Gotham FC is negotiating a move to NYCFC’s new soccer stadium in Queens
Gotham FC, the current champion of the American National Women’s Soccer League, is in advanced talks about a possible move from Harrison, New Jersey, to New York City FC’s new stadium in Queens, the New York Post reported, citing a Sportico report. According to the available information, the agreement has not yet been finalized, but a scenario is being considered under which Gotham could play home matches at Etihad Park from 2028, the stadium NYCFC is building in Willets Point, next to Citi Field. Such a move would be one of the most important infrastructure decisions in the club’s recent history, because Gotham would move from its current home at Sports Illustrated Stadium to a completely new soccer venue in New York City itself. The club currently represents the New York and New Jersey market, and plays home matches in Harrison, at the stadium it shares with the New York Red Bulls. Since the negotiations are taking place at a time of growth for women’s professional soccer in the U.S., a possible move to Queens would have broader significance than a mere change of address.
According to the New York Post, Gotham FC and NYCFC are discussing a model that would allow the women’s team to use the new stadium after it opens. NYCFC previously officially announced that Etihad Park will open at the beginning of the 2027/2028 MLS season, that is, in the summer of 2027, after the American league switches to a new competition calendar. This means that Gotham, if an agreement is reached, could move to Queens after the stadium stabilizes as NYCFC’s permanent home. At this moment, it has not been officially confirmed whether the talks will turn into a contract, nor have the financial details of the possible arrangement been published. Still, the very fact that negotiations are being held over the use of the first purpose-built soccer stadium in New York shows how quickly the position of the NWSL is changing in the American sports market.
From Harrison to Willets Point: what the change would mean for Gotham
Gotham FC currently plays at Sports Illustrated Stadium in Harrison, a venue officially listed as the home of the New York Red Bulls and Gotham FC. For years, the stadium has been an important soccer point in the New York metropolitan area, and Gotham has built there the identity of a club that connects New Jersey and New York. A move to Queens, if confirmed, would not necessarily mean a break with the existing fan base in New Jersey, but it would change the transportation, commercial and symbolic logic of home matches. Instead of a stadium on the other side of the Hudson, the club would have as its home a new arena in one of New York’s most densely populated and most diverse boroughs. For a league trying to increase attendance, television visibility and corporate revenue, a location inside the five New York boroughs could carry great weight.
Sports Illustrated Stadium is well connected by public transport, including PATH, but for part of the audience from New York it is still a trip outside the city. Etihad Park will be located in Willets Point, near Citi Field and the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, which already gives the area a sporting profile. According to official announcements from NYCFC and the City of New York, the stadium is part of a broader urban transformation that includes housing construction, a hotel, a school, public spaces and commercial facilities. Such a context may be important for Gotham because the club would gain access to a new soccer venue in an area planned to be developed as a year-round sports and entertainment destination. In practice, that could make it easier to sell tickets, activate sponsors and organize larger events around matches.
For Gotham, the move would also have an identity dimension. In the last few years, the club has grown from a regional team into one of the most recognizable brands in the NWSL, especially after winning the championship in 2023 and 2025. The club’s official announcement after the 2025 final states that Gotham became champion for the second time in three seasons, defeating the Washington Spirit in San Jose. That sporting rise creates pressure for infrastructure, accessibility and market reach to follow the team’s ambitions. The new stadium in Queens could therefore be presented as a step toward greater visibility, but the club would have to communicate carefully what such a move means for the fans who followed it in New Jersey.
Etihad Park as a key part of New York’s new soccer infrastructure
Etihad Park is being built as the new home of New York City FC and, according to the club’s official announcements, will be the first soccer stadium in New York built specifically for professional soccer. In February 2026, NYCFC announced that it will play its first match in its new home at the start of the 2027/2028 season, in the summer of 2027. The club stated that during the transitional MLS season from February to May 2027 it will continue to play home matches at Yankee Stadium and Citi Field. The reason for such a schedule is connected to the change in the MLS calendar, and the club emphasized that it wants to align the stadium opening with the full start of the new competition year. Etihad Park is thus positioned as a central project for the long-term stabilization of NYCFC, which has played home matches at several locations since entering MLS.
