As has been rumored for weeks now, New York City Mayor Eric Adams and the insanely wealthy Abu Dhabians who own NYC F.C. have announced that they’ve reached agreement on a new soccer stadium in the Willets Points section of Queens, near the Mets’ stadium that no one wants to use the corporate name for. (The official announcement comes today — UPDATE: at 11:30 am, streaming here — but apparently the city and team gave the New York Times an exclusive.) The cost: $780 million, which doesn’t include the price of a 250-room hotel and 2,500 units of affordable housing that would come along with it.
As for who’ll pay for it, city and team officials said the construction cost will be covered by the team owners. City officials, according to the New York Times, “said subsidies for this project are largely limited to infrastructure improvements at the site and property tax breaks for the stadium.”
So, that could mean a lot of things. “Infrastructure” has been interpreted in other cities to mean anything from running water and sewer lines to a stadium (things that Willets Point famously doesn’t have) to building transportation and sea-level-rise protection for an entire new neighborhood. As for property tax breaks, exempting a $780 million stadium from property taxes should be worth at least a hundred million right there; if it’s extended to the hotel and housing as well, it could come to quite a tidy sum for the soccer owners.
For now, at least, the project announcement seems to put an end to two things: NYC F.C.’s crazy-ass plan to build a stadium atop a highway ramp in the Bronx, and the wannabe USL team Queensboro F.C.‘s plans to build their own soccer stadium in Willets Point. In fact, it looks like Queensboro F.C. has been put an end to itself: In a stadium announcement preview post on Monday, Front Row Soccer declared that “according to sources, the club is defunct and won’t be competing in the USL Championship.” That would explain why several people have reported to me that the Queensboro F.C. stadium that was supposed to be built at York College by now in fact hasn’t even started construction.
More details today after the official announcement, maybe, if Mayor Adams divulges anything more or reporters ask any probing questions, neither of which is a great bet, but hope springs eternal…
how do the investors make back their money, $780,000,000.00 to build a 25,000 seat stadium for 15-20 home matches? I don’t see it but it must make sense since they’re using their own money.
If it doesn’t make sense besides they just love soccer, it’s a free country, and they are free to do what they want with their own money (just not with public money).
I don’t get why a 25K seat stadium costs $780 million? I know Abu Dhabi has stupid money but that cost is just insane.
We have no renderings or other indications of what exactly the $780 million would go to pay for. So could be anything, really, but yes, that’s stupid money for a soccer stadium.
I love the links you put in your stories Neil! I’ve got some t shirts on my wish list.
Hope you get a commission!
Neil
Great analysis.
Does not the NYC City Council have any role in final approval or any say in the details. If so, here’s what I would demand:
-the rent payments from the team to the city should equal the cost of infrastructure done by the city, ie if the city spends $200 million on infrastructure, then the rent should be $200 million – and I would demand equal payments, none of this backloading BS.
-the city should also demand a PILOT in the range of $100-250 million for the property tax giveaway
And while the projected stadium cost is excessive, if the team is truly going to pay for it, then I don’t have a problem with that…..but I am sure that it can be built for $500 million – even in NYC.
The council does have say, and those are excellent starting points for negotiations. However, the council usually defers to the local councilmember, and in this case that’s this guy:
https://queenseagle.com/all/moya-re-election-bid-gets-financial-assist-from-new-queens-soccer-club
So while it’s not impossible to cut a better deal, with both the mayor and the local councilmember all-in on soccer by any means necessary, it’s going to be an uphill battle.
I’m quite sure that the stadium shown, even with NY/Queens building premium costs, will not cost $780m. I would be surprised if the stadium itself even cost $380m…
So, if you are sports team owner and one of the wealthiest people on the planet, how do you get a major city to a) forego any reasonable rent or tax revenue on the land you are going to use and b) cough up $200-300m in infrastructure funds for this ‘amazing’ development that will catalyze, errrm, all sort of things… (and don’t you worry about that at all. In fact, don’t even think about it).
Well, step one would be to inflate the cost of the stadium you are building tremendously, then maybe describe it as a “gift” to the city (which is actually paying $2-300m for that gift, but don’t mention that part again) which you and your sports franchise will use exclusively and have full control of until such time as it requires replacement (IE: additional city funds).
There was a time when we ordinary folk complained about ‘how the sausage was made’… but at least then there was sausage. It is not clear to me what the public or the city gets out of this, other than the eternal (ok, at least 30yr) appreciation of one or more of the world’s richest people.
Maybe you can’t put a price on that… though it seems like the individuals in question certainly can.
They say all things come to those who wait. Wow.