Cosmos owner: Kids play soccer on Long Island, so we can totally build a $400m minor-league stadium there

access_time personNeil deMause

Seamus O’Brien, part-owner of the New York Cosmos, has given an interview to Goal.com about how the team plans on building a $400 million soccer stadium complex on Long Island despite not having an actual team or major league to play in yet. (The new Cosmos are currently slated to begin play in the minor-league NASL next August.) Amid lots of corporate blather about building a strong business and how a new stadium would show they’re serious, there was this:

“Look, Long Island is a hot bed for soccer. There are soccer leagues, tens of thousands of kids are signed up. We’ve always felt that is our heartland.”

Which I guess is a nicer way of saying it than “We’d rather be in New York City, but this site was all we could get.” Except he said that too.

Given all the questions about how an actual MLS team in actual Queens would be able to afford a $300 million stadium there, it’s still hard to take this Cosmos plan seriously as much more than a cry for publicity. But hey, all the other kids are doing it, so why not?

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7 comments on “Cosmos owner: Kids play soccer on Long Island, so we can totally build a $400m minor-league stadium there”

  2. A lot of young people play with themselves as well, but I don’t think that one could justify a $400 million dollar facility for that.

  3. Interesting that they plan to start play next August… given that the season for NASL actually starts in April. The NASL site only has games listed up until early July, so it’s possible they are doing some sort of split season or playing only friendlies with NASL clubs (which Edmonton did 2 years ago and other clubs have done, as I understand it).

    Either way, it’s not exactly the big splash you’d expect from “The Cosmos”, even in a D2 league…

  4. Brent: If someone else was paying… I could see a sports owner trying to float that idea.

  6. Brent when you write “…If someone else was paying…” you mean taxpayers, don’t you?

  7. Fatal mistake. If the stadium is not built along the NYC subway line, they will not fill the venue. Why would this be any different than Red Bull Stadium? This will be the end of The Cosmos Part 2.

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