In this five-part series on the return of the New York Cosmos, site editor Chris Nee looks at all aspects of the club’s meteoric ascent back into the world soccer consciousness. The series is examining the Cosmos in more detail – who’s running the club, who’s playing for it and where it’s all going to happen – and will culminate in the Cosmos’ entry into our Icons series. Here’s the fourth post in the latest twofootedtackle.com series: Reviving the Cosmos.
Joining Major League Soccer isn’t easy and it certainly isn’t cheap. For the New York Cosmos to get their ultimate wish, a 2013 expansion spot in the league, the initial financial requirements are quite clear. The franchise fee that must be paid upon successful MLS application is upwards of $40m and is quickly followed by the cost of building a team, however the club chooses to go about doing so. On top of that there is a further requirement that must be met before joining the league: the Cosmos must have a soccer-specific stadium either in place or under construction. In spite of all the other uncertainties surrounding the Cosmos, this is one of the very biggest. Where, exactly, will they call home?
The soccer-specific stadium is more than just a football field for Major League Soccer’s clubs, as I’ll consider later. Ten clubs in the league already play in one of nine stadiums, with LA Galaxy and Chivas USA sharing the Home Depot Center while Columbus, Dallas, Chicago, Colorado, Toronto, Salt Lake, Philadelphia and the existing New York club all play in their own grounds. Another four will be open by the 2013 season earmarked by MLS for the 20th expansion club and by the Cosmos to actually be that club. Jeld-Wen Field (Portland) and LIVESTRONG Sporting Park will both be open before the end of the current season, while Dynamo Stadium and New Earthquakes Stadium are the temporary working names of the new homes of Houston and San Jose respectively. Saputo Stadium will host the Montreal team (in MLS from 2012), adding another soccer-specific stadium to the fold.
DC United, meanwhile, are walking an altogether different road. United are Major League Soccer’s most successful club, with four MLS Cups, four Supporters Shields and two US Open Cups among their honours. But the struggle for a soccer-specific stadium casts an enormous shadow over the club and shows little to no sign of abating. Although their immediate future doesn’t seem in danger, DC United could eventually be brought down because their current home, RFK Stadium, is neither viable nor in great condition. A former home to a lengthy list of local sports clubs, RFK’s main problem from United’s perspective is that the club doesn’t control its schedule or its revenue streams.
With the stadium not bringing in the money it should, and with the Homegrown Player Rule and Designated Player Rule paving the way for investment to be rewarded, the MLS playing field won’t be even for much longer. Meanwhile, the search for a stadium goes on – with little help from the city – and the fans quietly keep their fingers crossed that the league and Will Chang have plenty of patience.
Unlike United, the Cosmos aren’t exactly a league original and as such they don’t even have the choice of getting themselves into such a state. In a sense, the hunt for a stadium is a throwback to the early days of the New York Cosmos MkI. Back in the days of the North American Soccer League, the Cosmos toured the sports venues of the area and played at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, Hofstra Stadium at Hofstra University in Hempstead, Downing Stadium on Randall’s Island and, of course, Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The retrospective spiritual home of the Cosmos, for both longevity and glory, is Giants Stadium. But the new Cosmos will need a true home, and not just because Giants Stadium (also the home of the New York Red Bulls between 1996 and 2009) isn’t there anymore.
The big question, then, is where to play. True to Cosmos heritage, Vice-Chairman Terry Byrne told This Is American Soccer that New Jersey remained on his own personal radar but probably wasn’t going to happen:
“I dream of the New Meadowlands personally, but I think long term, absolutely there will be a new stadium, in Queens probably. That’s the plan.”
Queens has indeed been the most often cited possibility for the Cosmos, but several months after Byrne spoke with TIAS discussions are still ongoing in different parts of New York. In the last couple of weeks Byrne and Joe Fraga held an online chat with Cosmos fans (although what exactly those people are fans of is as yet unclear, assuming they weren’t all middle-aged) and provided an updated to that effect, stating that the club is in discussions with New York City about several potential sites “within New York City’s five boroughs”, and that the current plan is to put in place a stadium with a capacity of over 30,000. State funding might be involved depending on which site moves forward.
At present, there is no reason to believe that Byrne’s original assertion that the Cosmos would find a home in Queens is wide of the mark, and it has some geographical advantages. It is the second largest borough by population (behind Brooklyn), has two airports at its disposal and a large immigrant population. Of course, the real dream for a second New York club in MLS has always been to find a stadium in Manhattan, but that simply isn’t feasible. It might not be all that desirable in reality anyway.
For all that, the actual location of the Cosmos stadium is inconsequential when compared with the importance of having a home in the first place. Gary Hopkins discusses this in his book Star-Spangled Soccer: The Selling, Marketing and Management of Soccer in the USA, and identifies some of the crucial benefits MLS clubs are finding, and will continue to find, as a result of having their own stadium, built specifically for football.
Firstly, soccer-specific stadiums bring stability to the clubs and to the league. With stadiums built, the ownership groups have effectively placed their bets and will fight tooth and nail to make them work. Their clubs won’t have to play across baseball diamonds or pointyball markings, which are not only cosmetically frustrating but symbolic of the fact that the teams playing their are nothing more than tenants in someone else’s house.
That, in turn, has a detrimental effect on these clubs’ search for an identity. It’s important to remember in discussions of identity that many of these clubs emerged from nothing at a time when the local professional outfits in other sports had already been dominant for the best part of a century, and that MLS traditionally has shied away from embracing the existing identities of the clubs in its markets, leaving them in an identity vacuum facing an uphill battle to develop one of their own. The Pacific Northwest clubs in particular are highlighting the benefits of the league’s softening opposition to any reference to NASL. Of course, the Cosmos will require a stadium but in truth identity shouldn’t be an issue. They are, after all, the New York Cosmos.
Finally, stadiums equal income (if not necessarily profit). This is not always pure football income (a quick read around AEG’s revenue streams will tell you that much) but that’s the beauty of owning the venue. Gigs, events, matches – it all goes in the pot. And let’s face it, the Cosmos are going to need a hell of a big pot if the club is to regain and then retain some of its star-studded, larger-than-life and globally recognised personality.
Tags: New York Cosmos
Great read, like your other four parts. I had a Cosmos trivia question the other night actually. No one else at my table knew that Pele had ever played for them. Very sad.
Keep up the good work.
And by other four parts I mean other three. You know what I meant.