Stadium Discussion

[Huss]

Construction update:

Etihad Stadium's Grandstands Take Shape in Willets Point, Queens - New York YIMBY

Construction is rising on Etihad Park, a new 23-acre sports and mixed-use development from HOK in Willets Point, Queens.

newyorkyimby.com

Also was told recently Sims will delay opening for full season not mini season. East sideline starts at 3k but the club is under the seats, no view. I guess it’s a way to get midfield seats if you want them but by the time you buy food and drink you might as well be on the west side IMO or buy normal seats without the east club.

 

[bjb]

Participated in a Zoom for the Phase 3/East Side Club seats and thought I'd share what I learned as I didn't realize this was Day 1 of ticket release for these seats. Apologies for anything redundant/already discussed in the previous 1203 pages.....

East Side Club summary
- Contains all lower bowl sections and the first row of the upper bowl on the East Sideline
- Private entrance with access to the East Side "Club"- no view of the field, sounds mostly like a climate-controlled food court with whatever "Upscale Ballpark Fare" means. No food/bev included in the ticket price, all is purchased ala carte
- Ability to purchase Premium Parking Spots, I neglected to ask pricing

What I learned
- unlike the World Cup, with only 4 ticketing categories, there are hundreds at Eithad Park. Some individual rows even have 4 different ones: in order of price- Aisle, Near Aisle, Aisle Furthest From Centerline, Middle,. For Sections directly on the Centerline, the middle seats then flip to be the most expensive.
- Outside of the row categories- Front Row of every section is Premium Pricing, then Sections get progressively more expensive as you get closer to the Centerline.
- East Side Club pricing ranges from approximately $3500 - $7500/seat depending on all the above with at least twenty different tranches- the algorithm for this stadium must be insane
- MOST IMPORTANTLY- the only General Reservation tickets in the lower bowl will be the two sections in each corner. If you wanna sit near midfield in the lower bowl, you have to buy now. **I know this is different from previous posts, but that's what the rep told me
- Phase 4- General Reservation (i.e. lower bowl corners, upper bowl) is expected to go on sale in Summer 2026. They anticipate being 75% sold in Phase 3 like they are in Phase 2 and 1 now
**I forgot to ask what the Endline opposite SS qualifies as. SS looks really cool though, the full endline of both bowls, very steep!

What I'm considering
- Despite various amenities offered (cushioned seats, private entrance, Chef-Curated Hot Dogs), my takeaway is that the club is using said algorithm to extract every dollar they can based more on seat location than anything else. Want a good seat- you are gonna pay for it.
- At YS, I sit in Section 103, Row 4, Aisle Seats. As close to centerline as you can get in rightfield and still see the SS goal (there's a wall blocking many views from 103). We are behind the benches and get to watch the subs warm up/have a good view of Pascal managing too. Great benefit for my son as a youth soccer player.
- Love those seats at YS (for a baseball stadium that is.....). $1200/seat for 2026, great deal. At Eithad Park, we'd be West Side Club in probably the most pricey category so forget that- food/bev is not a priority for me. But similar proximity to the pitch on the East Side will be $6k-$7k. Insane multiple.
- I'd actually be happy to sit near the Centerline in the Upper Bowl first row. But making those East Side Club also just feels like fake bennies to justify higher pricing. The "East Side Club" is on a different floor of the building.
- That said, the rep I Zoomed with said not to expect Centerline Upper Bowl second row+ to be much cheaper than the front row seats even without the Club benefits, they are prioritizing higher pricing for any seats central/midfield regardless of bowl/side. Maybe that's marketing-speak to get me to buy now, but we haven't seen anything that reflects reasonable pricing here
- The only "deal" the Rep highlighted for me in the East Side Club were the fourth row seats above the ADA-accessible allocations near the corner sections. He noted that these were effectively "front row" seats because of the clearance space required for the ADA directly in front. Kind of a joke in my opinion

What I might do/what should I do?
- I'm FM in the low triple digits, would have a good spot in line for Phase 4 General Reservation seating as well
- Premium Seating Phase 1/2/3 benefits are not a priority for me. Just want a good seat to watch some soccer
- Ten years of four rows behind the benches...feels like a downgrade to go Upper Bowl Central and a few rows up
- currently, considering East Side club, fairly central but exploiting the algorithm to be in the $4k range/seat

All-in-all, big cash grab by the club here, none of the deferred payment plans or 4/6/8 year committment options matter, its gonna take 4x-10x to watch matches at Eithad Park.

 

[LionNYC]

Once again, they are pricing out all the fans from the past decade. The club's fandom will look very different come 2027 and that's disappointing.

 

[ZYanksRule]

Some individual rows even have 4 different ones: in order of price- Aisle, Near Aisle, Aisle Furthest From Centerline, Middle,. For Sections directly on the Centerline, the middle seats then flip to be the most expensive.

When we ask why, in the next 10 years, soccer failed in this country it's going to be because of scammy stuff like this.

Between the World Cup charging exhobitant prices for hotels, tickets, parking, and even breathing near the stadium to this team wringing every last dollar they can out of this fanbase, the sport is going to die in this country because of greed of the corporations that took advantage of the opportunity they had.

 

[413Blue]

I'm not sure if I can afford tickets in the new stadium. I'll have to trade down to Yankees games probably.

 

[Jon]

Participated in a Zoom for the Phase 3/East Side Club seats and thought I'd share what I learned as I didn't realize this was Day 1 of ticket release for these seats. Apologies for anything redundant/already discussed in the previous 1203 pages.....

East Side Club summary
- Contains all lower bowl sections and the first row of the upper bowl on the East Sideline
- Private entrance with access to the East Side "Club"- no view of the field, sounds mostly like a climate-controlled food court with whatever "Upscale Ballpark Fare" means. No food/bev included in the ticket price, all is purchased ala carte
- Ability to purchase Premium Parking Spots, I neglected to ask pricing

What I learned
- unlike the World Cup, with only 4 ticketing categories, there are hundreds at Eithad Park. Some individual rows even have 4 different ones: in order of price- Aisle, Near Aisle, Aisle Furthest From Centerline, Middle,. For Sections directly on the Centerline, the middle seats then flip to be the most expensive.
- Outside of the row categories- Front Row of every section is Premium Pricing, then Sections get progressively more expensive as you get closer to the Centerline.
- East Side Club pricing ranges from approximately $3500 - $7500/seat depending on all the above with at least twenty different tranches- the algorithm for this stadium must be insane
- MOST IMPORTANTLY- the only General Reservation tickets in the lower bowl will be the two sections in each corner. If you wanna sit near midfield in the lower bowl, you have to buy now. **I know this is different from previous posts, but that's what the rep told me
- Phase 4- General Reservation (i.e. lower bowl corners, upper bowl) is expected to go on sale in Summer 2026. They anticipate being 75% sold in Phase 3 like they are in Phase 2 and 1 now
**I forgot to ask what the Endline opposite SS qualifies as. SS looks really cool though, the full endline of both bowls, very steep!

What I'm considering
- Despite various amenities offered (cushioned seats, private entrance, Chef-Curated Hot Dogs), my takeaway is that the club is using said algorithm to extract every dollar they can based more on seat location than anything else. Want a good seat- you are gonna pay for it.
- At YS, I sit in Section 103, Row 4, Aisle Seats. As close to centerline as you can get in rightfield and still see the SS goal (there's a wall blocking many views from 103). We are behind the benches and get to watch the subs warm up/have a good view of Pascal managing too. Great benefit for my son as a youth soccer player.
- Love those seats at YS (for a baseball stadium that is.....). $1200/seat for 2026, great deal. At Eithad Park, we'd be West Side Club in probably the most pricey category so forget that- food/bev is not a priority for me. But similar proximity to the pitch on the East Side will be $6k-$7k. Insane multiple.
- I'd actually be happy to sit near the Centerline in the Upper Bowl first row. But making those East Side Club also just feels like fake bennies to justify higher pricing. The "East Side Club" is on a different floor of the building.
- That said, the rep I Zoomed with said not to expect Centerline Upper Bowl second row+ to be much cheaper than the front row seats even without the Club benefits, they are prioritizing higher pricing for any seats central/midfield regardless of bowl/side. Maybe that's marketing-speak to get me to buy now, but we haven't seen anything that reflects reasonable pricing here
- The only "deal" the Rep highlighted for me in the East Side Club were the fourth row seats above the ADA-accessible allocations near the corner sections. He noted that these were effectively "front row" seats because of the clearance space required for the ADA directly in front. Kind of a joke in my opinion

What I might do/what should I do?
- I'm FM in the low triple digits, would have a good spot in line for Phase 4 General Reservation seating as well
- Premium Seating Phase 1/2/3 benefits are not a priority for me. Just want a good seat to watch some soccer
- Ten years of four rows behind the benches...feels like a downgrade to go Upper Bowl Central and a few rows up
- currently, considering East Side club, fairly central but exploiting the algorithm to be in the $4k range/seat

All-in-all, big cash grab by the club here, none of the deferred payment plans or 4/6/8 year committment options matter, its gonna take 4x-10x to watch matches at Eithad Park.

I don’t know why anyone would expect anything less. When the Yankees moved across the street prices went up by a huge amount. I’m just hoping I can afford an end line or corner seat in the upper deck.

 

[mgarbowski]

Fine tuning the price of seats Row by Row and whether Aisle, Near Aisle, etc., diminishes the benefits of seat selection priority. The benefit of being a remaining Founder or long term ticket-holder should be that you identify a section whose price you are willing to pay, and then you get your pick of row, left aisle, right aisle, dead center or whatever you like. But when every seat is algorithm priced, you lose those options. So you can get Row 17, 8 seats from the aisle in a good section, or Row 1 on the aisle in a worse spot 3 sections over. They're removing the ability of loyalists to arbitrage section and seat selection by leveraging their seniority.

It also means seat selection will be stupidly complicated. When you can't just look at a seating chart and know that the red sections cost $x00, purple costs $x+250, and yellow is $x+400, etc., and instead you have to go seat by fucking seat to find the best available option at the intersection of your preferences and price ceiling, it's just obnoxious.

 

[ZYanksRule]

Obnoxious is the perfect word for it. Outrageous is another. The greed of corporations in exploiting Americans' perceived high spending habits and capitalism is dragging us into a rough spot. The entire enterprise feels so dirty right now.

 

[mgarbowski]

Once again, they are pricing out all the fans from the past decade. The club's fandom will look very different come 2027 and that's disappointing.

When the Jets and Giants moved to MetLife, they lost a lot of long time STHs and blew through their waiting lists. Previously the Giants had a waiting list decades long. The highest seniority existing STH's downgraded their seats to adjust to much higher ticket prices. Later joining STHs were left with only higher priced options, and many either reduced their seats or dropped altogether. I think they both now sell about 70-80% of their capacity via season tickets. That's fine but not stellar, and no NFL team is hurting for cash, but there has been a lot of churn.

There will be a lot of churn with NYCFC ticket holders. I hesitate to predict they won't sell out. In fact I expect they either will, or come close. But yes, the fandom will be different. I expect a lot of people who've never gone near the supporters section to suddenly join TR so they qualify for tickets there.

And the club better win consistently. These prices won't hold when you barely crack the top third of the combined table once in three years. I've been agnostic on whether they sign a big name for 2026. Now I think it's almost necessary. Doing it just in time for the 2027-28 season is probably too late.

 

[Joe_Cos]

Participated in a Zoom for the Phase 3/East Side Club seats and thought I'd share what I learned as I didn't realize this was Day 1 of ticket release for these seats. Apologies for anything redundant/already discussed in the previous 1203 pages.....

