NEW YORK | NYC FC Soccer Stadium | Willets Point

[aquablue]

Originally Posted by NYC4Life

This is great for NYC and for a potential future Olympics bid like the 2024 games. Now i wonder what the new team will be called and if the red bulls will still be called "New York."

does ny even want the games that soon? They will have a tough fight with Africa and Paris.

Anyway, how will that stadium help a bid for the Olympics? It is probably not suitable for a track, so where would you build the main stadium because I doubt the could easily expand a Soccer specific stadium into an 80k athletics facility.

I would guess it could be used for something else, but not track.

Really, I think there will be no thought about expandibility for olympics when designing this stadium.

A ny games would be difficult bc ny is dense and congested and short of open space, but there are plenty of old brownfields, rail yards and industrial blight to clean up and transform if the had the will and drive.

The will have to find another site for a temporary track stadium if the want the games, because ny doesn't need a permanent 80k white elephant.

[NYguy]

^ A topic for another time and place.

Originally Posted by NYC4Life

Now i wonder what the new team will be called and if the red bulls will still be called "New York."

Why wouldn't they? You have both the NY Jets and NY Giants, not to mention both the Yankees and Mets.


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/16/ny...1&ref=nyregion
Soccer Enthusiasts Hope for a Stadium and a Pro Team in Queens



Edgar Rivera, 26, center, and Efrain Rivera, 21, right, before a Chile vs. Ecuador soccer match in Queens.



Joseph Rendon, 4, played near the site of a proposed soccer stadium in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens..


By SARAH MASLIN NIR
August 15, 2012

On many evenings in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, there are so many pickup soccer games being played on the worn fields that some matches spill over into the parking lots. But on Wednesday evening, thousands of soccer fans headed for the edge of the Queens park — not to play, but to watch an exhibition game between Ecuador and Chile. Citi Field, the baseball stadium that is the home of the Mets, was flooded with the braying of vuvuzelas, and by fans decked in their team’s colors — jerseys, face paint and even some patriotically colored Mohawk-style wigs — and some with their country’s flag worn like a superhero’s cape.

The scene offered a preview of sorts for what officials at Major League Soccer hope will soon be the home to a new stadium for the league’s 20th team. After considering locations around the city — including Pier 40 on the West Side in Manhattan, the Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx and land in Greenpoint, Brooklyn — the league has zeroed in on the park and is negotiating with Queens, city and state officials to secure the land and the necessary approvals. The proposed stadium would give the league, which has grown to 19 teams with the addition of Montreal this season, an anchor in New York City and a second team in the metropolitan area to compete in the standings and for fans with the Red Bulls, who play in Harrison, N.J.

The new stadium would hold about 25,000 spectators, according to a proposal presented by Mark Abbott, the league’s president, to Queens elected officials in late June. League officials highlighted plans to also build municipal soccer fields, cricket fields and volleyball courts on the site. They also estimated that construction would create more than 2,000 temporary jobs and 300 permanent jobs, said Dan Andrews, the spokesman for the Queens borough president, Helen M. Marshall, who attended the presentation. The proposed team does not yet have a name or an owner.

[manchester united]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...ow_overlay_mod

[Duck From NY]

Originally Posted by aquablue

does ny even want the games that soon? They will have a tough fight with Africa and Paris.

Anyway, how will that stadium help a bid for the Olympics? It is probably not suitable for a track, so where would you build the main stadium because I doubt the could easily expand a Soccer specific stadium into an 80k athletics facility.

I would guess it could be used for something else, but not track.

Really, I think there will be no thought about expandibility for olympics when designing this stadium.

A ny games would be difficult bc ny is dense and congested and short of open space, but there are plenty of old brownfields, rail yards and industrial blight to clean up and transform if the had the will and drive.

The will have to find another site for a temporary track stadium if the want the games, because ny doesn't need a permanent 80k white elephant.

There's a thread for Olympic bids and possible bids. Hope it never comes to NY though. A soccer stadium would be cool though.

[aquablue]

Originally Posted by Duck From NY

There's a thread for Olympic bids and possible bids. Hope it never comes to NY though. A soccer stadium would be cool though.

