SaNaL DuNYaM

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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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer