Okay. It's time for me to come clean with some things I've been hearing on the Stadium. These come variously from three people at firms that are consulting for NYCFC on different aspects of the project and one person high up at the Club. Two of the three consultants were people I spoke with 3 months ago or so. The other conversations, which provide most of the information, were in the last few weeks.
- The Club believes it is "close" to announcing its planned location for a stadium. In this context "close" means by the end of the year, although I get the sense they are hoping it will be sooner than later.
- It will then take about a year for permits and another 2-3 years for construction.
- The location in mind is "near Yankee Stadium".
- Size was variously reported as 30,000 and 25,000, expandable to 30,000.
- Two different architecture firms have been retained to draw up competing site plans.
- The club has retained a cost consulting firm and has reached out to banks on a preliminary basis to secure debt financing.
- Some of the external consultants believe that the process has been slower than necessary because the Club has to deal with bureaucratic issues out of Abu Dhabi (e.g. time needed to get sign offs and financial commitments, etc.).
- The Club has a set price in mind that it will not exceed for the stadium; separately, I heard a figure of $500 million.
Clearly, there is a lot of smoke around right now - probably more than any other time since the Club kicked off in 2015. That said, lots of things can kill a deal like this before it is ever announced. Let's hope that doesn't happen.