According to NYCFC’s official announcement about the start of construction, the stadium is privately financed and planned as a venue with a capacity of about 25,000 seats. The club emphasized that it is the first fully electric stadium in MLS, which gives the project an environmental component as well. In its official announcement after the approval of Willets Point Phase 2, the City of New York stated that the stadium is part of a broader plan on 23 acres of land, along with 2,500 affordable apartments, a new hotel, public spaces, a school and economic facilities. City authorities present the project as one of the largest housing and development interventions in Queens in recent decades. It is precisely this combination of sport, housing and commercial development that makes Etihad Park more important than a classic stadium project.
For women’s soccer, it is especially important that NYCFC leaders have already publicly spoken earlier about the desire for the stadium to be a broader soccer center, not only the home of one MLS team. Forbes previously reported statements by NYCFC CEO Brad Sims, who spoke about the ambition for the new stadium to host a women’s club, friendly matches and U.S. Soccer Federation events as well. If the negotiations with Gotham end in an agreement, that vision would partly be realized through the arrival of the current NWSL champion. For NYCFC, this would mean that its stadium has a dual professional function from the start, while Gotham would receive modern infrastructure without needing to build a venue itself. Such a model is increasingly important in American sports, where clubs are seeking better stadium utilization and more events outside the primary competition.
The Queens Classic as a test of public interest
One of the most important signals ahead of a possible move will be the match between Gotham FC and the Washington Spirit at Citi Field on July 15, 2026. Gotham officially announced that tickets for that match, called The Queens Classic, went on sale at the end of March 2026. The club announced the match as a clash between the current NWSL champion and the Washington Spirit, the opponent from the 2025 final. ESPN announced that it will broadcast the match, emphasizing that it is a special NWSL event in New York. According to an Associated Press report carried by CBS New York, it should be the first NWSL match played in New York City itself.
The Queens Classic is therefore not only a marketing event, but also a practical test of audience interest in Gotham in Queens. If the match at Citi Field attracts a strong response, the club and potential partners will gain an argument that the fan base can expand toward New York without losing its sporting identity. Citi Field is located immediately next to the area where Etihad Park is being built, so that match will be a kind of preview of what could follow after 2027. For fans from Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Long Island, the match may be more accessible than traveling to Harrison, while for fans from New Jersey the change may mean a different organization of arrival. The balance between market expansion and retaining the existing audience will be one of the key questions if the move is formalized.
The sporting context of the match further increases its importance. Gotham and the Washington Spirit played the 2025 NWSL final, in which Gotham won 1-0, and the club’s official announcement states that the title was won with a goal in the closing stages of the match. This turns the match in Queens into a rematch of the final and an opportunity for the league to present one of its strongest duels on a major New York stage. If it turns out that there is significant interest in such a format, the NWSL could more often use large city stadiums for high-profile matches. For Gotham, a good result in the stands would also be important in negotiations over its future home.
NWSL growth creates pressure for better stadiums and bigger markets
Talks about Gotham’s possible move are taking place in a period in which the NWSL is expanding its commercial ambitions and trying to keep pace with growing interest in women’s sports in the United States. In recent years, the league has gained new media contracts, and clubs are increasingly thinking about their own or better-adapted stadiums. Gotham has made sporting use of that wave of growth: according to the club’s official announcement, the team won its second title in three seasons in 2025, doing so as the lowest-ranked seed ever to win the NWSL title. Such success raises expectations regarding the fan experience, commercial facilities and market presence. The new stadium in Queens could offer the club a framework that matches the status of a two-time champion.
The New York Post states that Gotham has had a drop in attendance this season compared with the previous period. If those data are accurate, a championship title does not by itself guarantee stable growth in spectators if the location, schedule, prices, transport and marketing are not aligned. Moving to Queens would not automatically solve all challenges, but it would open access to a larger urban market and new infrastructure. On the other hand, the club would have to be careful not to weaken its connection with fans from New Jersey, especially because it spent important years of development there. The success of any move will depend on whether Gotham can simultaneously be a New York City club and a regional club of the broader metropolis.
