premier League champions Manchester City, is convinced the only way up as they prepare to begin work on the new stadium.
“We haven’t even scratched the surface of that passion,” he added.
‘When we move forward 15, 20, 30, 40 years… people will spread their parents’ ashes here because they were composters.
“We have a chance to make this something they feel is theirs.”
