All of Hudson River Blue’s coverage of the NYCFC stadium search.
The installation of that new grass pitch sounded like a move made to benefit both NYCFC and the stewards of Randall’s Island. The return of soccer to the island could alleviate some of the pressure that gets put on NYCFC’s training facility in Orangeburg, NY. As Jennifer O’Sullivan put it, “There just are not that many grass pitches available for professional teams to train on in this area. We get a lot of folks that come to us wanting to use our training facility. It’s hard for us, just given the traffic that we have there, but this [Icahn Stadium] is another great option.”
The example NYCFC’s COO used was Manchester City FC, who came through New York City during their preseason tour of the United States and held training sessions at NYCFC’s facility up in Rockland County before playing AC Milan in a star-studded friendly at Yankee Stadium.
Deborah Maher wants that new Icahn Stadium pitch to host teams of the ilk of Man City, and Randall’s Island has already gotten a head start on welcoming back European clubs who also played a part in the island’s deep soccer history.
German Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt visited Icahn Stadium for an open training session on August 1, a nod to the historic summer tour of America the Frankfurt club took in 1951, which included playing games at the then-Triborough Stadium against the likes of Celtic FC from Scotland.
The new pitch at Icahn Stadium also arrives with time to ramp up its use ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will include a World Cup Final played across the Hudson River at East Rutherford, New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium.
Randall’s Island Park Alliance leader Deborah Maher said “Absolutely, yes,” when asked if the goal is to host World Cup-related events and activities on Randall’s and at Icahn Stadium. Whether that means a national team using the grass field inside the track stadium as a training ground, or fan fests on the park grounds, or something else, remains to be determined.
Complicated times for Randall’s Island
Maher also acknowledged that all this planning around soccer and Icahn Stadium is happening while Randall’s Island makes headlines as it plays host to a shelter for asylum-seeking migrants erected by the City of New York. More than 2,000 people are currently living in a shelter erected across four of the island’s 60 soccer fields, a situation highlighted expertly in this report on life at the Randall’s Island shelter by Arya Sundaram of Gothamist.
This huge humanitarian crisis has touched all parts of New York City, and it’s front-and-center on Randall’s Island. The Randall’s Island Park Alliance has threatened to sue the city over the shelter. Maher of the Park Alliance said “We’ve been very vocal that it shouldn’t be there, that it’s parkland alienation in our point of view. We’re working closely with City Hall, the Mayor, the Parks Department, and we are working to get it removed, and my hope is in 2025, it will be removed.”
The Randall’s Island Park Alliance has been clear about wanting to reclaim those soccer fields, but it’s a massive question as to how that would happen, and if there’s any realistic chance the shelter and its occupants will be relocated in 2025.
It’s still the earliest of early days in this new phase of “Randall’s Island: Soccer Destination.” Both NYCFC and its new partners overseeing activity on the island stressed that there is much to still be decided about how much soccer will end up inside Icahn Stadium.
“I think it’s just the beginning stages for us for how can we utilize this space in the best way for NYCFC, for our fans, for the NYCFC II team,” said NYCFC COO O’Sullivan.
It’s also not clear if further enhancements might be in store for Icahn Stadium. When asked if there were further plans, Deborah Maher of the Randall’s Island Park Alliance said, “I’m not saying this is the final chapter, there might be more. We’ve looked at designs for adding another 5,000 seats to make it a 10,000-person stadium, but I really think it’s important to not over-expand too quickly and to just celebrate today.”
The team and its new partners on Randall’s Island had a new field to celebrate, though a lot of questions still linger over Icahn Stadium and the MLS NEXT Pro team now calling it home, sometimes.
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Publish date : 2024-09-08 23:00:00
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