Professional soccer is coming to Westchester, but for the moment it”™s only to practice.
New York City FC, the expansion club that will join Major League Soccer next year, is set to practice at Manhattanville College in Purchase after receiving approvals from the town of Harrison”™s Planning Board on Tuesday night.
The soccer club, which is co-owned by the New York Yankees and English Premier League soccer team Manchester City, will renovate the college”™s gym and rebuild its soccer field. The team said it has a five-year lease with Manhattanville to use the grounds for practice, after which time the facilities will be donated to the college for its own use.
The proposal faced opposition from some community residents, namely the civic group the Purchase Environmental Protection Association. Traffic issues and questions over how long the team would stay in Purchase were among the main concerns discussed. In the late 1990s, a professional-grade hockey rink at the campus on which the New York Rangers would have practiced was successfully blocked due to community opposition. The college”™s hockey team was left without on-campus facilities as a result.
NYCFC will play its inaugural season in 2015 at Yankee Stadium, but the team continues to have difficulty finding a permanent home in the five boroughs. The team is now reportedly considering locations in Westchester. Soccer”™s New York Red Bulls play home games in Harrison, N.J.
Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano, a Democrat, said in his recent State of the City address that the team could set up at Empire City.
“If New Jersey can host two New York football teams alongside a swamp, we can certainly host a professional soccer team along I-87,” he said.
