It's official. As we wrote about earlier, Manchester City has partnered with MLS and, surprisingly, the New York Yankees to buy the 20th league team. The club is to be called New York City FC.
The move completes Don Garber's long-time dream of adding a second team in the New York market. He reiterated how important a second New York area team was for the league's long-term plans. "This was part of our original business plan in 1996," Garber said.
Pointing to the early days of the Chivas v Galaxy rivalry, Garber said that he envisioned all of MLS, including the Red Bulls, to draw strength from NYCFC.
"We will work (with the Red Bulls) to make sure the rivalry will be very valuable and exciting to all," Garber added.
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Although the league did not confirm the expansion fee, Garber said that if "you do your research" you can find how much will be paid. The widely reported fee is $100-million USD.
One of the most consistent criticisms of the deal is that it fails to consider the past failures of MLS's last cross-branding exercise, Chivas USA. Garber spoke of the Chivas USA experience.
"It's clear that (Chivas USA) had a particular vision...it hasn't worked as planned...maybe it was an execution issue."
Manchester City CEO Ferran Soriano stressed that he and the club was thinking locally.
"This opportunity is not about Manchester City, it's about New York, " the former Barcelona FC General Manager said.
Soriano said that there would be "obvious synergies" between NYCFC and MCFC but that they would be separate clubs.
There might be shared sponsorships, scouting and even some players, but they would be two separate clubs.
"This will happen -- naturally, organically -- but this is not the purpose (of NYCFC)," Soriano said.
Soriano stressed that the purchase of NYCFC "had nothing to do with Financial Fair Play (rules)."
The club will stat play in 2015 and may play its first season at Yankee Stadium. The details of the stadium project have yet to be finalized. The rumoured Queen's stadium is still a possibility, as is an entirely new project.
"The important thing is that we listen to people," Soriano said. "We want the stadium to be part of the community."
NYCFC will name its first front office employee at a press conference in New York City tomorrow.