NEW YORK (AP) - New
York City FC ´ s $ 780 million, 25,000-seat place that it means to open next to the Mets ´
Citi Field in 2027 will be called Etihad Park under a 20
-year arrangement announced Thursday with Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates.
The Big
league Soccer team ´ s
managing owner is
City Football Group, the parent
company of
England ´ s
Manchester City. The
Premier League team ´ s venue was
renamed Etihad Stadium in July 2011.
NYCFC president Brad Sims said
profits from the offer will go to the
MLS team and not the parent
business or English club, which is under
investigation by the Premier League for
declared violations of monetary reasonable play
guidelines.
Etihad has actually been
NYC's shirt sponsor since 2014 and
Manchester City's because 2009-10, a season after the
Abu Dhabi United Group took
control.
"It ´ s a 100% New York City FC offer,"
Sims stated. "Etihad Airways has been basically our best, our principal and starting partner since Day 1 at the club here. ... We wished to preferably stay with someone who is a present partner of New York City FC and or somebody in the City Football Group household however Etihad was easily type of the No. 1 focus that we have actually had all along."
Etihad also has actually
collaborated with NYCFC on
community efforts.
"They ´ ve been interested for quite a long time about this arena in New York and truly purchasing into, I think, the path of travel of the sport in this country, in the New York market specifically," Sims stated. "For them the New York market, the New york city City market is an extremely strategic industrial market."
Since taking the field in 2015, NYCFC has played home
video games mainly at Yankee Stadium, home of the Major League Baseball team that is a
minority financier in NYCFC. But due to the fact that of schedule conflicts, NYC has played some home
matches at Citi Field, the home of the rival New
York Red Bulls in Harrison, New Jersey, and
Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Connecticut.
Saturday's Eastern Conference semifinal against the competing New
york city Red Bulls will be at
Citi Field because Notre Dame is playing Army in a
college football game at Yankee Stadium.
NYCFC revealed the website in 2022. The New
York City City board authorized the soccer stadium in April as part of a
Willets Point redevelopment that
consists of 2,500
housing systems, a new public school, hotel and retail stores. Bulldozers and cranes are involved in pre-construction, lease negotiations with New
York City are advancing and a groundbreaking is likely before the end of the year, according to Sims.
Mets owner Steve Cohen is amongst the
bidders for a license to build a casino in a
location surrounding to Citi Field.
"The more activity that can occur in development in Willets Point and make it a live-work-and-play community the better," Sims said.
Sims stated when NYCFC is home
initially in a day, there has to be a six-hour buffer before a
Mets game can begin. When the Mets are home initially, there has to be a
seven-hour buffer before soccer can begin.
Similar
parameters exist with the U.S.
Tennis Association for the U.S. Open.
Sims stated the brand-new
stadium will
benefit NYCFC if MLS changes to an August-to-May schedule, aligning with the majority of European soccer leagues, from its current February-to-December
calendar.
"There ´ s a lot of pros to doing that. The cons primarily live in cold-weather cities that have outdoor arenas," Sims said. "I believe for us with the brand-new arena we would likely be fairly insulated, a minimum of in the early - at least in the first 5-, 10-plus years just with kind of excitement around the stadium."
MLS season ticket
holders will have top priority access to
hospitality tickets for the 2026 World Cup.
"All MLS season members, season ticket holders, corporate partners and such will have will have a kind of presale access, these chances ahead of the marketplace to purchase suites, club seats, hospitality-type items at all video games in all markets throughout the 2026 World Cup," Sims said. "That ´ s something that I think is a terrific advantage to our season ticket members and to our sponsors and corporate partners. ... We remain in the market actively marketing 2025 City subscriptions and that's going to be another advantage of that."
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