NYCFC shows off model of new stadium, which will be built near Citi Field

The process had taken longer than initially anticipated.

Significantly longer.

Which is why Brad Sims was not taking a victory lap. Rather, the chief executive officer of NYCFC was feeling a sense of achievement that the MLS franchise was finally able to debut a model and digital renderings of the team’s new home.

“Opening something is one of those things like, ‘Wow, this is really happening,’” Sims said Tuesday afternoon at NYCFC’s media availability for what the team called a Stadium Immersive Experience in Manhattan. “Really exciting.”

NYCFC will open its 25,000 soccer-specific stadium in the Willets Point neighborhood of Queens in 2027. Stationed directly across the street from Citi Field, the stadium, which will cost $780 million, is privately funded and will be the centerpiece of a land development project that includes 2,500 affordable housing units, an elementary school, a hotel, and public space.

“A new neighborhood,” said Jen O’Sullivan, NYCFC’s chief operating officer. “The first new neighborhood in decades.”

NYCFC estimates that the entire land developmental project will “generate $6.1 billion in economic activity, create 1,500 permanent jobs, and 14,200 construction jobs.”

Sullivan stressed that the stadium will be used “every day of the year,” for on-and-off-the-field events.

Sims, O’Sullivan, and Jon Stemp, City Football Group’s chief infrastructure officer, praised City councilman Francisco Moya, Queens borough president Donovan Richards, and New York City mayor Eric Adams for their work to shepherd the project from proposal to reality, which was approved by the New York City council in April.

“It’s the result of the right partners,” said O’Sullivan, who believes construction will begin before the end of the calendar year. “The right people seeing the vision, believing in the vision, and getting behind it. There was an awful lot of work that was done before we made that announcement.”

NYCFC, which was founded in 2013 and played its inaugural game in 2015, currently plays a majority of its home games at Yankee Stadium. It has also played home games at Citi Field and Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey.

As such, it has been hamstrung from a business standpoint by not having its own home.

“There’s limits to what you can do when you’re a tenant, not just in one stadium but in multiple stadiums,” Sims said. “Eighty percent of your revenue comes from 20 percent of your seats typically in a situation like this. But those 20 percent of seats we don’t really have at the baseball stadiums because the best seats (for baseball) are low down, behind home plate, first base, third base. . . . Those are unfortunately the worst seats for soccer.”

That will not be a problem at the new stadium, which is already helping the team build a fan base on Long Island.

“It’s amazing how many people that I meet from Long Island,” Sims said. “Whether it’s from the corporate community or just fans that express their excitement (who) weren’t really going to jump on board with the team until this was announced, that it was going to happen in Queens. Now it’s like we’re all in.”