New York City F.C. officials held a press event last week to promote their new stadium set to open in 2027, let’s see how that went:
Okay, yes, that’s a new rendering. (Or a “model” as the New York Daily News caption puts it.) It’s not exactly an improvement on the last round of vaportecture, given that the entire surrounding neighborhood (plus the Mets‘ stadium across the street) appears to have been demolished and replaced by a gray void featuring only some kind of elevated highway called the “Queens,” but maybe they just wanted people to stop clowning on it as “Naming Rights Sponsor Stadium.” (Team officials said they hope to have a naming rights deal in place by the end of the year, at which point people can clown on it for that name.)
And what about details regarding the possibly $700 million in tax kickbacks and infrastructure spending this all will cost New York City taxpayers?
“When [Mayor Eric Adams] got into office, that’s when the project really started getting some legs, because we were able to present what we really believe is a transformative project for Queens,” [NYCFC CEO Brad] Sims said.
“He was able to say, ‘100% privately financed [stadium]. The city’s in a housing crisis right now. [This is the] biggest affordable housing project that the city’s seen in four decades.’”
I mean, he was able to say “100% privately financed.” He wasn’t able to actually mean it, but he was able to say it. Somebody else — say, a sports economist, the city Independent Budget Office, me — could have told the Daily News otherwise, but as the Daily News didn’t speak to anyone not employed by the team, its readers will never know.
Bit of a tangent, but does almost every new MLS stadium built in the last decade or so look exactly the same? They all have roughly the same design:
#1: A low-capacity stand on one touchline where all of the club seats and suites are
#2: much larger, two-tier all-seater stand on the opposite side
#3: single-tier “terrace” behind one goal line where the supporter sections are
#4: two-tier all-seater stand on the opposite goal line (similar to #2)
This probably makes sense from the POV of generating the highest revenue (or minimizing the losses) at the lowest cost — and some teams have even done away with #4 presumably for that reason — but still.
In theory, that is the design.
But having been to new MLS stadiums in Columbus (I am a season ticket member), Nashville, Cincinnati, Minnesota, Kansas City, Miami’s temp stadium, and the tad older New York Red Bulls and Philadelphia (both opened in 2010), and Montreal (updated in 2012) each of those stadiums has a good bit of differences and their own aesthetic. Both from the inside and the outside.
The Colorado Rapids stadium has the empty section behind one goal that can serve as a stage for concerts. I believe San Jose does the same thing. Although I guess both are last decade.
you can’t really boost about all the housing you’re going to produce when your model doesn’t show any (nor does it show Citi Field). NY ESD, which put zero housing in their Belmont Park project, is proposing more affordable housing than Willetts Point Phase 1 in their Creedmoor project.
How much the public pays is a moot point now. It’s already been approved without them having to say how much the public will pay. Just like we never got a full accounting of the Belmont Park Arena project.