Plans To Bring MLS Expansion Team To New York City Proper Take Step Forward

Talking about MLS expansion is not the highest art. It’s a relatively easy way to get some pageviews, but it also highlights just how different and, even, strange MLS may seem to fans of just about any other soccer league. When Commissioner Don Garber talks, though, it’s hard to ignore.

His latest statements -- made to Toronto-area media during the Amway Canadian Championship -- help illustrate just how strange of a situation we have here. Despite the fact that there’s an existing team drawing solid crowds and currently trying to secure funding for a stadium in Orlando, Garber made it clear that the league is still very focused on putting a team in New York City proper.

It turns out that MLS is not run by a bunch of crazy people who were so blinded by the idea of putting an expansion team in New York City proper that they were willing to basically give away a stadium to make it happen. At least, that was my take-away from the latest developments with the proposed stadium in Flushing Meadows, which included MLS officials finally going on the record about some of their plans.

There was a lot of talk about how important this could be to that community, but here’s the most interesting part from my perspective: The economics are straightforward:

As if the momentum pushing toward New York City as the 20th MLS franchise needed to get any strong, it appears at least some local politicians are starting to make a pretty strong push for a potential stadium site in Queens. Assemblyman Francisco Moya, in explaining some earlier remarks about his affinity for Barcelona to Gothamist, added some detail about what makes this potential stadium site so interesting:

That a local politician, whose district stands to gain some significant tax revenue and jobs, is supporting the stadium is probably not a shocker. But he does ably illustrate why this particular location has so much potential. Not only is it located within the New York City limits, but it would be built on top of what is essentially useless land, has good public transportation access and is already a bit of a destination.