By Benjamin Ibarra
On April 11 the New York City Council voted to approve the construction of a $780 million soccer stadium in Flushing by the New York City Football Club (NYCFC), a decision that set off a cascade of questions surrounding the outstanding promises of $7.5 million and a new practice stadium on York College property.
To date, York has received neither the cash nor the practice stadium.
Despite all the promises and press releases, the fate of the proposed soccer stadium on York’s campus remains shrouded in a haze of bureaucracy between the Queensboro Football Club (QBFC) and CUNY officials.
And while they apparently still have a signed 280-page contract with the University, there is strong evidence QBFC is dissolved and no longer active.
The history is murky. In 2019 the club announced it would build a 7,500-seat soccer practice stadium on York College’s campus by the Spring of 2022. In December of 2022 York’s former Interim President of Finance and Administration Charles Bozian publicly stated that QBFC had been acquired by the NYCFC.
Bozian cited the acquisition as the reason the stadium construction had blown the Spring 2022 deadline, but insisted that York College would receive $1.8 million in funding from the deal in the following year.
Two months after Bozian’s announcement at York’s senate meeting in September of 2022, Mayor Eric Adams attended a press event announcing a public-private partnership with NYCFC to build a 25,000-seat venue in the Willets Point neighborhood of Queens right across from Citi Field and a 15-minute drive from York College campus.
The stadium was touted as the focal point of the city’s 23-acre project and was promised to include 2,500 units of affordable housing along with 16,000 jobs and $6 billion pumped into the city’s economy.
On the same day of that press event, former York College President Berenecea Eanes announced that NYCFC was providing an unrestricted gift of $7.5 million to York College.
But no mention or explanation about whether York would ever get a stadium.
Apparently York College is now planning an event in a few weeks for the NYCFC to announce the first phase of disbursement of $2 million of the promised $7.5 million “transformational gift” to York College. Nothing is official yet, but plans are underway to utilize the funds for, “…athletics and health related activities/expenditures,” according to an email sent out to the college community on March 28.
“We already have wish lists from several of the allied health departments, athletics and student affairs. We will be soliciting input from the Resource Committee as well as the college community for additional recommendations/ideas,” the email read.
But the mystery about whether the $7.5 million was a consolation prize for the lack of a new stadium at York because the Flushing stadium got the go-ahead remains. York officials would only say they are unsure about the contract signed between QBFC and CUNY.
In a recent interview, York’s new Interim President Claudia Schrader said,
“The $7.5 million gift pledged to the college is not tethered to the construction of either stadium.”
Dana Trimboli, the president’s chief-of-staff, said, “QBFC would have to confirm if NYCFC bought them.” Trimboli added that the contract with QBFC is still active, saying, “We are here, and we have a contract with them to build a practice stadium.”
ONEFOOTBALL, an online platform that provides football news, reported on financial and leadership struggles at QBFC, claiming its inability to secure proper funding and deal with internal challenges led to its demise.
The Queens Chronicle reported last year that communication between them and QBFC stopped in 2022. When the Chronicle reached out to elected Queens officials for information on the stadium, their response was that they had also been left in the dark. The QBFC official site is also no longer operational.
Nine months after the 2022 senate meeting, York College broke ground on a new soccer and track field complex on Liberty Avenue. That field will also serve as a recreational site for the Southwest Queens families, community groups, and local sports teams. The $7.8 million facility is expected to be completed in June 2024.
As to whether the soccer teams will have to share that facility with the track and field teams until (and whether) the promised soccer stadium ever gets built, the future remains uncertain.
“Our priority right now is to get enrollment up,” said Schrader. “I can’t speak for the agreement that was made or the signing or whatever happened, but we have a contract, and when they [QFBC] are ready, they will approach us.”
