City officials have reached an agreement with New York City Football Club to build a professional soccer stadium in the Willets Point neighborhood of Queens, sources tell NY1.

According to sources, the stadium will be built across from Citi Field, home of the New York Mets, and is set to open by 2027.

What You Need To Know

  • NYCFC is finally getting a new stadium

  • City officials have reached an agreement with NYCFC to build a stadium in the Willets Point neighborhood of Queens

  • The stadium will be the centerpiece of a mixed-use development that will include affordable housing, a hotel and retail space

  • NYCFC won the MLS Cup, awarded to the champions of the MLS postseason, in 2021

The stadium will be the focal point of a project that will include affordable housing, a hotel and retail space, sources tell NY1. The mixed-use development will include approximately 2,500 affordable housing units, according to sources.

Sources say the stadium will be privately financed. The agreement is expected to be formally unveiled Wednesday morning at the Queens Museum, according to sources.

It is a significant moment in the decades-long saga of development at the Willets Point site, an underdeveloped waterfront area of Queens.

A plan created during the Bloomberg administration to build a mall at the site was ultimately rejected in the courts. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio worked out a plan in 2018 that, at the time, increased the amount of affordable housing planned for the site from 200 units to more than 1,000. Sources say those units will be incorporated into the new total of approximately 2,500.

A rendering of the new soccer stadium, Citi Field and residential buildings is pictured. (Photo courtesy of S9 Architecture)

For NYCFC, the stadium plan could mark the end of a decade-long search for a true home that began with its founding in 2013, two years before the club started playing games in MLS. The team played the majority of its home games at Yankee Stadium during its tenure, but they have been more nomadic in recent years.

NYCFC played home games at Yankee Stadium, Citi Field and Red Bull Arena this year, and even played a home game in the CONCACAF Champions League (a continental competition for professional soccer teams in North America) in Los Angeles in February.

A rendering of a street and buildings is pictured. (Photo courtesy of S9 Architecture)

Despite the stadium uncertainty, NYCFC has had MLS success. They won the MLS Cup, awarded to the champions of the MLS postseason, in 2021. They made it to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2022, where they lost to the Philadelphia Union.

NYCFC is the only professional team that play in New York to win a championship since the New York Giants won the Super Bowl in 2012.