Here's a nice thread on the topic. https://www.bigsoccer.com/community/threads/new-fan-stuck-in-usa.1946979/
As a one-time Queens resident, I am very excited by this news. I think it is just about the best reasonable site for a stadium in NY (building one over the tracks near Queensboro Plaza might be too much to ask.) I know some people are afraid that Euro-snobs will doom this team, but there are just so freaking many soccer fans in this area, that the team will almost have to try not to succeed. It's not 1996 anymore. Today we have a much better league, a lot more soccer fans, and significantly improved marketing (plus the game-clock counts up.) Luckily enough for NY2, most of the fans in the surrounding area lived too far from Jersey to ever give the Metrostars a try in the first place, so this club would be their first real exposure to MLS. Another thing I love about this location is that it gives people in Manhattan, and even parts of Brooklyn, a reasonable choice between the two NY-area clubs. RB Arena would be much more convenient to lower Manhattan/Downtown Brooklyn, while the proposed Flushing stadium would be easier for upper Manhattan/Outer Brooklyn. If NY2 ended up at Pier 40, then why would any soccer fan in NYC (current Red Bulls die-hards aside) ever want to travel to Harrison? If they do this right, which I think they will, then this can be a booming success. The "ethnic" communities of Queens, the hipsters of Brooklyn, and the mega-bucks of NYC sponsorship will make it work, and the rivalry with the Red Bulls will be a huge benefit to both teams.
Pandering to the "ethnic" communities in the greater NY area has gotten MLS absolutely nowhere. Red Bulls have literally tried to pile free tickets on the immigrant communities and the fact is they simply don't care about the MLS no matter where the stadium is located. Most of the hipster crowd that is even mildly interested in the sport overlaps significantly with the "Eurosnob" crowd you mentioned earlier in your post. I fail to see how this new team differs so significantly from the Red Bulls that they would be a "booming success" while the Red Bulls are still struggling to build a loyal fan base.
They'll sport "skinny-kits" and all team photos will be taken with Instagram and there will be fixie only bike racks outside the stadium.
Real NYC hipsters won't go to games. They'll have team merchandise they'll wear ironically and talk about experiences outside of the stadium where they got in a bicycle accident with a homeless guy they get high with while playing bocce .
That's a fairly bold statement based on a very small sample set of stadium location data. Have those communities (and/or any communities east of Manhattan) ever had an MLS venue in/near NYC that is not in NJ? Location, location, location. This (if it happens) will be a NYC venue. Harrison and the Meadowlands stadium before that are NJ (not that there's anything wrong with that). Where I think people are missing the mark with this analysis, is to compare what MLSteam20 might or might not be to only what RBNY is not. Perhaps, and given the "city/downtown" location of this venue, the more appropriate comparison point(s) for MLSteam20 are not to an original MLS team/franchise, but to the newer/expansion franchises and teams with "centrally" located venues -- be that Toronto, or Seattle, or Portland, or Vancouver or Montreal in some ways. That's the type (or blueprint) of "city success" MLS is targeting and hoping to replicate (if possible) with MLSteam20 (in NYC). They're not trying to right the wrongs or overcome everything that has or has not occurred for the NY/NJ franchise since 1996. They'll be some 20 years (or so) into the league's existence by the likely time a NYC MLS stadium is open, and this MLSteam20 will be it's own thing (successful or not-so-successful). But that thing (especially in the Flushing Meadows location) has, imo, a significantly better chance to look like Portland than it does to look like Harrison.
Except for that this is far, far away from a "downtown" location... I live in Brooklyn, just a few stops away from Manhattan, and it takes me way longer to get to Citi Field than Red Bull Arena. A stadium located at the far end of a single subway line hardly compares to Seattle and Portland where you can easily walk from their popular downtown areas. Let's not act like we're dropping a stadium in the middle of Manhattan here, that new location will still be a long trip on public transport for a huge amount of the fans that they would be pursuing. Most of the people who actually live close enough to walk to the stadium or take a very quick subway ride are the immigrant communities that couldn't care less about it.
And a "downtown" location in Manhattan, be that on a Pier or wherever, seems incredibly unlikely (especially for MLS, but also even for the NFL). This Flushing Meadows location is reasonably about the best MLS could expect if they were looking for a possible venue site that they could build with a NYC address. it is a city (of New York) location. it is not a NJ location. in terms of what MLS offers, this Flushing Meadows location fits much more closely into the group of "centrally-located" venues such as Toronto, Houston, Vancouver, Montreal, DC -- than it does into the group of "outer-burb/other-city" locations such as Frisco, Commerce City, Sandy, Bridgeview, Chester or even Harrison. No one is acting in that manner. (I think most here have the simple understanding that this venue would be with a few blocks of where the Mets play and where the US Open tennis championships are held. And while that is not in "downtown" Manhattan, it is certainly within and represents NYC by being situated in an accessible area of Queens.) While the Flushing Meadows location isn't exactly analogous to the Seattle or Portland locations ("downtown-ness") for MLS, it is a NYC location and fits in with the pattern of what MLS has been recently able to achieve in pretty much all 3 Canadian city locations they have expanded to, and to what Houston has just been able to open up. This will be another expansion to a "city." This isn't Philly opting for Chester. This is MLS (hopefully) setting up shop in NYC. yet it would still be a relatively shorter trip for a huge amount of fans who see the trip farther to the west to get to Harrison, NJ as a "very long" trip. I do not claim to know if those (walkable) communities could or "couldn't care less about" an MLS stadium (for a new MLS team) in Flushing Meadows. But MLS has put that effort (to better serve the burrows of NYC and those residents) pretty much at the top of their list now. And there are numerous business reasons, apparently, for them to do so. If they pull it off, there are a lot of indicators that this would be a success (locally, nationally, internationally) for the overall business of MLS.
