Full name | New York City Football Club |
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Founded | May 21, 2013 |
Stadium | Yankee Stadium |
Capacity | 30,321 (49,642 maximum) |
Owner |
City Football Group (80%) Yankee Global Enterprises (20%) |
CEO | Ferran Soriano |
Head coach | Patrick Vieira |
League | Major League Soccer |
2016 | Eastern Conference: 2nd Overall: 4th Playoffs: Conf. Semi-Finals |
Website | Club website |
New York City Football Club is an American professional soccer club based in New York City that competes in Major League Soccer (MLS). NYCFC began play in 2015, as an expansion team of the league. The club is the first MLS franchise based in the city, and the second franchise in the New York metropolitan area after the New York Red Bulls, based in Harrison, New Jersey.
MLS had an interest in placing a second team in the New York area as early as 2006, when the MetroStars' exclusive territorial rights reverted to the league as a condition of the club's sale to Red Bull GmbH. By the following year, the league had held talks with several groups, including New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon and his family, about owning the second New York club. The Wilpons' interest in MLS reportedly faded following the family's losses in the Madoff investment scandal, but the league continued to look for investors.
In 2010, MLS commissioner Don Garber officially announced the league's intent to make its 20th franchise a second team in the New York area. At that point, the league hoped to have the new team beginning operations by 2013. Garber also held discussions with the owners of the rebooted New York Cosmos, but they balked at the league's expansion fee and single-entity structure and decided not to apply for entry, instead joining the second-tier North American Soccer League.
Garber had previously cultivated an interest in acquiring investment from a major European soccer club to be owners of a future franchise, and in December 2008, he announced a bid for a Miami expansion team led by FC Barcelona that was to begin play in 2010 if accepted, though the bid eventually fell through (Garber also briefly discussed Barcelona investing in a New York franchise before moving the focus to Miami).