New York Cosmos: Why Stadium Plan Would Be a Mistake for US Soccer

On January 16, the newly reincarnated New York Cosmos announced plans for a $400 million, privately financed stadium project, including retail, restaurants and a hotel. I've seen the artist renditions of what the project would look like, and while it's visually stimulating, it's also something else.

A mistake.

I'm already on record as saying that MLS shouldn't place a second team in New York. I think they should make sure there's demand for a second team, and I don't think there is. For justification, let's look at the attendance figures.

Red Bull Arena seats 25,000, and yet it's rarely full. Of their 17 regular-season home games in 2012, 11 had an announced attendance of under 20,000.

In fact, just for giggles, I used the attendance figures available in the match reports on MLSsoccer.com to figure the total attendance for the Red Bulls and Sporting KC, the team I'm most familiar with.

I figured a team in New York would outdraw a t...

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