NYCFC Soccer Stadium Is Designed As Heart Of New York City Community

At first glance, the “City In The Community” lettering on the facade of the proposed 25,000-seat stadium for New York City Football Club may appear as a simple and clever decoration. But the words—and their placement—hold significant meaning. The lettering marks what would be the location of the permanent headquarters of NYCFC’s City In The Community charitable foundation. It is one element in a multifaceted, purposeful set of innovations around community engagement that are being incorporated into the NYCFC stadium design.

The proposed venue represents the first stadium in New York built specifically for soccer. It is being planned around NYCFC’s ambition to help New York City establish itself as a global center for soccer in the coming century, and embodies the club’s commitment to using the power of soccer to transform people’s lives and communities in positive ways. A public-private partnership between NYCFC, the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the City of New York, local councils and community boards, and the Related Companies-Sterling Equities joint venture Queens Development Group, it underscores the importance of integrating the stadium into the community and the community into the stadium.

The stadium would sit in the Willet’s Point section in the borough of Queens. The walkable, public transit-oriented district would include 2,500 units of affordable housing, more than 40,000 feet of common space, a public school for up to 650 students, a hotel with 250 guestrooms, and a variety of retail outlets and restaurants. It would be integrated into a new neighborhood across the street from Citi Field, the home ballpark of MLB’s New York Mets, and nearby the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center that hosts the annual U.S. Open.

Renderings for the $780-million, privately-funded soccer stadium and larger project were presented to the public during a recent community board meeting. Rashed Singaby, a principle at HOK architectural firm and lead on the stadium project design, shared the guiding principles, which revolve around four questions:

“What if a stadium reflects New York’s honesty and vibrancy?”

“What if a stadium is the community’s gravitational center?”

“What if a stadium can renew the heritage of the past?”

“What if the stadium represents the football club’s values?”

The questions aim at encouraging creativity, connectivity, and community engagement. The stadium, then, should become an everyday amenity for every citizen and visitor of the community. It should prove to be a gathering place that ties the neighborhood together because it offers something of benefit to everyone in some way or another.

If that seems to be an overly-broad aspiration, consider that Queens is known as “The World’s Borough.” More than 300 languages are being spoken on the nearly six-mile stretch of stores, restaurants, and workshops along its Roosevelt Avenue thoroughfare, according to National Geographic. The stadium is designed to draw on that special blend of cultural identity and richness.

This adds to the notion of the stadium acting as a landmark for promoting interaction, whether people are crossing the street, residing in nearby apartment buildings, attending events, visiting the hotel, or enjoying the open public green spaces. The design is intentional. It is a physical extension of the NYCFC organization, encouraged by the culture of its City Football Group ownership and its global network of thirteen professional clubs that know well about serving the cities and communities its teams play in.

Part of that owes to the work being done by NYCFC’s City In The Community Foundation.

Since 2014, the foundation has provided free, soccer-inspired programming to encourage the physical, educational, social, and emotional development of more than 30,000 youth across parts of the city’s five boroughs. It has funded the construction of 54 soccer pitches in the interest of increasing access to safe recreation spaces and overall health for people in its communities. It engages in broader programming, too. For example, last year, it led the way in NYCFC partnering with the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, Consulate General of Mexico, Consulate General of Switzerland, Consulate General of United Arab Emirates, and the NYC African Advisory Council on the launch of the annual Consulate Cup; the knockout soccer tournament featured teams from 16 consulates representing nations around the world competing in a celebration of the sport and to raise funds for the New York City Soccer Initiative (NYCSI) Community Cup, a city-wide youth tournament that brings together teams from a diversity of neighborhoods.

More about what all of this means for the club was described to me by Paul Jeffries, head of the City In The Community Foundation, earlier this year. “It’s a big responsibility to represent the city,” Jeffries said. “To do it through this sport has the power to make healthier communities, safer communities, more connected communities. It’s the ‘beautiful game,’ which is global and really has the power to bring people together. Yes, it’s a stadium. But it’s really a shared humanity.”

This is why the placement of the permanent headquarters of NYCFC’s charitable foundation within the stadium is an innovation in itself. It recognizes the responsibility of a sports venue to serve as a hub for community-driven initiatives that promote healthier, safer, and more connected communities at almost every turn. And it realizes a club’s commitment to making a positive social impact in its city through activities and programs for the community.

Stadiums and arenas have the ability to create healthier, safer, and more connected communities. The ones that do are examples of a new reality that emerged starting about two decades ago. That is, social impacts and community benefits—not economics—are the key determining factor for sports infrastructure investment. It will continue to be the case when the proposed NYCFC stadium is set to open in 2027 and for most of this century’s relationship between sports teams and the cities they call home.