New York City officials on Thursday approved plans to build a 25,000-seat stadium for Major League Soccer New York City Football Club next to the New York Mets‘ Citi Field stadium.
The $780 million soccer stadium, expected to open in 2027, will be a 23-acre (9-hectare) redevelopment project in the Willets Point neighborhood, including housing, new public schools , retail stores and hotels.
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The new stadium will be New York City’s first venue dedicated to professional soccer. NYCFC, the team that won the championship MLS championship in 2021, playing its home games primarily at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx since joining the league in 2015.
Due to scheduling conflicts with New York Yankees teamhowever, NYCFC are frequently forced to play at Citi Field and sometimes even at the home stadium of their MLS opponents, the New York Red Bulls.
In addition to Citi Field, the new soccer venue’s neighbors will include the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, home of the US Open.
The City Council approved the new stadium after decades of failed efforts to transform Willets Point, a longtime cluster of auto repair shops.
City officials said the stadium would be funded by NYCFC’s owners, which include the Yankees and the Manchester city Football club owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates.
But the city’s Independent Budget Office concluded that the actual cost to taxpayers of the stadium could be $516 million over the term of NYCFC’s 49-year lease.
The analysis is based on what the city would receive in property taxes if it sold the land to stadium developers instead of leasing it.
The development group includes Related Companies and Sterling Holding Company, which is partly controlled by the Wilpon family, which once owned the Mets.
Information from the Associated Press contributed to this report.
