BRONX, N.Y.- When MLS commissioner Don Garber came up with the idea for a second team in the New York area to compete with the New York Red Bulls, he didn’t think it would become the fifth-most valued team in the league in a short time according to Sportico.
In the eight years New York City Football Club has been in play, they have been one of the most competitive teams finishing near the top. As of June 7, they sit in first place in the Eastern Conference. In 2021, they won the MLS Cup. Their cross-town rival, the Red Bulls, has been in play for 26 seasons and has appeared once in the final in 2008, losing to the Columbus Crew.
NYCFC has something that the Red Bulls have been playing for two decades. However, the Red Bulls have something that the “The Boys in Blue” have struggled to obtain as well: a stadium.
How Small?
City Football Group (80%) and Yankee Global Enterprises (20%) own NYCFC. It makes sense why they have called Yankee Stadium their primary home since their inaugural season. However, the temporary home now feels permanent.
Since the MLS and MLB season are played during the summer, the arrangement has been a nightmare for the football club as it must work around the schedule of the Yankees. When they can’t play their home games in the Bronx, their alternative sites are:
• Citi Field (yes, another baseball stadium).
• Pratt & Whitney Stadium.
• Coffey Field.
• Belson Stadium.
• Their crosstown rival’s home stadium, the Red Bull Arena.
Yankee Stadium is built for baseball, and it has encountered criticism when soccer is on schedule due to its pitch size. FIFA regulations require a pitch that is 110 yards long and 70 yards wide. Kansas City manager Peter Vermes has commented on the pitch size in the past to FourFourTwo Magazine: “It’s 68 by 106.” However, Grant Wahl of CBS Sports would silence the critics by sending a tweet saying that he measured the size of NYCFC’S pitch which confirmed it met FIFA regulations.
The city’s pitch dimensions of 110 yards long x 70 yards wide make Yankee Stadium the smallest field in MLS. Away teams in the Bronx must prepare themselves for match day and adjust to playing on a narrower design. At times, this gives NYCFC an advantage.
The Search Continues
“We want a stadium” could be heard by fans during the City Hall ceremony to celebrate the championship win for NYCFC. New York City Mayor Eric Adams vows to re-open talks to build a stadium the football club can call it’s own. “My administration will re-engage in discussions to explore the possibility of sitting a new soccer stadium to serve as a permanent home for the team,” says Adams to the New York Post.
The club represents all boroughs of the city: Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx. Their closest to securing a stadium was the proposed Belmont Park plan in 2017. Belmont Park in Elmont, New York, is just outside the city limits in Nassau County. NYFCFC team president Jon Patricof told season ticket holders, “Nobody is all that interested in (the Belmont site).” His reason is that it was “too far away for a permanent home.” Despite his comments, the team submitted a proposal, only to lose out to the New York Islanders, who now call UBS Arena their new home on the site.
The 2026 World Cup will be in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. NYCFC would love to have its stadium ready by the time tournament makes its way to the states. New York City F.C. chairman Brad Sims spoke with ESPN announcer Taylor Twellman about the urgency of building a stadium and if the World Cup played a role in it.
“We’ve had, I would say, about as much urgency as you could possibly have to make this happen. It’s not like we won the championship, and now all of a sudden, we have urgency. We’ve always had that urgency, or because there’s a World Cup in ’26. We have to have extra urgency. We’ve had an extreme amount of urgency.”
