A new article written in a soccer publication, makes a well-thought-out case that Sunnyside Yards could be the optimal location to build a stadium for the NYCFC. That would be the NYC Football Club for the bulk of us not familiar with the acronym, but don’t let this new professional soccer team’s relative obscurity make you relegate the stadium idea as a lark.
That is because, as the author points out, the team is majority-owned by Manchester City, a well-known (and as you’ll see, well-funded) and newly successful team in the English Premier League, and Manchester City is wholly owned by one Sheikh Mansour. Now as it turns out, the Sheikh is also on the board of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which a quick google shows has about three-quarters of a trillion $ in its coffers!$!
Not that there’s any shortage of capital looking to be put to work within spitting distance of midtown, but with that kind of heft, the ADIA may be willing to provide some very generous financing to make this struggling project more palatable. Plus the new stadium angle allows the Mayor to do a major rewrite on what’s turning out to be a very difficult sell. Add the fact that the NY Yankees are the minority owner of the team, and you have another powerful and connected gorilla in the room helping to push it through.
Now the above is just my handicapping the possibility of the stadium happening. I am still very much against the Sunnyside Yards project, and will continue to refer to it as the NYCBD, aka the NYC Big Dig. It will be good for the 5-10 thousand residents who score an affordable apartment, it will be great for the developers, and it will be bad for the 2.3 million other residents of Queens mainly due to the drastic effect of overcrowding at the margins.
22 comments:
Here we go again...
From what I have read, stadiums never actually benefit the city in which they are built. They pretty much just benefit the stadium owners. Plus, they put a strain on the infrastructure add relatively few, generally low-paying jobs, etc.
But hey everybody, just enjoy the circus, appreciate the distraction. Don't think about all of the the other things the actually need to be fixed in the city. No, instead LOOK OVER THERE!!!!!
A simple explanation: They spend the $$ mostly on the northern part of the Park because that's where the USTA stadiums are located.
Required reading and viewing on stadium boondoggles and how they plunder the state and city treasuries.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/1/18/free_lunch_how_the_wealthiest_americans
http://www.newsweek.com/2014/05/02/wealthy-sports-team-owners-want-taxbreaks-go-forever-248356.html
What's this obsession with soccer stadiums? How about we bring our city's infrastructure into the 21st century first.
If they're going to develop Sunnyside Yards I can think of worse things to put there. It takes up a lot of space which means there's less opportunities to develop for permanent housing, which, given the infrastructure issues already in place isn't the worst thing. Citi Field is off the 7, and the capacity is several times that of a MLS team (the team in NJ, the Red Bulls, plays in a stadium with 25,000 capacity). If residents have to pick between 25,000 on game days and 25,000 daily this should be a no brainier.
-somethingstructural
I like soccer, I really do, but this stadium has no place at this location.
Let them continue to play their games at Yankee Stadium and stay out of Queens.
It looks like a toilet seat. Am I the only one who sees that?
It will happen somewhere, so maybe above the tracks is better than in a city park.
And Jimmy Van Bramer gets a cut from the builders, I suppose.
He's gotten campaign contributions from practically every developer.
Back door politics Jimmy is planning to screw his constituents once again.
NOT A BAD IDEA. IF THEY BUILD SOMETHING AS MODERN AS BARCLAYS CENTER, I JUST MIGHT SUPPORT IT...
Let them build it if they:
1.Use no public money
2.No tax breaks
3.Adequate parking
4.They pay to extend the public transportation.
Get the shovel and break ground!
Makes sense, the Mexican community in the area would love it. Ole.....Ole.Ole.Ole......Ole..Ole......Goal........
As people have said before, Stadiums do not benefit the community or city they are in at all. Plus is there really that much interest in soccer here for such a stadium.
Spend money on badly needed infrastructure including bad roads, bad bridges and an awful subway system. Better the quality of life for people in this city as opposed to putting up a wasted stadium.
You would be talking at least $100 a ticket.
What would have really benefitted Queens was if they put the new indoor running track (on par with the Manhattan Armory running track - think Milrose games) in Queens Flushing meadow Park next to the tennis stadium and the pool. Instead they built it in Staten Island in the middle of nowhere, no easy mass transit to it. Considering that CHSAA schools are now using this track for indoor track season it requires kids whose schools don't provide bussing (like my child's) to be driven or skip the meet. There are plenty of schools that have running tracks in Staten Island but very few that have tracks in Queens and minority children and adults run. This would have been a good addition to Flushing Meadow that would have been well used by the community and the schools. Instead they propose soccer stadiums and other useless buildings.
The Olympics are coming.
We need to prepare...
Horrible idea. Sewer system in sunnyside currently can't deal with many locations. It will be a nightmare to all.
Good! Let Van Bramer's toilet back up into his bedroom.
Since Barclays Center was finished, there haven't been that many complaints by the residents. Everyone is happy that it is there. We should build a stadium in the yards. It would make this city much more competitive and add to the narrative of it being a sports town. Who knows, maybe we might even host a world Cup some day. BE OPTIMISTIC !!
IF NYC IS TO EVER HOST AN OLYMPIC EVENT THIS NEW STADIUM COULD BE USED FOR SOME OF THOSE SPORTING EVENTS. MADISON SQUARE GARDEN AND CITI FILED JUST DON'T CUT IT ANYMORE!!
New York would be a better location than any other city in jersey to host the olympics. Lets make it happen politicians !!
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