In American sports, stadium location often strongly affects the business model. New venues bring more premium spaces, better hospitality facilities, more modern technology, more flexible sponsorship activations and greater control over matchday. If Gotham enters Etihad Park as a permanent user, it could gain a more professional environment than what is possible in a stadium primarily connected to another club and another state. But it is currently unclear what Gotham’s status would be in relation to NYCFC, who would manage match revenue and how the MLS, NWSL and other event calendars would be coordinated. These are questions that will likely be part of the negotiations before any public announcement.
Broader significance for New York, New Jersey and American soccer
The possible arrival of Gotham in Queens would fit into a broader story of New York as an increasingly important center of soccer in the U.S. NYCFC spent years looking for a permanent home within the city, and the approval of the stadium in Willets Point marked the end of a long period in which the club played at baseball stadiums and occasional alternative locations. According to the Associated Press, city authorities approved a project worth 780 million dollars, with a capacity of 25,000 seats, next to Citi Field. The city and the club present the project as New York’s first professional soccer stadium, which has symbolic value for a sport that long grew in the shadow of baseball, basketball, American football and hockey. If the current NWSL champion also plays at the same stadium, the message about the strengthening of soccer in the city would be even stronger.
For New Jersey, the potential departure of Gotham would raise other questions. Sports Illustrated Stadium would remain the home of the Red Bulls, but it would lose a permanent NWSL user if Gotham really moves. That does not mean that the soccer infrastructure in Harrison would be reduced in a sporting sense, but women’s professional soccer would lose one of its visible points in that state. The club would also have to deal with possible dissatisfaction from some fans for whom the current location is more convenient. Similar debates in professional sports are often not only about stadiums, but also about a sense of belonging. Gotham therefore, in the event of an agreement, must explain how it will preserve its regional character and why it sees the move as beneficial for the club in the long term.
For the NWSL, a possible agreement would be another sign that women’s clubs are increasingly being included in major infrastructure projects. Although not all clubs are in a position to build their own stadiums, entering modern soccer venues can raise the league’s professional standards. In Gotham’s case, the additional weight comes from the New York market, the team’s sporting success and the fact that the stadium is being built as part of a major public-private urban project. If the negotiations succeed, the league would gain a strong example of placing women’s professional soccer at the center of a major metropolitan sports complex. If they do not succeed, The Queens Classic will still show how ready Gotham is to experiment with bigger matches in New York.
A decision has not yet been made
Despite advanced talks, Gotham’s move to Etihad Park has not been officially confirmed for now. According to the New York Post report, negotiations are ongoing, but a final agreement has not been reached. This means that key elements, including the duration of a possible lease, revenue distribution, match scheduling, commercial rights and logistics, remain unknown to the public. Given that Etihad Park still needs to open in the summer of 2027, it is realistic to expect all parties to carefully assess the effects before making a final decision. In the meantime, Gotham will continue to play its home matches in Harrison, with a separate appearance at Citi Field in July 2026.
The closest concrete indicator of the direction in which the club is thinking will be precisely the appearance in Queens against the Washington Spirit. In either case, Gotham has already entered a phase in which sporting success requires a long-term infrastructure solution. The question is no longer only where the club will play, but how it wants to define its next era in one of the most demanding sports markets in the world.
Sources:
- New York Post – report on negotiations between Gotham FC and NYCFC about a possible move to Etihad Park (link)
- Gotham FC – official announcement on winning the 2025 NWSL title (link)
- Gotham FC – official announcement about The Queens Classic match at Citi Field (link)
- New York City FC – official announcement on the opening of Etihad Park in the 2027/2028 season (link)
- New York City FC – official announcement on the start of construction of Etihad Park and the project’s basic features (link)
- Office of the Mayor of New York – official announcement on the approval of the second phase of Willets Point development (link)
- Associated Press – report on the approval of the 780-million-dollar stadium and the project in Willets Point (link)
- ESPN Press Room – announcement of the television broadcast of the Gotham FC – Washington Spirit match at Citi Field (link)
- Sports Illustrated Stadium – official stadium website with information about home clubs (link)
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