The process behind NYCFC's Etihad Park and individualizing MLS | OneFootball

New York City FC is expected to play games at Etihad Park beginning in the 2027 Major League Soccer season. The stadium was announced in 2022, but it was not until 2024 that they broke ground. As of now, construction is proceeding according to plan.

However, New York may experience construction slowdowns that could impact the timeline. The process of finding a suitable location was not easy, for it took NYCFC a long time to announce the stadium.

NYCFC's Etihad Park process and progress

In truth, the MLS’s achievement of the first soccer-only stadium in New York City will be sixteen years in the making by the time Etihad Park opens. Initially, MLS scouted locations around New York as early as 2011, but each proposal was blocked by either the community, politicians, or existing New York sports franchises.

One of the supported sites was in Belmont Park, but it was selected for the New York Islanders’ new arena.  Another potential site in Flushing, Queens, was met with the Mets demanding $40 million as compensation for using the parking and other facilities. After that setback, MLS announced that NYCFC would take over the search.

Finally, in 2022, Mayor Adams and the club announced the stadium, and by 2024, the club was approved by the city council for Willets Point, Queens, as the location. The stadium’s layout will be influenced by the surrounding streets, like certain older baseball stadiums. It will be the first fully electric stadium in MLS and will feature a 40,000-square-foot food hall with food from local vendors.

In some ways, the obstacles that MLS and NYCFC faced in getting the stadium built are a microcosm of the league’s struggle to compete with the deeply embedded franchises of the Big Four. In other ways, NYCFC’s takeover of the process marks an important point in which teams are funding projects that once relied on MLS money.

The club is taking on the $780 million cost to build the stadium, and this is a massive step for MLS clubs and their ability to grow independently with other investors.

Another step NYCFC has taken to achieve this is by building its own training facility, Etihad City Football Academy New York. Influenced by the City Group’s other facilities, improving the game’s infrastructure legitimizes and draws talent to MLS.

Projects like Etihad Park go a long way to embedding MLS teams within their respective communities. Individualizing soccer teams in the United States is crucial for growing the game, and this will also help NYCFC thrive.