WVHooligan - Soccer Blog

Today looks to be a day of expansion talk. First up is some news out of New York, or Queens rather. This release came into the Hooligan inbox earlier this morning.

Now this movement sounds A LOT like what Sons of Ben did in Philadelphia not to long ago. It’s still a bit early I think for their expansion bid but seeing how this is a bit of MLS Commissioner Don Garber’s pet project for the league, it could get pushed harder to the top of the expansion hopeful list if some things come in place, most importantly a stadium deal.

I won’t go all into why I think a second New York team would be good/bad for the league right now. That can come later on down the road once we get closer to that expansion bid deadline.

BOROUGH BOYS WILL BRIEF THE PRESS ON DEVELOPMENTS ON MLS2NYC PROJECT

— In a few short months, the Borough Boys have rallied City Hall, investors, key local politicians and the league to build a stadium and bring a team to Queens –

Since the inception of the Borough Boys Governing Board in January, we have made great strides to get a Major League Soccer team for New York City. With the help of City Council member Hiram Monserrate, an early supporter of a Queens soccer stadium, the Borough Boys met with Sports Commissioner Ken Podziba and key members of the Mayor’s economic development team to discuss bringing an MLS team to New York. City officials announced that they supported the concept, and agreed to follow up with League Commissioner Don Garber and a number of investors who had shown interest in the project to pursue the plan further.

We followed up this success with a short meeting with Commissioner Garber. He confirmed that he was meeting with City officials, and Ken Podziba specifically, to discuss a New York City MLS franchise.

The Borough Boys then put together a meeting between Fred Wilpon, the owner of the New York Mets, and Council member Monserrate, whose district includes Shea Stadium. We were amazed to find out that Wilpon’s team already has a detailed plan, including the financials, to build a soccer stadium on the grounds around Shea Stadium. Wilpon and his team understood full well the popularity of soccer in the neighborhoods adjacent to the stadium, and speculated on the huge success of not only an MLS team there, but the possibility of international friendlies throughout the year. Council member Monserrate spoke of the popularity of the sport among his constituents and the Queens community, and that it would be greatly appreciated by so many fans of the beautiful game. We all agreed to move forward together to make the project work.

Now the league has announced that it is accepting bids for two new franchises to be the 17th and 18th MLS teams. So, the Borough Boys are initiating Project 17, an effort to make sure that New York gets in at least one bid, and to convince the league that NYC would be the pride of professional American Soccer. Expect announcements from investors and city officials in the coming days.

To find out more about the story of the Borough Boys, visit www.boroughboysnyc.com

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