East Side Club summary
- Contains all lower bowl sections and the first row of the upper bowl on the East Sideline
- Private entrance with access to the East Side "Club"- no view of the field, sounds mostly like a climate-controlled food court with whatever "Upscale Ballpark Fare" means. No food/bev included in the ticket price, all is purchased ala carte
- Ability to purchase Premium Parking Spots, I neglected to ask pricing

What I learned
- unlike the World Cup, with only 4 ticketing categories, there are hundreds at Eithad Park. Some individual rows even have 4 different ones: in order of price- Aisle, Near Aisle, Aisle Furthest From Centerline, Middle,. For Sections directly on the Centerline, the middle seats then flip to be the most expensive.
- Outside of the row categories- Front Row of every section is Premium Pricing, then Sections get progressively more expensive as you get closer to the Centerline.
- East Side Club pricing ranges from approximately $3500 - $7500/seat depending on all the above with at least twenty different tranches- the algorithm for this stadium must be insane
- MOST IMPORTANTLY- the only General Reservation tickets in the lower bowl will be the two sections in each corner. If you wanna sit near midfield in the lower bowl, you have to buy now. **I know this is different from previous posts, but that's what the rep told me
- Phase 4- General Reservation (i.e. lower bowl corners, upper bowl) is expected to go on sale in Summer 2026. They anticipate being 75% sold in Phase 3 like they are in Phase 2 and 1 now
**I forgot to ask what the Endline opposite SS qualifies as. SS looks really cool though, the full endline of both bowls, very steep!

What I'm considering
- Despite various amenities offered (cushioned seats, private entrance, Chef-Curated Hot Dogs), my takeaway is that the club is using said algorithm to extract every dollar they can based more on seat location than anything else. Want a good seat- you are gonna pay for it.
- At YS, I sit in Section 103, Row 4, Aisle Seats. As close to centerline as you can get in rightfield and still see the SS goal (there's a wall blocking many views from 103). We are behind the benches and get to watch the subs warm up/have a good view of Pascal managing too. Great benefit for my son as a youth soccer player.
- Love those seats at YS (for a baseball stadium that is.....). $1200/seat for 2026, great deal. At Eithad Park, we'd be West Side Club in probably the most pricey category so forget that- food/bev is not a priority for me. But similar proximity to the pitch on the East Side will be $6k-$7k. Insane multiple.
- I'd actually be happy to sit near the Centerline in the Upper Bowl first row. But making those East Side Club also just feels like fake bennies to justify higher pricing. The "East Side Club" is on a different floor of the building.
- That said, the rep I Zoomed with said not to expect Centerline Upper Bowl second row+ to be much cheaper than the front row seats even without the Club benefits, they are prioritizing higher pricing for any seats central/midfield regardless of bowl/side. Maybe that's marketing-speak to get me to buy now, but we haven't seen anything that reflects reasonable pricing here
- The only "deal" the Rep highlighted for me in the East Side Club were the fourth row seats above the ADA-accessible allocations near the corner sections. He noted that these were effectively "front row" seats because of the clearance space required for the ADA directly in front. Kind of a joke in my opinion

What I might do/what should I do?
- I'm FM in the low triple digits, would have a good spot in line for Phase 4 General Reservation seating as well
- Premium Seating Phase 1/2/3 benefits are not a priority for me. Just want a good seat to watch some soccer
- Ten years of four rows behind the benches...feels like a downgrade to go Upper Bowl Central and a few rows up
- currently, considering East Side club, fairly central but exploiting the algorithm to be in the $4k range/seat

All-in-all, big cash grab by the club here, none of the deferred payment plans or 4/6/8 year committment options matter, its gonna take 4x-10x to watch matches at Eithad Park.

That is crap. I am in 104, I was hoping as I was below 1,000 on the FM list. I was hoping to have very simialr seats for maybe around $1,800. Guess that was a fools dream.

 

[Gene]

- unlike the World Cup, with only 4 ticketing categories, there are hundreds at Eithad Park. Some individual rows even have 4 different ones: in order of price- Aisle, Near Aisle, Aisle Furthest From Centerline, Middle,. For Sections directly on the Centerline, the middle seats then flip to be the most expensive.

Am I reading this right?
In some sections seats in the same row are going to have different prices depending how close to the aisle they are???
You have to feel like a first class sap if you're in seat 10 and the guy in seat 11 is paying X amount less, because he's one seat further away from the aisle.