Ugggggh, I’m going to have to write about this New York Post article, aren’t I? I hate doing so, because the Post is a terrible, terrible news outlet — “gossip and hate outlet” might be more accurate — that loves nothing more than to run “EXCLUSIVE” stories that are exclusive because they’re not actually true. But sometimes Post reporters do stumble across actual news, and this would be big news if true, so, hell with it:
Mayor Eric Adams is expected to announce that he is onboard with plans for a 25,000-seat soccer stadium to be built near Citi Field that will be home to the New York City Football Club, sources close to the situation said.
“A deal is close, but negotiations are ongoing,” a source said.
So, someone “close to the situation” — that’s not even “close to the negotiations,” so it could just mean “someone who lives in Queens” or “someone watching soccer on TV” — says that there are talks underway to reboot the long-dead plans for an NYC F.C. stadium at Willets Point, the former auto shop district across the street from the New York Mets‘ stadium that has been a rumored site for a soccer stadium since before NYC F.C. even existed. And Mayor Adams is expected to say he’s “onboard” (note to Post editors: actually “on board”) with the idea, which would mean … providing what, exactly? Who would pay for this thing?
It is not clear yet who would pay for the stadium, but sources said it would be privately funded.
Okay, these “sources” are clearly trying to gin up excitement over a Queens stadium — the mayor comes preinstalled! somebody who’s not you will pay for it! — and took this news to a paper that won’t ask too many questions like “What exactly do you mean by ‘privately funded’?” and “What would this mean for the 5,500 apartments that the city said would be built on the site when it cleared out the auto shops?” or even “What does the local city council rep think of this plan?” (The last one we can at least guess at, since it’s Francisco Moya, who loves building soccer stadiums and once bet the then-Bronx borough president a plate of empanadas that NYC F.C. would end up moving to Queens.)
There’s been talk before of NYC F.C. “feeling out” Willets Point as a site, so it’s certainly possible there’s some truth to this rumor — though that same report was mostly about the team, which is co-owned by the owners of the Yankees and Manchester City, reopening talks for a site on the Harlem River in the South Bronx, so there are rumors for anything if you look hard enough. I’ve now spent almost 500 words discussing something just because a guy who writes an alarming number of stories whose headlines cite “sources” got it into print, so let’s leave it at this: Where there’s the vague hint of smoke, sometimes there’s fire, and sometimes there’s just the feeble remnants of responsible journalism being burned to the ground in search of clicks.
If the rumor is true, it means that The Yankees/NYCFC have lied to The Bronx for eith years.
If it isn’t true, it means that The Yankees/NYCFC are trying to scare The Bronx (and its elected officials) into supporting a new stadium regardless of its impact on the community.
Typical bluff or bluster from the corporation that pays no property tax and rents Yankee Stadium for $1 a year.
New York City FC are a joint venture of Manchester City FC and the New York Yankees, thus the British “Super League” soccer team would be involved as well.
Man City pulled out of Super League over a year ago, along with pretty much everyone else other than Real Madrid and Barça.
To be fair to the Post, Mayor Adam’s could’ve literally have been onboard a derelict automobile in the cleared out auto shop when he said he was on board with the plan.
I am officially on bored with this too.
I thought they were hell bent on playing somewhere in Manhattan/The Bronx/Yonkers/Westchester so long as they could actually call it “New York” and not “New Jersey” or “Long Island”???
Hoo boy, the satellite view of Willet’s Point is GOLD. Someone needs to be filming the grittiest NYC movie in history right now.
An opening drone shot lifting from the bright lights and crowds of CitiField, over the stadium wall, across Seaver Way, and into the overgrown abandoned lots. Past the heaps of junked cars, scrap metal, and tires. Swoop over the busted chain link guarding the dark, musty no-man’s lands under Flushing Boulevard and the Whitestone Expressway.
Does anyone have any on-the-spot color they can add?
If you’re looking at Google Maps, pretty much all of that has been razed over the last few years. It’s mostly just a big gravel pit now.
Neil: Willets Point and Aquaduct Race Track are two valuable pieces of real estate that eventually will be utilized. The only questions are for what, by whom, and when? A privately funded soccer stadium @ Willets Point makes more sense then trying to pigeonhole it where the parking garages are in The Bronx.
Don’t know how this fits with Cohen’s push for a casino adjacent to the ballpark.
Three years ago, I could definitely see the soccer stadium getting built in Willets Point as the Wilpons had long lost any political clout. With Cohen, I’m not so sure he wants any form of Yankee ownership across the street.
I thought after his hedge fund ‘uncertainties’ he would be prohibited from holding (or at least find it difficult to obtain) a gaming license?
IIRC it was a “pay massive fine but no admission of guilt” thing (ooo, wait, it wasn’t…. he actually paid penalties and shut down his fund. Ok, the penalties were just a fraction of what he pocketed out of the fund, but still…).
Isn’t this the sort of applicant gaming authorities literally exist to exclude???
Just in case anyone would like a bit of a primer on the esteemed Mets owner… the New Yorker did a wonderful piece a few years ago:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/16/when-the-feds-went-after-the-hedge-fund-legend-steven-a-cohen
Awwww. Poor baby. You don’t like the NY Post? Is it because they don’t report your preferred version of propaganda? Go read the Times then.
Links are included explaining why the Poat should not be considered a news outlet! You have to click on them to read them.
Imagine! The NYP could be the one true Oracle… and all this time we have been making fun of it for it’s disgraceful attempts at journalism (ok, there aren’t really any legitimate attempts at journalism in the NYP).
This could be kinda like that time that Jose Canseco turned out to be the only one telling the truth about PEDs in baseball… nahh, it’s way less likely than that was…
I haven’t been back to NYC in many years but what was the original point of clearing out the auto shops (which when I was just out of college was the best way to get your car repaired so I have irrationally nostalgic feels for the place)
“Revitalization”!
It really didn’t get much more concrete than that. The auto shops were all relocated across the river to the Bronx, where most of them immediately went out of business.