Queensboro FC and York College unveil 7,500-seat stadium plan
/
An artist’s rendering of the planned 7,500-seat stadium for Queensboro FC on the campus of York College. Image via QBFC
By David Brand
The World’s Game will soon have a new home in the World’s Borough.
Queens’ professional fútbol club, Queensboro FC, will construct a 7,500-seat, soccer-specific stadium on the campus of York College in Jamaica, the team and the City University of New York said at a ceremony Tuesday.
The stadium announcement comes about 18 months after the club unveiled tentative plans to play home matches at the CUNY campus. The school system awarded a contract to QBFC to build the venue last summer, but negotiations took longer than club officials anticipated as they dealt with city, state and university requirements, according to a person familiar with the deal.
Club officials and York administrators had kept the plans close to the vest before unveiling the project, which could open in time for QBFC’s first official match in March 2022. The stadium will rise behind the York College gym, located between Liberty Avenue and Tuskegee Airmen Way, near Guy R. Brewer Boulevard.
“Today is the culmination of several years of hard work and commitment in support of the vision to create a home stadium in Queens,” said QBFC co-owner Jonathan Krane. “A vision to bring people together in this great borough.”
Noticeably absent from the event was QBFC co-owner David Villa, a legendary Spanish soccer star accused of persistent sexual harassment during his time with New York City FC.
Still, the press conference had a celebratory vibe, as local leaders praised the stadium plan and hits from Queens rappers Nas and 50 Cent pumped from the speakers at York College.
“It’s important that football is going to be here in Jamaica,” said Rep. Greg Meeks. “Queens has some of the best neighborhoods, but one of the best of the best neighborhoods is Downtown Jamaica. And there is no better place to house this stadium than Queens at York College.”
Meeks said the agreement was the “perfect public-private partnership.”
York College will allow QBFC to use its land for the stadium and the club will bankroll construction and operation, a CUNY spokesperson said. York will also use the stadium for its own sporting events and campus activities.
“Let this be a symbol of how New York City is going to go in terms of its recovery,” said CUNY Chancellor Felix Matos Rodriguez, who said he paid for his own college education by officiating soccer matches.
The stadium plan calls into question another proposal for a soccer-specific venue at Willets Point, a plan backed by former Borough President Melinda Katz and Corona Councilmember Francisco Moya.
But Moya, an ardent soccer fan with close ties to QBFC ownership, hailed the Jamaica stadium as a key development for soccer in a borough where every patch of green space seems to host a short-sided game.
“Right now there is a boy or girl playing in Flushing Meadows Corona Park or Roy WIlkins Park who will soon be donning the jersey of their borough, Queensboro FC,” Moya said.
The club will play in United Soccer League Championship, a second-tier professional league beneath the Major League Soccer in U.S. soccer’s professional hierarchy.
Other local elected officials, including Queens Borough President Donovan Richards and Councilmembers I. Daneek Miller and Adrienne Adams, welcomed the stadium as a boon to the Southeast Queens economy — Richards called it a “Gooooooooal” for Jamaica.
But Miller put the club on notice about what it takes to make it in Queens.
“No pressure, but it is championship or bust here,” he said.
