Back in April, I reported on the announcement by the Queensboro F.C. USL team of an agreement with the City University of New York to begin work this summer on a 7,500-stadium on York College’s campus in Jamaica, Queens. I immediately asked York College for a copy of the lease, and was told I would need to file a Freedom of Information Law request; as I noted at the time, “this could be a while.”
It sure was! On April 29, I sent a request to CUNY’s FOIL officer requesting “any leases, contracts, or operating agreements between CUNY or York College and Queensboro FC or its representatives regarding construction of a stadium at York College, issued or signed between November 1, 2020 and April 29, 2021.” On June 2, I got an email notifying me that CUNY needed more time to decide whether to fulfill my request. On July 6, I was notified that “more time is needed to complete their review,” and that I’d hear back by July 16. On July 28, I got yet another email, this one saying that they needed until August 7, “because of the length of the contract requested and the review required of said document before disclosure pursuant to FOIL.”
On Monday, August 9, CUNY’s lawyers presumably having finally read through the contract to ensure there was no confidential information being disclosed, I finally got a copy of the Queensboro F.C. stadium license agreement. Here’s the full document, and here are some of the highlights:
- The agreement is a five-year lease, with the option for four one-year extensions. The team’s owners will pay for construction of the stadium — no price tag provided — and CUNY will own it and the land under it, which means Queensboro F.C. won’t have to pay property tax.
- CUNY will lease the stadium to Queensboro F.C. for a one-time fee of $2 million, plus 15% of any naming rights payments (with a minimum of $50,000 per year).
- The team gets all revenue from sale of ad signage and the like, plus the bulk of any naming rights money.
- The stadium is only temporary: Queensboro F.C. plans to build a permanent stadium “in another location in Queens, New York” — there’s been talk of something in Willets Point near the Mets‘ stadium, but not for over two years now — and in fact can cancel the entire deal if no permanent stadium is approved by March 1, 2022.
That’s a lot, and it gets even a lotter. The stadium is being built “as-of-right,” meaning in accordance with existing zoning. Since the site’s current zoning is R6 — up-to-mid-sized apartment buildings with stores at ground level, basically — and that doesn’t allow for “commercial or professional recreation,” the city Department of Buildings signed off, but with a caveat: The stadium would have to be primarily operated by CUNY, with the USL team only “accessory to the primary education function & mandate.” The lease, in fact, specifies that CUNY would get use of the stadium 51% of the year — slightly weird, since a USL team wouldn’t need more than 182 days a year of stadium use anyway, but significantly less weird if that clause is what enables everyone to maintain the pretense that this is really a stadium for students, and York College just happens to be leasing it out to Queensboro part of the time.
(This likely helps with CUNY not having to get anyone’s permission to lease out its property, too: It’s not really turning over a large swath of public land to a private sports team, it’s just getting a private sports team to build a soccer stadium on its campus, and then generously allowing the sports team to use it half the time.)
So, we have CUNY and the city agreeing to look the other way on zoning to grease the skids for a private soccer stadium on public land — cutting through red tape, it’s the American way! As for how much of a subsidy this deal represents, that’s as yet undetermined: Getting a stadium that you don’t have to pay property tax on is worth something, but it will take some number-crunching to determine exactly what; and whether $2 million is a lot or a little for use of about 3.5 acres of Queens land is going to be even trickier to calculate than the whole New York Islanders mess was.
And speaking of the size of the land, remember this image comparing a typical USL stadium, this one for San Antonio F.C., with the plot that Queensboro was hoping to build on?
The actual comparable stadium Queensboro is looking at turns out to be Loudoun United‘s in Virginia, so let’s drop that onto a map of York College and see what we get:
Better! But still very tight, especially if people are going to be able to get to their seats. The bleachers, according to schematics attached to the lease, will be supported by a metal lattice, so there won’t be a lot of circulation room under them:
Anyway, figuring out how to squeeze stadiums into available space isn’t the job of this website, it’s that of Populous engineers. (Yes, Populous is designing this thing, their name is even on the zoning application.) The upshot here is: A privately owned soccer team has gotten a public college to let it drop a 7,500-seat stadium on its campus, in exchange for $2 million and letting the school use it part of the time, without having to either pay property taxes or go through the usual public rezoning process. And this is apparently only step one en route to another stadium elsewhere in the borough, which is somehow expected to be approved by next March, despite a new mayor and city council taking office in January. (Queens Borough President Donovan Richards will be staying put, after winning a special election last year to finish out his predecessor’s term.)
Like I said, it’s a lot. I’ll be following up on some of the remaining loose ends, and maybe taking a drive out to York College to see what the progress of construction is. The Queensboro F.C. stadium campaign has really been flying under media radar, but especially with the USL’s apparent plans to go toe-to-toe with MLS for soccer domination, it definitely bears watching.
Absolutely love the Beautiful Game! Soccer/REAL football/futbol. Make baseball look like hopscotch!! So anything that goes towards the betterment of the game I’ll support; even if it means public subsidies or building on a college campus (LOL!).
Anyone who has seen USL futbol will never mistake it for the beautiful game.
LOL NdM!
I think York College makes out well. Utilizing the resources of the college, and an open field is just that even if it is underused, are an important part of a revenue generation nowadays. City colleges should want to rent out their basketball gyms to NBA teams wanting some place for pre-game shoot arounds and walk throughs. I’m sure when the soccer team is not around, they can use it for farmers markets and other little midweek events that the college community can make use. It is more or less easy money. York’s soccer teams will have a place to play. Presumably, the stadium will be used for graduation ceremonies as opposed to the open field. If somebody wants to pay for it to have some kind of odd claim as to be the first soccer specific stadium within city limits, then let them. It reads like a city college is getting some schmuck to build up an underused piece of land to feed his ego. If USL teams are one thing, it is temporary so deposit that check quickly before he realizes that he probably won’t ever get 7500 paid fans to go to a USL game.