I see this location's success being entirely possible and probable. The immigrant communities around the proposed location may not like MLS currently, but that is because of the product on the field. If this new team can play in the correct style, the stadium would fill. The advantage of catering to immigrants is that they are (on average) more knowledgeable fans. If the team, whoever it is, caters to that and buys players that will play an attractive style, the fans will come out and watch. Plus, this new team will need to have an owner with tons of money, and this makes it likely a DP of the Henry variety and level could be signed, from whatever country the borough has the majority of people cheering for. From wikipedia, it seems an asian or south american star would hold the most promise. I imagine that a player like Antonio Valencia of Park Chu-Young(who will both be 29-30 at the time this team could be expected to join MLS) would easily fill a stadium regularly, provided they were healthy enough to be a shadow of how they can currently play.
I just don't see how a Queens zip code makes any difference when the logistical issues of getting to the stadium are almost identical to the ones that RB fans face. Sure, some fans from Long Island that can't make the long trip to Harrison now have a stadium within reach, but for those in Manhattan and Brooklyn its basically the same commute, so how would this move do anything other than split those fans? The only way that "location" would solve the issue of attendance in NY is if they found space in Manhattan for it, which as you said is almost impossible. All I see this move doing is creating two NY MLS teams that struggle to bring in fans instead of just one.
And MLS would agree with that assessment, in many ways. And that's why they're pushing to get MLSteam20 into a location as described in this thread.
that's a huge upgrade for the business of MLS. "split" them, or give them twice the number of options (within a very reasonable commute via public transportation). And others may see one team (although it has "NY" in its name) that plays in Harrison, NJ (in an incredible venue) and is about 10 miles west of Manhattan, and another team that will likely have "NY" in its name and plays in Queens (about 10 miles east of Manhattan). I think you may have a different, or perhaps incorrect, understanding of or application for the term "struggle to bring in fans." It will be very interesting to see if MLS can indeed get a stadium built at Flushing Meadows. and it will be very interesting to see what becomes of their business once/if they are operating a team there.
2 teams, or maybe 6 or 8 (if you're measuring just by size and population density). (but given professional soccer's current position within the hierarchy of the US sports landscape and marketplace, 2 might be the appropriate number at this time for MLS.) exactly. (I'd guess that MLS would opt to build a stadium both in Manhattan and in Queens, if those conditions presented themselves.) I'm pretty sure that if MLS ever expands up to 28 or 32 teams, that they'd likely want to have 3 teams in the NYC area -- even if one of those still played out in NJ.
The New York metropolitan area is big enough to have 6-8 teams. No, it's precisely because of soccer's position in the US sports landscape that NYC could have half a dozen MLS teams. Each team would only need to make [XX] million dollars per year to be successful. NYC certainly couldn't support half a dozen MLB or NFL teams...
London only has 6 (first division) teams for the 2012-2013 season. And that's in England. America, for all it's growth, will most likely never get to the English level of embracing the sport. The most that would ever work, and that's with the growth of MLS to an elite league, would be 4 teams. The suits at MLS should wait a decade or two before even considering NYC3 after 2 is done, which seems to be an eventuality.
I agree with you for the most part. but with (hypothetically) 6 teams in NY (and MLS just at "20 teams" now) MLS would be missing out on the required nation(s)wide footprint and a lot of regions and markets (even more than now) would be under-served by MLS's lack of presence in their market. For every 10 teams in MLS, NYC could reasonably have 1 of those teams. 1 of the 10 in 1996. 2 of the 20 in 2016. and Y of the 10*Y in year 20whatever. As the league grows, it will (very likely) continue to add teams in the most attractive markets. for now, 2 teams is a good fit. (and in a decade or two, who knows what MLS will look like, how many teams it will have, and how many of those will play in market #1.) but for now, it makes very sound business sense apparently to get team 20 into NYC.
Hey, I hope I am! I would absolutely love a second team to set off an explosion of interest in MLS from the city, I just don't see how adding a second team to an already saturated sports market (what I'm convinced is 90% of RB's attendance issues) helps, and I don't think the Queens location will do anything other than bring in a few soccer moms from Long Island and steal some of the Manhattan/Brooklyn fans away from the Red Bulls. No actual NY sports fan cares about a stadium being located in Jersey, at least none that I've met and I grew up in the area.
Another NY team means 3 more open DP spots to sign big names for MLS. I think everyone see's any significant player signing only wants to play in LA or NY. I think NY2 has an easy opportunity to get it right with their location, their future name/brand that isn't a consumer item, shiny new stadium with limited seating, big names and the chance to leave a good first impression with a competitive roster much like Seattle has..
IMO, and maybe only mine, MLS should look at making a Chicago2 team, at a central downtown location, such as Lincoln or Millenium Park, or possibly in the same lakeside area as Soldier field and the museums. Before anyone bashing this idea, remember that in this thread right now there was talk of 6-8 NY teams. Plus, Bridgeview is as bad/worse of a location than Harrison, and there is a huge immigrant community of both ethnic latin americans and europeans in the downtown Chicago area.