New York City FC’s new home isn’t even built yet and it already has a feather in its cap.
The LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games committee announced that the yet-to-be-completed Etihad Park will serve as a host venue for the 2028 Summer Olympic soccer tournaments.
The new NYCFC home, along with stadiums in Columbus, Nashville, St. Louis, San Jose, and San Diego, will host group stage and knockout matches during the Olympic tournament.
Dates and matches will be announced in April, with the final stage matches taking place at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The 2028 Summer Olympics are being held in Los Angeles.
The Olympic soccer matches are believed to be the first-ever Olympic events held in New York City.
“If you’re going to have Olympic soccer anywhere outside of LA, you have to have it in New York, and if you’re going to have it in New York, you have to have it at our stadium,” NYCFC CEO Brad Sims told The Post.
NYCFC is still anticipating the venue to open in the spring of 2027, and Sims is expecting to have a firmer timeline to publicly share in the next month on the stadium.
Etihad Park was included in the bid package for the 2031 Women’s World Cup and the club has “raised our hand” about hosting other big MLS events.
“[The Olympic announcement] is kind of the first big event that we officially threw our hat in the ring for,” Sims said. “I think it’s just a huge validation for the project and sign of things to come with other major events. We’ve already been going out of our way to put ourselves on the radars of other major events that might be happening down the line.”
The new home of New York City FC is a 25,000-seat stadium being constructed next door to Citi Field.
The 2026 MLS season will mark the final year NYCFC plays a full season as nomads, bouncing between Yankee Stadium and Citi Field.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
