AN OPEN LETTER TO MAYOR ADAMS
Dear Mayor:
New York City deserves a world-class soccer stadium.
We have marvelous venues for baseball (Citifield, Yankee Stadium) basketball
(Barclay’s), tennis (Arthur Ashe & Billie Jean King Stadia) and hockey (Madison
Square Garden).
But, our great city, oddly, offers no site for soccer, the world’s most popular sport.
We need a new soccer stadium to host World Cup games in 2026 when the
tournament comes to the United States.
We need a new stadium for all of New York and a New Bronx.
For the past eight years a proposal for a state-of-the-art stadium has stalled.
We need your leadership to end this deadlock.
We need you to convene a Soccer Stadium Summit.
We need the city (EDC), the soccer team (City Football Group), and the
community (161 BID) to meet and develop a stadium plan that benefits everyone.
We need a plan that enables those who live, work, own businesses or property in
the stadium district to become stadium partners.
We need a plan that shares the billions of dollars -- generated by naming rights,
broadcast fees and sponsorships -- with the host district.
We need a Mayor who is serious about equitable development, who cares about
community engagement and a Mayor who wants to revitalize neighborhoods, like
The South Bronx, that have been devastated by poverty and the pandemic.
Mr. Mayor, we need you.
Sponsored by the 161st Street Business Improvement District
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, J BTR JAN. 28-FEB. 3, 2022 19