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:
Queens, MLS A Near-Perfect Match, Assemblyman Says
I saw what other cities were doing, what the short term and long term economic impact was in those areas, and then I approached Major League Soccer about it, and talking about having them look at this particular area in Queens, which was supposed to be the area the Jets Stadium was going to be on. And say, look, we have the infrastructure for it, because you have the major hubs of public transportation. The 7 line, the LIRR, you have the bus terminals there, every major highway artery: Grand Central, Van Wyck, LIE all converge in that area. So it’s easy access.
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.
There’s obviously still a lot of space between here and shovels breaking ground, but this location seems to have as good a chance of succeeding as any other we’ve heard about. Whether putting another team in the New York market is a good idea, of course, is another thing entirely.
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