Disagree. Disruption for a short period of time is worth getting the legacy benefits. Entire areas could be regenerated and there would be pressure to upgrade transportation infrastructure. NY has plenty of brownfields, decaying industrial areas available to be turned around for new housing and parks. I doubt they could get the games without a significant legacy, look at London and how they regenerated East London...Olympics benefit would be for the entire city, not for a small few rich people or companies developing land into scrapers.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by manchester united

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...ow_overlay_mod

Making a Pitch for New York Soccer

By ALEXANDER ABNOS
September 10, 2012

Major League Soccer's tentative deal to open a new stadium in Flushing Meadows won't only give the league an on-field presence in New York City—it may also offer an opportunity for the city's up-and-coming soccer players. There are many theories about why a home for talented soccer aficionados from around the globe has struggled to produce more professional players. Most agree, though, on one possibility: the lack of a local professional club.

Despite the city's strong soccer fan base and vibrant playing community, only a dozen of the 1,760 players in MLS's history said they hailed from New York, according to league statistics. That is fewer than Los Angeles, which 14 players called their hometown. St. Louis, Dallas and San Diego also have been the hometowns of more MLS players than the city. While MLS's Red Bull New York represents the city professionally, Red Bull Arena and its training facilities are located in Harrison, N.J. That is a 10-mile (or more) hurdle in recruiting young players from the city into the club's academy program, according to its director Bob Montgomery.

Many families can't fit five nights of practice, games and travel time. The result: a youth academy that is "New York" in name only. The Red Bulls have 92 players in its youth program, but only 13 list their hometown as New York City.

[Duck From NY]

Originally Posted by aquablue

Disagree. Disruption for a short period of time is worth getting the legacy benefits. Entire areas could be regenerated and there would be pressure to upgrade transportation infrastructure. NY has plenty of brownfields, decaying industrial areas available to be turned around for new housing and parks. I doubt they could get the games without a significant legacy, look at London and how they regenerated East London...Olympics benefit would be for the entire city, not for a small few rich people or companies developing land into scrapers.

I'll PM you

[Rail>Auto]

Originally Posted by Crawford

The old Shea Stadium site is part of the upcoming Willets Point development.

Shea is going to be the first phase of the development (a big mall, I think).

True, and that is unfortunate. As for the size of old Shea. I would have gutted the upper level precast and reconfigured the lower level. Basically just preserving the outer shell. But that's all for not now.

As for this stadium, are there any renderings available yet? Are there any football teams in the area who would consider using this facility. I'm thinking the New USFL would like this as well.

[NYguy]

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2012/0..._of_queens.php

Flushing Sports Arenas: the Barclays Center of Queens?





September 13, 2012
by Jessica Dailey

It's a familiar story: local residents are speaking out against a plan to bring a new sports arena to their neighborhood. But instead of the middle of Brooklyn, this is the biggest park in Queens. And instead of one NBA arena, it's two sports arenas. The projects, an 8,000-seat U.S. Tennis Association stadium and a 25,000-seat Major League Soccer stadium, are separate, but they are both located in Flushing Meadows Corona Park near Citi Field. Add to that the 1-million-square-foot Willets Point retail mall, and you have a plan that's drawing more and more opposition, reports the Journal. Community groups and City Council member Julissa Ferreras say that the proposals are taking away green park space without considering the affects construction and increased traffic will have on the area. Bloomberg reps counter that the projects will revive the area, bringing jobs and economic activity.

All of the plans are a ways away from even breaking ground, but clearly the local fight is picking up steam. Will the people have Queens have more power than the anti-Barclays Brooklynites?

[manchester united]

Maybe the soccer stadium will be 30k seats.

[manchester united]

Major League Soccer won't get a Queens stadium without a fight
Neighbors Worry Over Flushing Meadows Development Plans
In the Boroughs: Biz eyes kick from soccer
Flushing Meadows Park Soccer Stadium Plans Face Inevitable NIMBY Backlash

[NYguy]

http://www.qchron.com/editions/north...24134a949.html

Hidden river may affect soccer arena
Flushing Meadows site has flood issues

Sep 27, 2012
by Henry Gass

If construction does go ahead on a proposed soccer stadium in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, the problems for Major League Soccer and its 25,000-seat arena may only just be beginning. What MLS appears not to have considered with its proposed location at Industry Pond is an underground river flowing under the site. Combined with the park’s already high water table, the soccer field could be saddled with significant drainage issues.

In 1939, then-Parks Commissioner Robert Moses drove the Flushing River underground to help create the Pool of Industry in preparation for the 1939 World’s Fair. The pool has since stagnated and polluted, turning into a park eyesore.

