No part of New York City FC had a better 2024 than the team’s front-office executives.
Not Matt Freese, not Santi Rodríguez nor Alonso Martínez — the undisputed stars of 2024 for NYCFC were the people wearing suits (and/or colorful sports jackets) who ensured the club broke ground on its soccer stadium in Queens.
The lack of any soccer stadium to call home has held NYCFC back from reaching its full potential since the team was born. The search for a stadium in New York proper predated New York City FC and, at points during the club's existence, it seemed like it would never happen.
That wasn't the case, and the soccer-specific-stadium problem will now disappear for good in 2027 when Etihad Park opens for business.
Andrew Leigh
The Stadium Saga has long been the first and last priority for the NYCFC front office, but it wasn't the only win for the team's executives in 2024.
NYCFC pulled in hundreds of millions of dollars in investment by bringing a new co-owner into the fold, expanded the club's footprint to include the use of Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island, and saw attendance at NYCFC home matches return to pre-pandemic levels.
The business of NYCFC went in the right direction in 2024, and read on for more on all the many reasons why – plus a few minor complaints that hold the NYCFC front office back from receiving an unimpeachably perfect grade for the year.
Stadium signed, sealed, delivered
The work towards the team's ultimate goal, a permanent home, accelerated rapidly in 2024. The redevelopment of Willets Point, Queens that includes NYCFC’s stadium received its final necessary approvals from the city’s government in April, wrapping up an approval process that began in the autumn of 2023.
That approval was no small feat, as it came after the project snaked its way through New York City’s uniform land use and review procedure, ULURP, a many-step process that opens proposed land developments up to scrutiny from communities and local elected officials.
The stadium project cleared ULURP in April after receiving stamps of approval this year from the Queens Borough President, New York’s City Planning Commission, and finally, the New York City Council.
The Willets Point redevelopment didn’t just receive approval, it breezed through the process with no real major disruptions or strong opposition emerging. The biggest hiccup appeared to be negotiating with New York Mets owner Steven Cohen over utilizing the parking lots around Citi Field All the votes of approval were decisive and overwhelming in favor of building NYCFC a stadium, alongside thousands of units of new affordable housing, a hotel, and more.
Questions and debates still linger over just how good of a deal the total development is for the local community, but NYCFC and its front office leaders succeeded in getting the stadium across the finish line in 2024.
The groundbreaking ceremony in mid-December was a culmination of a decade's worth of behind-the-scenes work, and now as 2024 ends, we know for sure that NYCFC fans will permanently call The Valley of Ashes home starting in 2027 when stadium construction is complete.
Oliver Strand
Marcelo's big-money move
The new stadium sucks up most of the oxygen and attention around NYCFC’s off-the-field existence, but it wasn’t the only major front-office development in 2024.
NYCFC also welcomed a new owner, selling a 10% stake in the club and the new Queens stadium to billionaire Marcelo Claure. It had been a two-entity ownership group since NYCFC's founding, split between City Football Group with 80% of the club and the New York Yankees with 20%.
Andrew Leigh
Claure entering the ownership picture was unexpected but also not altogether shocking. The Bolivian-American billionaire has deep ties to both CFG and Major League Soccer, given his ownership stakes in both Girona FC of Spain's La Liga and his previous role as a co-owner of Inter Miami CF. He's also the owner of Club Bolivar in Bolivia, a "partner club" of City Football Group.
Adding Claure as an owner feels controversial given his unceremonious split with the owners of Inter Miami, his public embraces of lightning-rod political figures, his apparent addiction to posting on Twitter, and his big, not always successful financial bets on troubled industries and companies – WeWork, FTX, cryptocurrency, AI, Marcelo Claure has his hands and money in all that messy stuff.
The bottom line from the NYCFC perspective, though: He is a multi-billionaire who believes strongly enough in the future of the team that he's willing to put over $100 million on the line to own a piece of the team and its future stadium. Whatever you think of him as a businessman or person, NYCFC is likely happy to have his deep pockets on their side as the club enters a new era.
One new stadium debuts
Another 2024 win for the team's executives: The million-dollar investment made on Randall’s Island, with NYCFC footing the bill for a new soccer pitch to be installed inside Icahn Stadium.
They brought professional soccer, specifically NYCFC II of MLS NEXT Pro, back to what had exclusively been a track-and-field stadium on Randall’s Island since it opened in 2005.
This gave the team a professional-grade natural grass pitch that can now host some NYCFC II matches and possibly even the NYCFC First Team — though likely only in the US Open Cup, given Icahn Stadium’s minimal 5,000-seat capacity.
There were no clear commitments as to how Randall's Island will be utilized by NYCFC in the years ahead, nor is it clear how much use Icahn Stadium will get from NYCFC II, but the team flexed its financial muscle by investing in Icahn Stadium and now has a new venue to turn to when in need of a high-quality grass playing surface inside the City of New York.
Andrew Leigh
Mixed reviews for the "brand refresh"
If you had to quibble with the New York City front office in 2024, it’s likely going to be over their handling of the team’s “refreshed visual identity,” which included attempts to distance the team from the “NYCFC” acronym and a redesign of the club’s badge.
Oliver Strand
The brand refresh and its rollout felt like it came out of nowhere, with initial word of the scheme dropping right before the club played its 2024 home opener. The changing of fonts, nomenclature, and the club's crest all felt like things to do in the offseason, not right as the 2024 team was playing its MLS schedule.
It's not as though the NYCFC front office made the brand, crest, or team look worse by making these changes, it just left too many people asking, "Why?"
The club's leadership insists the changes are being made to usher in a new era of New York City FC, one that has a permanent, palatial home in Queens. Instead, it felt like something of a confusing distraction – the new badge officially dropped in September, but only began to be used by MLS and the team once the 2024 season ended in late November.
The final grade
In another year, the decision to change NYCFC's visual identity and club crest in the middle of a season might have been met with fierce opposition and soured the fanbase on the club's leadership. Instead, everyone is still riding the high of Etihad Park, and why shouldn't they?
It's been so long coming, and it promises to transform NYCFC once it opens, so any reflection on the year 2024 focused on the team's front office has to heavily weigh the happy ending to the team's seemingly endless stadium search.
