New York International FC Loses Appeal After CSL Rejects Con Edison Field As New Home
QUEENS, NY – New York International FC has lost an appeal against a decision by the Cosmopolitan Soccer League that would prevent the team from playing on a newly identified home field at Con Edison Field.
The club considered the pitch in Astoria, Queens, an ideal location for a more permanent base in the city that would help promote the club’s community-led ethos.
NYIFC is one of a number of CSL clubs that play their football on parks and soccer facilities across the city, such as Randall’s Island, McCarren Park, and Roosevelt Island.
The potential use of Con Edison Field was an attempt to make a step forward and put down roots in a city in which it can be notoriously difficult to do so.
The club regularly uses the Rivercrest sports bar in Queens as a base for organising some of its community work and for hosting meetings and events. In 2025, NYIFC and Rivercrest came together to raise over $10,000 for childhood cancer research.
This bar is just a couple of blocks away (a less than 10-minute walk) from Con Edison Field, and would mean additional get-togethers, organising, and community initiatives could be part of a wider matchday experience.
The plans were scuppered when the CSL raised potential issues with the facility and ultimately refused to let NYIFC use the field.
The league’s issues with the move included concerns around the grass playing field, such as potential drainage problems, a gradual decline of the playing surface due to weather and use, and the potential impact that cancellations as a result of these things would have on the league and its schedule.
NYIFC appealed the decision to the Eastern New York State Soccer Association, which subsequently upheld the CSL ruling.
The Soccer Times view
From the Professional League Standards (PLS) of the country’s top divisions to the grassroots game, bylaws and league standards are important to maintaining certain levels across the sport.
From top to bottom, however, they can sometimes seem like a hindrance to a team’s, and indeed a league’s, progress.
These rules should be set up to encourage progress as well as adhere to certain standards, but the balance across the game appears weighted too far towards a rule-bound approach that stunts growth.
We could see the PLS come to the fore in the coming months as the United Soccer League attempts to expand its leagues to include a new Division I sanctioned league at the top level of the game, and also introduce promotion and relegation.
At the grassroots level, though the CSL will believe they are doing the right thing for the game as a whole, giving NYIFC at least a chance to prove that it can make Con Edison Field work as a home venue would seem like the best approach.
The positives, should such a move succeed, far outweigh the negatives should it run into the kind of issues the CSL raised.
Even professional teams in the area struggle to find home grounds within New York City’s five boroughs.
Most of the professional teams bearing the name New York play their home games in New Jersey, including the Red Bulls of MLS. Meanwhile, the NYC-based MLS team, NYCFC, has had to share baseball stadiums with the Yankees and Mets for the first 12 seasons of its existence.
The construction of a new stadium at Willets Point in Queens sees NYCFC finally move into a home of its own in 2027, as originally promised when it joined MLS, and it will be joined by the city’s most successful professional soccer team, NWSL side Gotham FC.
For an amateur team to even get to the point where it has come to an arrangement with a specific field in New York City is progress that should be encouraged rather than stunted.
The CSL has legitimate reasons for being wary, but NYIFC strongly believes they can make it work. Looking at the bigger picture of New York soccer, not giving them a chance to give it a go feels like a missed opportunity.
