A massive setback for Brooklyn FC as the expansion USL franchise’s first competitive match in the USL Super League is postponed due to issues with the condition of the Maimonides Park turf.
According to statements released by the team and the USL, the artificial surface at the Coney Island baseball stadium was declared unplayable after deficiencies were identified following the "installation of soccer turf."
The August 31 match between Brooklyn FC and Carolina Ascent FC has been postponed. pic.twitter.com/cjfqauUKWx
— USL Super League (@USLSuperLeague) August 29, 2024
The principal owner of Brooklyn FC, Matt Rizzetta, told Hudson River Blue in an interview in January that the team had plans to change the way soccer is played at Maimonides Park, which last hosted professional games in 2017 in the final NASL season of the reborn New York Cosmos.
Beyond a stated plan to keep the pitcher's mound intact during Brooklyn matches, Rizzetta spoke in January of "tweaks and upgrades to the playing surface, which includes some field overlays."
Andrew Leigh
Now, the installation of this new surface for soccer has derailed plans for the club and their women's team's big debut in the USL Super League. Interestingly Brooklyn FC has successfully played one game at Maimonides Park this summer, a friendly between what was described as the "second team" of the Brooklyn FC men and Ecuadorian club CD Cuenca on July 13.
During that friendly, there was no soccer-specific playing surface installed at Maimonides Park, with the field laid out the way you'd see the pitch set up for a New York City FC match at one of their two home baseball stadiums—though with nothing covering the portion of the Maimonides Park baseball infield that's still in play.
View at Maimonides Park as a @_BrooklynFC team (their “second team” on men’s side) gets set to play in Coney Island for the first time ever, a friendly vs. Ecuador’s Deportivo Cuenca. Idyllic setting now back to hosting pro soccer for the first time since 2017 pic.twitter.com/bEOFf3fqrI
— Hudson River Blue (@hudsonriverblue) July 13, 2024
The wait will really go on for the Brooklyn FC USL Super League squad. Brooklyn is the only one of the eight teams in the new Division One-sanctioned women's league still yet to play a match.
They sit oddly at the bottom of the Super League table with zeroes across the board and will stay that way until Sunday, September 8 when they travel clear across the country to face Spokane Zephyr FC at 9:00 pm ET.
Brooklyn FC will have to now wait until Wednesday, September 25 for another chance to play a Super League home game at Maimonides Park. That midweek match is not exactly prime time for a night out on the boardwalk in Coney Island, particularly compared to the initial plan for a Labor Day Weekend Saturday night debut.
This isn't the only costly postponement Brooklyn is dealing with as it begins a first-ever USL Super League campaign.
HRB has learned that the head coach of the Brooklyn women's team would not have been on the touchline for the August 31 opener against Carolina Ascent FC, had it gone ahead as planned. The team was set to be led by an assistant coach on an interim basis.
That's because the team's first-ever coaching hire is held up by what was described by a source informed of the situation as "bureaucratic issues" that involve leagues and soccer federations. That's also why there has still been no coach even announced as leading the first Brooklyn women's team.
It's expected that the not-specified "issues" could delay the coach's arrival for as many as the two next Brooklyn Super League matches, so potentially through the September 14 trip to Florida to face Tampa Bay Sun FC, but that could always change should those issues be resolved.
Turf trouble and coach delays: Start to life in the Super League has been a bit rocky for Brooklyn FC and they've yet to kick a ball. At least those first kits look good, though they'll no longer be making their debut in Brooklyn this weekend.