Paul Mankiewicz, director of the Gaia Institute, a Bronx-based not-for-profit specializing in ecological engineering, said the underground river would exacerbate issues caused by the water table, which is only five to 10 feet below ground. “There’s only a certain amount of depth that [storm water] can reach,” said Mankiewicz. “The water can’t drain quick enough.”

Formerly marshland, the park boasts one of the highest water tables in the city. According to Mankiewicz, paving over some areas of the park has squeezed the water table higher in areas with exposed grass, as the water “looks” for avenues to escape and drain into Flushing Bay. Mankiewicz added that it would be possible to manage the drainage issues, however, noting that the area could be successfully irrigated. He did extensive research on the subject while working to help prepare New York’s 2012 Olympics bid.

An MLS spokesperson said the league has accounted for drainage in its designs. The site will address the high water table by a slight increase in the elevation. The stadium will be structurally sound using the same techniques employed at CitiField and the nearby Aquatic Center, which are built in similar soil in similar water table conditions.

[NYguy]

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/articl...queens-stadium

Major League Soccer enlists the Barclays Center team for its Queens stadium project





By Dana Rubinstein
Oct. 4, 2012

Major League Soccer has asked SHoP Architects, the firm that designed the new Nets stadium in downtown Brooklyn, to prepare initial designs for a Major League Soccer stadium in Queens. SHoP's name is on a July Major League Soccer proposal given to city officials, and obtained by Capital. Last night, MLS confirmed that SHoP is indeed working on the initial schematic designs for a stadium in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.

That MLS is working with a New York firm that just successfully delivered an architecturally well-regarded stadium to Atlantic Yards, perhaps the city's most disputed development site, may indicate something about the seriousness of the league's intent to build in Queens, political controversy and byzantine development processes nothwithstanding.

The two presentations obtained by Capital, one from June and the other from July, reveal some other interesting tidbits about the league's intentions. According to a presentation given to city officials in June, the stadium will create 2,000 construction-related jobs, and 300 full-time and 900 part-time jobs. It will also need 4,500 parking spots for fans—who would park in the Mets parking lots—and 375 parking spots for players and VIPs.

According to Major League Soccer, those numbers have since changed. Now, the league anticipates creating more construction-related jobs—between 2,100 and 2,300 construction-related jobs, and fewer full-time and part-time jobs, 160 and 750, respectively. Also, the league now estimates it needs 4,100 parking spots for fans, and 300 spots for players and VIPs.

[mrnyc]

so will it be a rusty cor-ten steel soccer stadium? stay tuned!

[NYguy]

http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/2012...adium-proposal

'Toxic' Site Eyed as Replacement Parkland in MLS Soccer Stadium Proposal




The proposed MLS stadium would be built on what is currently Industry Pond in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

October 9, 2012
By Nigel Chiwaya

Major League Soccer is scrambling to come up with replacement parkland as part of its proposed soccer stadium in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park — and a toxic site along the Flushing River is among the parcels under consideration. The league, which wants to take up to 13 acres of land in the park in order to build a 25,000-seat stadium, is required by law to replace any land used for the project, which has sparked controversy from critics who called it a land grab. But difficulty finding suitable sites is forcing the league to consider land along the polluted banks of the Flushing River in Willets Point, some of which is currently owned by the MTA, as well as several other pieces of land that do not adjoin the park.

League spokeswoman Risa Heller confirmed that MLS is indeed looking at the waterfront site, in addition to several other locations around the borough. "MLS seeks to develop a parkland replacement plan that is driven by the wants and needs of the community members and local leaders," Heller said in an email. "We have begun working with community leaders to identify parcels."

In addition to the waterfront, the league is also looking at a lot near abandoned train tracks in Rego Park, MLS officials confirmed. Both sites come with their share of issues. One of the locations under consideration, a 12-acre site along the Flushing Creek's western bank, is owned by the MTA. The agency's chairman Joe Lhota has indicated that the agency would be willing to part with the land, telling Capital New York that the MTA can sell land as long any deal is "a fair market value." However, its proximity to gritty Willets Point and the Flushing River, which has been a dumping ground, has left the site polluted. Finn called the land "toxic," and a 2011 MTA presentation said that the land had "poor soil conditions" that would require remediation.

The potential Rego Park site is a 16.6-acre land parcel near the abandoned Rockaway Beach branch Long Island Rail Road tracks. However, the site is located 3 miles away from the parkland it would replace. In addition, the fate of the train tracks that border the site is up in the air, as two groups are currently debating future use of the line — with one group aiming to resume service along the tracks, and the other looking to make it a "High Line"-style park.

