It’s looking increasingly unlikely that New York City FC’s soccer-specific stadium will be built in the Bronx, according to a Manchester City club representative.
Martin Edelmen, a New York property attorney and a member of Manchester City’s board of directors, says NYCFC’s stadium search is now focused on two different boroughs.
“We had focused on the Bronx but that didn’t work out and we weren’t able to find anything else in the Bronx that made sense,” Edelman told the New York Daily News. “So we’re looking in Queens and Brooklyn, and each potential has to be analyzed for construction, for access to public transportation, for parking, it’s a very complicated process.
“There’s no rush, but there’s a rush. In other words we’re not going to just settle for something, we’re going to find a place where everybody is comfortable doing it, and it makes economic sense to do it. But we’re not just sitting and waiting for the place to come to us.”
NYCFC have previously expressed interest in building a stadium in the Queens neighborhood of Flushing as well as adjacent to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, but plans for both sites fell through.
New York City FC will open their 2015 expansion season at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx on March 15 against the New England Revolution. The club’s home schedule 2015 will not have an impact on the schedule of the stadium's primary tenants, Major League Baseball's New York Yankees.
According to the Yankees, the stadium will be downsized from its current capacity of 49,642 seats to 33,444 seats for MLS matches. The field will be 110 yards by 70 yards. Conversion of the stadium from baseball to soccer, and vice versa, takes three days.
