I’m excited to welcome you to the first issue of The Outfield… as a magazine. You may have noticed that New York City Football Club wasn’t the only one that didn’t show up after the World Cup break. We got old. Between family, kids, jobs, and not nearly enough sleep, our lives look nothing like they did when we started. The new format will give us room for the deep, thoughtful work you expect from The Outfield, on a schedule our lives can actually keep.
Like us, NYCFC is at a crossroads. The club faces far more uncertainty than it would like heading into the sprint season and the opening of Etihad Park. It missed the playoffs. It needs a head coach after firing Pascal Jansen. Captain Thiago Martins and midfielder Keaton Parks are gone, and the roster needs a rebuild. And then there’s Manchester City.
In this issue, we break down what went wrong in 2026 and look ahead at what’s next. Kevin Nelson and Alec Kossoff dig into the numbers behind a midfield that couldn’t move the ball forward, and the burden it placed on Nico Fernández Mercau. Paul Harvey gives Parks the goodbye the club didn’t, looking back at nearly eight years of one of the most underrated Pigeons and what his exit says about how the team has changed.
Off the pitch, James Nalton explains why Manchester City’s guilty verdict probably won’t reach New York, and why the cautious club in the family is ours. With Etihad Park opening in July, John Baney looks at the coaching search, the roster teardown, and how little time the club has to get both right. And Chris Campbell has the latest on the Founders Wall and the bricks fans thought they were promised, with NYCFC CEO Brad Sims explaining why the wall will no longer be on the stadium’s exterior. Chris also reports on the plan for the Cube that runs around the clock and the first artist chosen for the stadium.
If you’re a paid subscriber, the entire issue is yours to read right now. If you’re not, don’t worry: starting tomorrow morning, we’ll gradually drop the paywall on one story a day, beginning with Kevin and Alec on the midfield.
Behind the scenes, a lot has changed too. For the first time, we’re paying every writer and our resident illustrator, Rory Kirke, for their work. That’s rarer than it should be in American soccer, where a lot of the best writing has always been done for free, by people who love the game too much to stop.
We’re also working on a print edition, so you’ll soon be able to hold this issue in your hands, once I figure out how InDesign works. Soccer coverage keeps getting shorter, louder, and more vertical. We’re going the other way.
Thanks to you, we have enough to fund issues through most of 2027. When Gotham FC joins NYCFC at Etihad Park in 2028, we’d love to cover Gotham too. If you want more longform like this, in your inbox and eventually on your coffee table, the best way to make it happen is to subscribe on Substack and buy the print issue when it comes out.
So, what’s next? Turn the page. ❧
Justin Egan
Editor-in-Chief, The Outfield
Cover: Rory Kirke