Wednesday marked another milestone for New York City FC’s future home next door to Citi Field, as the final steel beam was put in place during a ceremony at the construction site.
Etihad Park, the first soccer-specific stadium to be built in New York City, is slated to begin hosting NYCFC for the 2027-28 MLS season. The move will end an era in which they have been forced to play at Yankee Stadium and Citi Field while searching for a permanent home.
“I think that this is such a monumental occasion for us,” NYCFC COO Jennifer O’Sullivan said after the ceremony. “We have these milestones every once in a while where you start to really see and feel and touch what this stadium is going to mean, and what it’ll be like.”
Wednesday’s ceremony included club leadership, local officials, labor union leadership and members of NYCFC’s supporter groups.
The beam installation ends the construction of the stadium’s structural frame and comes 15 months after New York City FC broke ground at the site in December 2024. The New York City Council gave final approval for the stadium plans in April 2024. The project includes affordable housing, a new school, a 250-room hotel, retail space and 40,000 square feet of public space.
New York City FC have spent the first decade of their existence searching for a new home, a process marred by several stops and starts in various locations across the five boroughs.
“This is really, truly, very special, because to be able to say we’ve done something that people told us for years — over a decade — could not be possible and couldn’t happen, and we’ve done it,” O’Sullivan said. “We’ve done it with the strength of this community and the people who’ve supported us. This is a really great sense of pride.”