One potential site is an MTA-owned parcel of land in Willets Point. In 2011 the MTA said that the land would require soil remediation.

[manchester united]

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/articl...plans-eye-2016

[NYguy]

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/...#ixzz28o6N1B28

Major League Soccer hopes to iron out stadium deal with city in next 30 days
MLS seeking approval for $300 million stadium in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens


By Clare Trapasso
October 9, 2012

Major League Soccer and the city could hammer out a deal for a $300 million stadium in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park within the next 30 days, MLS officials said. MLS Commissioner Don Garber said he hopes to break ground in 2014 on the privately financed stadium and open it to the public by 2016 or 2017.

“This is a project we have been dreaming about since the league was founded,” Garber said Friday at a briefing for news media. “Our goal is to bring the world’s game to the world’s park.”

The league looked at about 20 sites in the New York City region over the last year before settling on Flushing Meadows, he said. MLS plans to build the stadium on 10 to 13 acres at the Fountains of Industry site. That’s up from the original 8-acre estimate.

Plans are to build a 25,000-seat stadium, but officials are seeking approval for 35,000 seats to give MLS the option to expand in the future, league officials said. No additional park land would be used in the expansion, officials said.

But not everyone was in full support of the plans. The Fairness Coalition of Queens consists of groups worried about the collective impact of the MLS stadium, U.S. Tennis Association expansion and a proposed new mall at Citi Field. The coalition recently held two meetings where locals voiced their concerns. Coalition spokesman Theo Oshiro said the stadium will exacerbate traffic and parking woes and could lead to a loss of park land. “It’s hard to imagine where in Queens you could fit that amount of park space and where you can find that amount of space that’s as [easily] accessible as Flushing Meadows is,” he said.

[manchester united]

Garber has said that the stadium will be completed by 2016 THE LATEST, so I think that there are real possibilities also for mid 2015 ( 15-18 months for the construction ).
However my hope is that this new NYC soccer team will be in MLS by 2014 in a temporary stadium ( Citi Field ).

[Seat24inNJ]

Originally Posted by manchester united

Garber has said that the stadium will be completed by 2016 THE LATEST, so I think that there are real possibilities also for mid 2015 ( 15-18 months for the construction ).
However my hope is that this new NYC soccer team will be in MLS by 2014 in a temporary stadium ( Citi Field ).

You are absolutely nuts if you think the Mets are going to let an MLS team play in Citi Field and ruin their grass while they are on the road somewhere. It just won't happen. They do those exhibition internationals every once in a while, but those are once in a blue moon. They'll play at Hofstra until they get a stadium.

[NYguy]

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/articl...ea-not-necessa

Flushing Meadows park planners find a soccer stadium idea not 'necessarily' terrible





By Dana Rubinstein
Oct 26, 2012

The authors of a 2008 plan to resurrect Flushing Meadows Corona Park definitely didn't envision yet another stadium going there. Yet, in interviews about a proposal by Major League Soccer to locate one in the park, the two lead authors seemed surprisingly open to the idea, depending on how it's executed, and on what the community gets out of it. At the very least, they said, it made more sense than a certain other new stadium in downtown Brooklyn.

"I don’t think it’s necessarily a terrible idea," said Laurie Hawkinson, a principal at Smith-Miller+Hawkinson Architects, though she said its terribleness, or lack thereof, will depend on how the stadium is actually incorporated into the park. I imagine someone could do a really great stadium and resuscitate the park and all kinds of things," she said, adding that the stadium might be a way to "leverage some funds" to transform Flushing Meadows into something more closely resembling its much better maintained Manhattan counterpart, Central Park.

"I mean, to me it makes more sense than where they put that other one in Brooklyn, the Barclays," said Hawkinson. "It’s like, oh my god, the most congested place in Brooklyn, and I’m going to put a stadium there."

Nicholas Quennell, a partner at landscape architecture firm Quennell Rothschild and Partners and the other lead author of the strategic plan, said he thought the Major League Soccer proposal to build a 25,000-seat stadium on the site of a long-disused World's Fair fountain, known as the Pool of Industry, "was actually intelligent."

"You know, it seems to me, it's true that the park has always been a kind of dumping ground for anything that couldn't find a home anywhere else," he said. "But on the other hand, it is that kind of place. And because it's never had a very clearly defined landscape and because there's so much still left over from the World's Fair, it's almost appropriate that it should receive these kinds of uses."