Gotham FC women's soccer team relocating to Queens stadium from New Jersey
From left: former soccer player Yael Averbuch West, Carolyn Tisch Blodgett, owner of Gotham FC, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Queens Borough President Donovan Richards at City Hall on Tuesday as Gotham FC announced its move to Etihad Park in Queens in 2028. Credit: Newsday/James Carbone
The Gotham FC women’s soccer team will relocate from New Jersey to a stadium being built in Queens near Citi Field, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Tuesday.
Starting in 2028, the team will play at Etihad Park, a 25,000-seat stadium under construction, moving across two rivers, from Harrison, New Jersey.
"Instead of begging their parents to have to take them to New Jersey, girls growing up in Jackson Heights, Sunnyside and Flushing will now be able to get on the 7 train after school and watch some of the greatest soccer players in the world go to work," Mamdani said.
Donovan Richards, the Queens borough president, appeared at City Hall with Mamdani to make the announcement, celebrating that women’s soccer would join the New York City FC men's team at the new stadium.
"To soccer fans across Queens," he said, "we scored another goal today."
Gotham FC is part of the National Women's Soccer League, which consists of 16 teams.
Brad Sims, the president and CEO of NYCFC, told Newsday the new stadium will help draw fans from Long Island for both teams.
"It really opens up the Long Island market for us," he said. "The LIRR stop is right there, at our stadium."
Typically the fan base has been Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn and Westchester County, he said.
Calling Long Island "a huge soccer hotbed," Sims said the New Jersey stadium is hard to reach from the Island. "You have to be really, really hardcore to go over multiple bridges and tunnels to get to New Jersey or the Bronx from depending on where you are on Long Island," he said.
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.
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