By Sofia Montagna
The New York City Football Club’s long-awaited soccer stadium in Willets Point in Queens – the first soccer-specific stadium in the five boroughs – is set to open in 2027, marking a major milestone for both the club and the city. Construction began in December 2024 and is progressing steadily, with steel framework installation underway since June.
“It’s been 10 years in the making, and it’ll be 12 years when the stadium opens from the time the New York City Football Club launched, and so there’s a lot of excitement around it,” said New York City Football Club (NYCFC) Chief Operating Officer Jennifer O’Sullivan.
Councilmember Francisco Moya was one of a few speakers at last year’s groundbreaking event. He was joined by Mayor Eric Adams, Borough President Donovan Richards, and MLS Commissioner Don Garber.
The 23-acre Willets Point project – led by the Queens Development Group in partnership with the city’s Economic Development Corporation – is transforming what was once a long-neglected area with acres of empty space into a new neighborhood. While New York City FC is solely responsible for the stadium, the broader development will include 2,500 units of affordable housing, a 650-seat public school, and 115,000 square feet of public space.
When completed, the overall Willets Point development project is expected to generate $6.1 billion in economic impact over the next 30 years, creating more than 1,500 permanent jobs and thousands of construction jobs, O’Sullivan reports.
A render of Etihad Park, constructed just beyond Citi Field (Courtesy New York City FC)
New York City FC is on track for the stadium to open in 2027, and plans to host “soft openings” and test events ahead of the first major event in Spring 2027. “Construction will probably take us through 2026 and early 2027,” O’Sullivan said. “The hope is that [the stadium] will be open for our season, which generally starts in the Spring.”
The stadium will be more than a home field for soccer. The club plans to host a range of other sporting events – including lacrosse, American football, and rugby – as well as concerts and other large-scale events. “When you have a venue like this, the goal is to try to attract as many large-scale events as you can,” O’Sullivan explained. The club also hopes to one day field a women’s team at the venue and to bring in international teams.
The new stadium is set to open in 2027 ahead of the MLS season (Courtesy New York City FC)
The stadium will integrate New York City FC’s business headquarters and its nonprofit foundation, City in the Community, which delivers free soccer programming for kids. Sustainability is also a central focus: the facility will be the first all-electric stadium in New York, the first all-electric building in Major League Soccer, and only the third all-electric stadium in North America, with solar panels installed on the roof of the stadium.
The project has faced challenges in the past, such as finding the right site and navigating flood zone construction limitations. “We’re in the flood zone. A lot of stadiums will build into the ground, and we weren’t able to do that. So we’ve had to build up, and we’ve had a slight challenge there,” O’Sullivan noted. However, she reported that at the moment, progress on the NYCFC stadium project is smooth. “Everything has gone really well for us on the construction side,” O’Sullivan said. “We’ve been really pleased with how well things have gone so far for us.”
