City Council Poised to Act Quickly on NYCFC Stadium After City Planning Commission Approval
City Council Poised to Act Quickly on NYCFC Stadium After City Planning Commission Approval
With the ULURP finish line in sight, Chris Campbell details what's next, and chats with NYCFC CEO Brad Sims about the stadium design process and how the club plans to keep tickets affordable.
On Wednesday, March 6th, the City Planning Commission (CPC) unanimously approved New York City Football Club’s stadium plans, marking a significant advancement in the proposed development’s progress through New York City’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP). The approval sends the project to the New York City Council for further review before reaching the Mayor’s office for a final sign-off.
The City Council has a 50-day window to complete its review and they seem eager to kick things off by hosting a public hearing on the Willets Point Phase 2 Development tomorrow, Tuesday, March 12th. The development is anticipated to successfully pass City Council review as members often align their votes with the interests of the council member representing the district where the development is located, a practice known as “member deference.” In this case, City Councilmember Francisco Moya is perhaps the biggest proponent of this project.
New York City FC unveiled updated stadium renderings shortly after the CPC approval. The release introduced “The Cube,” described as "a fully LED lined entrance standing over 7 stories high and will create a unique and the most immersive entrance in New York sports."
At a media event before the public release, NYCFC CEO Brad Sims claimed The Cube would be “unlike anything at any other soccer stadium or any other sports facility”.
The Cube is designed to stand out, but the stadium itself is intended to blend in. Sims emphasized the importance of integrating the design of the stadium into the neighborhood. The team worked closely with the development partners so the stadium wasn’t “something that just stood out from the neighborhood, or towered over the neighborhood, or was going to put ourselves in a position where we weren’t going to be a good neighbor to the rest of the neighborhood.”1 Sims drew parallels between the envisioned stadium would be intricately woven into the fabric of the neighborhood and iconic venues like Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, and Craven Cottage2, which seamlessly blend into their respective communities.
When asked about how NYCFC will ensure tickets remain affordable at the new stadium, Sims mentioned the ability “to drive the necessary revenue from sponsorship and premium hospitality seating that will ultimately allow us to keep the other 20,000 seats that are non-premium, non-hospitality [affordable].” Sims acknowledged the historical difficulty NYCFC has faced in generating significant revenue from premium hospitality seating, attributing these challenges to the constraints posed by hosting soccer games in baseball stadiums.
Sims also elaborated further on the selection of HOK as the stadium’s architects, noting that the firm differentiated themselves during a competition held by the club. HOK presented the lone rectangular conceptual design, while all others presented oval designs. “We were already getting questions about ‘don’t be like everybody else,’” said Sims, “and if there’s only one stadium that our fans probably wouldn’t want us to be like, it would be the one on the other side of the Hudson, which is oval.”
“The two corners are diagonal and then you have a straight, straight,” Sims described, we have an area near our supporters area that juts out at the end where our loading dock is, and then we have a cool supporters corner.” The “supporters corner” referenced is likely the “open-air beer garden” mentioned in the Urban Design section of the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS).
What’s Next After ULURP Approval?
The CPC vote comes merely a week following the submission of the FEIS by NYCFC and its development partners. The FEIS comprehensively outlines the potential impacts the stadium and corresponding development will have on the surrounding area, along with proposed mitigation measures to address those concerns.
The FEIS also incorporates and addresses feedback provided through both oral and written testimonies during the CPC review process3. Negative feedback tackled within the FEIS included traffic concerns, community uses, and the capacity of sewage systems. The most common point of contention, however, was the lack of payments-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) being made on the stadium. PILOTs are typical in stadium arrangements where the team does not own the land the stadium sits upon. These payments typically serve to ensure adequate property taxes are paid.
While the FEIS covers many important aspects of the proposed development, it does not assess the business terms of the arrangement, and PILOTs are consequently excluded from the environmental review. Instead, the business terms of the project undergo scrutiny by the Borough Board per the New York City Charter.
According to the term sheet signed with the city, NYCFC and City Football Group will not make any PILOTs on the stadium, but will be made by the developers on the hotel and affordable housing components of the project.
The Borough Board, chaired by the Borough President, consists of the city council members and the chairperson of each community board in the borough. Once the ULURP is complete, the Borough Board will cast their votes on the business aspects of the proposed development, including lease amounts and any applicable PILOTs.
With a conclusion to ULURP in sight, the Borough Board approval is one of the few remaining procedural hurdles until shovels can hit the ground on the long-awaited future home for NYCFC. ❧
Image: Agenes Denes, Study of Distortions; Isometric Systems in Isotropic Space-Map Projections: The Cube
yes, the first two references used here were baseball stadiums
those fans who provided testimony can see that memorialized here
Any insight on the concessions/hospitality vendor? Are they sticking with Legends or going to go with another company like Levy? I thought it was interesting Sims mentioned the lack of revenue from hospitality. In my experience, the hospitality sections and suite options at Yankee Stadium have been disappointing, not because of the view, but because the food and drink selections and the service were poor (and not worth the premium price). Concessions at Yankee Stadium in general leave a lot to be desired. I hope they explore vendors beyond Legends.