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Mayor and NYC Football Club Plan to Create 50 New Soccer Fields Across City

By Eddie Small | July 12, 2016 2:34pm
 A total of 50 new soccer fields will arrive in New York City over the next five years.
Launch of New Soccer Fields
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MOTT HAVEN — The city and the New York City Football Club have joined forces to bring 50 new soccer fields to the five boroughs over the next five years.

Mayor Bill de Blasio joined representatives from NYCFC, the U.S. Soccer Foundation and Adidas to launch the project, called the New York City Soccer Initiative, on Tuesday morning at Millbrook Playground in the South Bronx, which will be the site of one of the first eight new fields.

The others will be installed at J.H.S. 166 George Gershwin and Cypress Hills Houses in Brooklyn, Irwin Altman Middle School 172 and South Jamaica Houses in Queens, Harlem Lane Playground and P.S. 083 Luis Munoz Rivera in Manhattan, and Eagle Academy for Young Men in Staten Island. Officials are still finalizing locations for the remaining 42 fields.

The first eight fields will be ready to use by this time next year, according to de Blasio.

"This is not something we’re going to do slowly," he said. "We are all committed to moving fast."

The new soccer fields will arrive in underserved neighborhoods and be built for year-round use. They will provide locals with after-school soccer and mentoring programs like soccer clinics, youth summits and festivals.

De Blasio said the initiative would help promote equality in the city and and could help improve health problems that the South Bronx had historically struggled with.

"Part of the answer is more youth sports, more recreation, more opportunities to play and get healthy," he said, "and that's what we're achieving here today."

The initiative will help accommodate the rising popularity of the sport as well, according to Assemblyman Francisco Moya.

"With the growth of football's popularity, as well as the South American population, these pitches will provide greatly needed relief to our current facilities that [are] overwhelmed with use," he said in a statement.

Ed Foster-Simeon, president and CEO of the U.S. Soccer Foundation, described the new fields coming to New York City as just one part of a larger effort his organization is undertaking to promote the sport across the country.

The organization hopes to build 1,000 fields across the United States and engage 1 million children by 2026 with after-school programs that help them learn soccer and develop as people, he said.

NYCFC is currently in first place in the Major League Soccer Eastern Conference, and the team's Sporting Director Claudio Reyna said the initiative represented a great moment for children who would get to play on the fields.

"I've never forgotten what it's like to be a young kid who loves soccer and just wants somewhere to play," he said.

The event ended with two soccer games between children on the future site of Millbrook Playground's new soccer field.

Perla, 10, said she was excited for a new soccer field to come to Millbrook Playground and thought The Bronx currently did not have enough of them.

"I like soccer, and my family likes it, too," she said, "so I feel good about it."