Report: Queens borough president wants soccer stadium
- by Paul Kennedy @pkedit, Sep 15, 2017
NYCFC search. New York City FC has been seeking a soccer stadium since its launch in 2015 without gaining much traction. An effort by MLS to secure a site in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park failed as local groups, including the baseball Mets, opposed the idea of a soccer stadium in the area.
NYCFC's efforts have turned up nothing, producing a classic tifo from fans of the archrival Red Bulls when NYCFC announced it will have to shift a home game from Yankee Stadium to Connecticut next week because of a baseball conflict.
Willets
Point site. Not for the first time, Katz said she wants to do something about Willets Point, home of the Mets' Citi Field and an area she has targeted for redevelopment. She wants
affordable housing in Willets Point and suggested NYCFC and the New York Islanders might be possible tenants.
Katz on soccer vs. ice
hockey: “I would like to see soccer, at least, at Willets Point, along with affordable housing. I wish the Islanders would come in. I’m a big advocate for that. Right now, only
about 35 acres has the city taken over. So you wouldn’t probably be able to do the Islanders plus a soccer stadium there. If there’s only one, I want soccer and affordable
housing.”
David Villa angle. Backed by NYCFC captain David Villa, Francisco Moya won Tuesday's Democratic
primary for Queens City Council District 21 and Moya's election might be another boost for the prospects of a soccer stadium in Queens. Moya's district is an Hispanic-majority area and includes
Willets Point.
That was the site of worlds fair in 1964. It is also the site of the Spanish league. I would go there from time to time to look for players. The winning coach of Argentina the 1986 WC team Dr Balardo would go their a lot and work with those guys not many people knew that fact. In 1990 Bilardo and Gansler coach of our national our national team did a clinic here in Brooklyn. Not many people knew that fact. We really knew how to promote our game at that time. It was in one soccer paper that hardly anyone got back then. I took a team from Gjoa to that clinic. We were the only team that was there that day.