The stadium is at the border of Queens and Nassau. Here's their population Queens: 2,247,848 Nassau County: 1,339,532 Between them, that's 3,587,000 to draw from.
That's pretty cool if true. Well, if they can contain themselves and jump into MLS and play by our rules... if they have delusions of being a Celtic vs. SPL situation as the only team with big funds and fans and all that in a second-rate league, then this plan is irritating.
Would their supporters change their to Just Barely The Borough Boys? In all seriousness, is this site on the subway or Long Island RR line?
There is an LIRR line that runs to Belmont on racing days. Easy enough to run it there for soccer matches as well. There are subways nearby but not right on site.
So much for the whole "its not a real NYC team unless they play in the NYC city limits" excuse we've been hearing from the anti-Metros/RB faction...
This must really be ruffling some feathers at MLS HQ: an alternate proposal, at a lesser location, by an outside group, that may encounter less NIMBY opposition, and thus weaken the Flushing project's chances. I'm pretty familiar with this area, and I can say that although this location is not a great distance further away from Manhattan than the Flushing site, there is a HUGE difference in the perception of how far it is. Belmont Park, for all intents and purposes, is Long Island. Flushing is still New York City. Belmont gets occasional LIRR ($10-$25 RT fares) regional transit service. Flushing gets regular and express subway service, in addition to regular LIRR. I think the Belmont site could work, but it would draw mainly from Eastern Queens and Long Island, while the Flushing site could draw from all over Queens, Long Island, and Manhattan.
Somehow I just can't understand how people are so petty that a few miles outside the border makes a huge difference?
people shouldnt talk nyc until they know nyc, short distances can take hours in nyc and the metropolitan area. you cannot compare any other city to it
I'm not looking down on NYC or ragging on the fans, but it's borderline incomprehensible to someone from a place like Kansas who has spent very little time in giant cities. I mean, it's nine hours of straight highway driving to just go to an away game...
This will never happen. I don't believe for a minute the current Cosmos organization has the pull/money to pull this off. Its pretty much a joke.
No way this gets built. This is really about Seamus O'Brien and Sela Sport playing hardball with MLS - that is to say, floating this turd to threaten Flushing. It's clear MLS wants nothing to do with the rotating pack of jokers bankrolling the current Cosmos (though they'd take the name if they could.) Likewise, I can't imagine the Cosmos brain trust actually wants to build in the burbs for $400M (as if they had the money to do that) - what they want is the NYC2 franchise, which MLS shows all signs of freezing them out of. The existence of this proposal jeopardizes the ability of MLS to actually spin up NYC2 in a major way, giving ammo to the Flushing Meadows opponents. It's a gambit worthy of Kim Jong Il.
If no regular service exists, someone has to pay for it. LIRR isn't obligated to lose money operating trains to MLS games, so the MLS team would probably have to pay for service. I checked and on race days, there are 2 scheduled round trips between Penn and Belmont. I doubt an MLS team would spring for any more service that that, if for any service at all (especially if it cuts in to potential parking revenue). The Queens Village LIRR stop (Penn-Hempstead line) is about 0.9 miles from the south parking lot of Belmont. That has a one hour headway on weekends until midnight. Which is incredible (by US standards) to have commuter rail service that late and that frequent on a Saturday night, but if I went to a game I would hate to hoof it about a mile and then potentially have to wait for an hour for a train.
Montreal seems to think that being a Series A wannabe will get them anywhere. Toronto...where to begin? I believe I'll just quote Einstein: Insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results
Thinking they know better then all the other teams/organizations in the league (bringing in unfamiliar foreign coaches, thinking they're better then the rest of the league, etc).
I'm convinced their plan is to only play exhibitions against big name teams that want to take a preseason trip to NYC... The only trophies they will contest are the US Open Cup and the World Football Challenge.