It would be fun to see what the deal is between incoming USL franchise Monterey Bay FC and California State University Monterey Bay for renovation/use of their stadium property, but given local media’s boosterism of the new club and CSUMB’s aversion to public disclosure of basically anything, I won’t get my hopes up.
Since Cal State is public, that should be gettable via a FOIL/open records request, no?
Yes and no. Some records will be kept on the local campus office in Seaside, but some may also be kept at the CSU headquarters down in Long Beach. Convenientlly, they don’t let you know which office you should be hitting up.
And, the method of transmission of documentation between CSU HQ and the various campus locations apparently is via slow boat to China with a side trip up and down the Andes.
You’ll get your info, but only when they’re damn well good and ready to release it to you.
Yeah, that’s pretty much always the case with public records requests. Can’t hurt for someone to file with both offices, though, even if it doesn’t provide answers until 2024 or something.
So what happens to the “temporary stadium”, if after 5 years, Queesnboro FC moves out to another site to play its games…is Queensboro FC required to remove the temp stadium or is there an option for CUNY to buy the temp stadium?
“QBFC shall restore the Licensed Premises (at QBFC’s sole expense) to substantially the same condition as it existed as of the Effective Date, including demolishing and/or removing any structures, improvements and equipment from the Licensed Premises that were constructed or added after the Effective Date, including the Field, the Stadium Structure and the Lighting, and regrading and sodding the Land with clean soil; provided, however, that CUNY may elect, pursuant to such Restoration Election, for QBFC to comply with an alternate restoration standard than as contemplated herein so long as such alternate restoration standard would cost the same or less than as provided herein (for example, CUNY may elect for QBFC to remove the Stadium Structure and the Lighting and leave behind the Field).”
So $400K a year to rent out land you aren’t really using seems like a pretty good deal. Add to that you get to use the stadium for graduations and other events.
I don’t get the economics of USL Soccer. I literally know 1 person who watches it
Neil:
Do you see a possible (ok, likely…) upside for CUNY in that they can simply tell QFC that they will let them ‘abandon’ the temporary stadium as is instead of demolishing it?
It looks to me like the only benefit to CUNY is they get a stadium (albeit temporary, which as I’ve said before can work just fine for most low and mid range attendance sports) built for them.
We all know it isn’t really being built for “them”, and that QFC is using a fairly obvious dodge to avoid property taxes and the normal permitting process (or at least part of it). But it might not be the imposition it seems at first blush.
If CUNY has the option to to basically take over a $5-8M (est) stadium should QFC make a permanent move elsewhere, I would say it’s not a bad deal necessarily. They don’t lose title to the land or have to demolish any other structures, and they might end up with a (more or less) free stadium just for allowing someone else to use their land for a few years.
If they don’t need the stadium or want it, they can always hold QFC (if they still exist…) to the contract on returning the site to it’s prior state.
Certainly not the worst deal I’ve seen. Are there downsides I am missing?
Mostly just that they could be renting out their land at a cut rate price. I’m sure there are lots of uses that land could be put to, once you accept that it’s not going to used for the campus.
It could be that they may use the land for something else campus related in the future but don’t have the funds or need for that at the present moment. NYU was notorious (when I was there at least) for buying up property in the village with plans to build 10+ years later
Why does the stadium have to be removed, is it so that it does not compete with the new stadium?
How much you want to bet when it comes to cleaning up the site it’s a LLC that’s responsible, and conveniently bankrupt before it can clean up the mess?
I thought the track and field site to the west is larger, and would be a better site for the stadium.
I think the language means that York can decided how much of the stadium it wants to keep.
Hey Neil,
Great work as always, unfortunately you won’t be outta the biz anytime soon in terms of the big 4 in NA but:
By Barry Svrluga
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2021/08/08/ioc-olympic-host-cities/
I think this is a great deal for everyone:
-The football club is paying for the stadium (No tax dollars used)
-The university gets to use the stadium for a good deal of the time during the five year period when the football club uses it for its home stadium
-The football club has a home for five years — perrhaps longer as it is not a done deal that they will build another one down the road.
-After the five year period (assuming the football club moves) the University has a nice sized small stadium for its use on land that was underutilized.
Boutght and paid for by the club. from my perspective what’s not to like about this deal? As Neal documents daily on this blog, the lion’s share of stadium proposals which always utilize public dollars that the local governments typically can’t afford, and which never pay off anyway.
Oh, I might tweak the contract a little (why not 25% of naming rights) but all in all, this should/could be a template for future proposals. Unlike what we are reading about in Buffalo, or just about any previous deal in Indianapolis
Except that the campus doesn’t really need a soccer stadium, and they’re being paid significantly below market value for use of their land:
https://www.fieldofschemes.com/2021/08/12/17759/queensboro-fc-is-getting-cut-rate-on-college-land-the-trick-is-figuring-out-how-many-millions-worth/
Picky, picky, Neal. Bur what other proposals are out there to use the university land? I have not seen any. I say take the money, stadium and run.
There are none, because the college only issued an RFP for a stadium. Single-bid contracts always look good compared to the alternative, because the alternative is defined as doing nothing.