New York – New York’s first professional soccer-specific stadium and Major League Soccer’s (MLS) first fully-electric stadium across the nation now in Willets Point, Queens.
“We are breaking ground on Etihad Park – our city’s first-ever soccer-specific stadium – for NYCFC to call home and finally deliver New Yorkers the soccer stadium they deserve,” said Mayor Adams. “Along with cohosting the 2026 World Cup with New Jersey, this stadium puts us on the map as a world-class soccer destination, and it makes Willets Point the city’s premier sports hub. This stadium is part of our Willets Point Transformation, building a neighborhood with more housing, public space, and a new school out of the Valley of Ashes. We are scoring the city’s largest all-affordable housing project in the past 40 years, a new 650-seat public school for our students, more than 40,000 square feet of public open space, and good-paying jobs and economic opportunity for local residents.”
In addition to the stadium – which is entirely privately financed by NYCFC – the Willets Point Transformation will include retail, food and beverage facilities, office space, and “City Square,” a plaza for community uses and events. Also, within this comprehensive project will include 2500 affordable homes, a 250-key hotel, a 650-seat public school, and neighborhood-serving a viable community.
This historic plan will bring significant long-term economic opportunity to a community that has long been underserved. The entire transformational project is expected to generate $6.1 billion in economic impact over the next 30 years, creating 1,550 permanent jobs and 14,200 construction jobs. Last month, Mayor Adams announced a project labor agreement with the Building & Construction Trades Council (BCTC) for infrastructure work in the Willets Point District. The infrastructure work governed by this PLA will support over 500 jobs. “Today’s groundbreaking represents a critical milestone in not only creating New York’s first soccer-specific stadium, but also generating thousands of good-paying union careers for hardworking New Yorkers from the local community,” said Gary LaBarbera, president, Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York. “This project will provide our soccer fans and players with the modernized, world class venue they deserve and further establish the Willets Point neighborhood as a premier sporting and cultural hub in New York City. Our union tradesmen and tradeswomen are eager to get started on this development and pursue the opportunities it creates to support their families and ascend into the middle class.”
