Gotham FC to move home games to Queens in 2028

Gotham FC announced Tuesday it will move its home matches from Harrison, New Jersey, to Etihad Park in Queens beginning in 2028, making the Willets Point stadium its permanent home. The shift pulls the two-time, reigning NWSL champions into New York City’s five boroughs and places the club closer to the transit network, corporate base and symbolic gravity of the city.

The move is more than a change of address. City and state officials said Etihad Park will put more than 3 million additional people within a 75-minute commute of Gotham FC by bus, subway and Long Island Rail Road, a reach that could reshape matchday attendance and sponsorship interest. Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the location will make it easier for young fans in neighborhoods such as Jackson Heights, Jamaica and the South Bronx to take the train to see top-level women’s soccer in their own city.

Etihad Park is set to open in spring 2027 next to Citi Field and near the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The stadium is being built as a $780 million project with a planned capacity of 25,000, and officials say it will be New York City’s first soccer-specific stadium and first fully electric professional sports venue. Gotham FC is expected to arrive after New York City FC begins playing there a year earlier.

For Gotham FC, the move marks a widening of the club’s footprint rather than a retreat from New Jersey. The team has played home matches in Harrison since 2021, and officials said its first dedicated training facility is planned in Whippany, New Jersey. That split, with training rooted in the state and matches shifting to Queens, shows how the club is balancing local operations with a broader metropolitan identity.

Governor Kathy Hochul said the move brings the reigning NWSL champions into New York State’s ranks and gives fans a world-class experience. Carolyn Tisch Blodgett, Gotham FC’s governor, called it “the next chapter” and said the club is building one of the world’s most iconic clubs while thanking New York City FC for helping make the deal possible. The agreement, framed by both clubs as a shared vision for New York as a home for world-class professional soccer, positions Queens as the next growth market for a league still expanding its reach.