https://www.hudsonriverblue.com/2023...stadium-queens
Brad Sims: NYCFC will be the undisputed flagship team of MLS
The President and CEO of NYCFC talks about building a Cathedral of Soccer in Queens and what it will take to turn New York City in to a Big Club. Plus: Long-term plans for a new training campus, a stadium for NYCFC II, and a women’s team
By Oliver Strand
Mar 16, 2023
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Brad Sims on where NYCFC fits in the world of professional sports in New York City, and where soccer fits in the United States:
It’s the age-old question just about soccer in this country. How do we raise its profile? It’s not just NYCFC. How do we collectively raise the profile of the sport in this country? To me, it’s long-term, aspirational. We have a mission statement at the club here, it’s to build New York City into one of the soccer capitals of the world.
It’s not going to happen next year. It’s aspirational. I have introduced something that’s more of a short-term goal of the club that I think is very reasonable and attainable, and that’s to build NYCFC into the undisputed flagship team of Major League Soccer.
On building a stadium that will be a Cathedral of Soccer:
I think the stadium we build in New York City, within the Five Boroughs of New York City in Queens, is going to be a destination spot for the biggest clubs in over the world. When they come to the US they want to play in New York, and they want to play in a proper stadium. They can play in an NFL stadium, or in a baseball stadium, but if they want to play in a proper stadium, if you’re Barcelona, you’re Madrid, you’re Juventus, you’re Bayern, you’re Man City, and you want to play in a real soccer stadium in New York City, you’re going to want to play in our stadium. US Men’s National Team, US Women’s National Team, friendlies, competitive games, World Cup Qualifying, all of those kinds of games, we think we’re going to be the biggest and most attractive market.
That helps build New York City into one of the soccer capitals of the world by having a Cathedral of Soccer in the Five Boroughs.
On NYCFC becoming a Big Club:
The difference between owning and running your own facility and being a tenant – and this is from spending 15-plus years in the NBA – is night and day. There’s a difference with the control of the revenues, the ability to sell sponsorships, the food and beverage. It’s mostly revenue. We will be paying rent to the City, instead of to the Yankees or the Mets, and we’ll take on a lot more operational components in-house, but the revenues are drastic. Drastic.
That’s one piece of how you make a club big, you have a home.
You get one chance to launch a club, and you get one or maybe two chances over a long period of time to launch a building. It’s a chance for almost a rebrand, a relaunch of the entire franchise, who we are, what we’re about.
There are things we’ll be able to do in the news stadium that we can’t do now. Like fan rituals, pre-game things that we aren’t allowed to do, or we don’t have the space to set up. The fan experience will be so much better. Fans, I think, will be excited about coming to a Cathedral of Soccer in the Five Boroughs in New York City.
The draw right now to come to our games is to watch soccer. The draw at the new stadium will be going to be great soccer and having an unimagined and unrivaled fan experience in a Cathedral of Soccer in the City.
We’re looking at a capacity of 25,000, and so we’re expecting it to be jam-packed. How does that make us a Big Club? I don’t think it’s how many fans you have there, it’s what you feel when you’re there.
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On building a new training campus for NYCFC, a stadium for NYCFC II, and launching a women’s team:
Obviously, building the stadium in Queens is priority number one, two, three, four. We have a process to go through. We’re not formally approved as everyone knows. We have a 12-18 month process, we’re looking forward to meaningful dialogues with community leaders, community boards, borough boards, and we’re so fortunate to have such great support from Mayor Adams, and Councilmember Moya, and Borough President Richards, and the list goes on and on.
But that’s not the only building we want to do, the only growing we want to do as a club. We talk about how we haven’t had a home for our first team, but we also have a second team that started to play last year in MLS NEXT Pro and we feel like we have a temporary home at St John’s – we have great partners at St John’s, we love the relationship we have there. There’s also the current home of our Academy.
We endeavor to have a campus where you can have a First Team, a Second Team, and an Academy all under the same roof. I won’t put a timeline on it because first and foremost is the stadium approval and moving forward with that, but something I think we need to elevate the club to the next level is having the right facilities from a player development standpoint.
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