Since he took over as MLS commissioner in 1999, Don Garber has described himself as a “Queens guy,” in reference to the New York City borough in which he was born. He’s also beeninsisting the past few years the league needs a team in New York City and according to the Wall Street Journal, MLS has found a suitable stadium location near his old neighborhood.
Leagueofficials have zeroed in on a run-down section of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens as their preferred site for the league’s first New York stadium, report LauraKusisto and Eliot Brown. MLS officials have presented a detailed proposal to local politicians, outlining a plan for a 20,000- to 25,000-seat stadium onroughly eight acres near the northern end of the park.
The plan would create a home for a new team and MLS believes construction could be completed one to two years after the projectreceives the necessary approvals.
The stadium would be privately financed, but it would still have to overcome significant hurdles. Because it would be built on city-owned park land, theproject would need approval from both the City Council and the state Legislature. To make up for the lost green space, MLS would have to create roughly eight acres of new park land elsewhere in thecity.
Unless MLS/FCNY/Cosmos can step up to the plate with some serious greenbacks for the state and local politicians in order to line their pockets for re-election, this project has about a 10% chance of success. This clearly isn’t the same as the NY Yankees in the Bronx with the looming threat of going over to a new stadium located in swamps of Jersey.
When I hear Queens or any NYC borough, I think that there must be a lot of corruption money to make a big sports venue or convention center or civic center, etc. actually get to proceed. However, wouldn’t NYC truly want a pro soccer venue right there, right in the city? I mean, all the soccer interest there…and it is not like the Red Bulls locale is really New York, right? Surely one can sell the city commissions and planners on the real revenue that a sports venue will pull in year after year after year, right? Somebody needs to get New York up to speed. Soccer/football is expanding all the time (and has been for the last 30 years) in America. Having a great city rivalry right there (Red Bulls and Cosmos) with Philly and Boston not far at all. This is a no brainer. And the sports media there needs something new to talk about and report on. Use the stats once more to show how many New Yorkers were ducking out of work to watch the Euro 2012 matches or sneaking views on their work computers at 3:30 p.m. each game day. NYC is ripe for a “home” MLS club — right in the city. Do it.