A late August trip to one of New York`s many parks is a quintessential summer experience, providing an ideal backdrop for Manhattan`s first top-tier soccer match in years.
New York soccer fans are intimately familiar with the persistent challenge of stadium locations, often finding themselves venturing to New Jersey or watching games at Yankee Stadium, a baseball park temporarily reconfigured for soccer. Icahn Stadium on Randall`s Island, where NJ/NY Gotham FC launched their Concacaf W Champions Cup title defense against Monterrey, emerged as a promising venue for Gotham`s inaugural official game within city limits. The island offers reasonable accessibility from four of New York`s five boroughs, linked to Manhattan and Queens by three bridges for pedestrians and cyclists, alongside occasional NYC Ferry service. What seemed like a guaranteed picturesque New York outing, however, presented its own set of challenges.
“I know there are people who are like, `Finally! There`s a game in New York,` so it`s been nice to achieve that,” remarked Gotham general manager Yael Averbuch West.
Yet, a block from the Harlem footbridge, Hurricane Erin’s winds made a 30-minute walk to Icahn Stadium with an umbrella a formidable task. A pleasant summer evening did not materialize; instead, the struggle with an umbrella perfectly set the stage for a unique night. It highlighted the lesser-known surprises, balancing charm and inconvenience, that truly embody the New York soccer experience.
Is Convenience Relative?
Randall`s Island, nestled between the Harlem and East Rivers, is theoretically accessible to many New Yorkers, yet its practical convenience is often a mixed bag. The footbridges provide scenic routes, but the bus is quicker, stopping conveniently near subway lines 4, 5, and 6. The irony in a city renowned for its vast (though flawed) railway network is that Randall`s Island is most easily reached via roads. A fairly robust bus system addresses this, but with caveats.
“It`s nice for folks who live in New York to have a somewhat closer venue,” commented Jen Muller, a long-standing member of the official Gotham supporters group, Cloud 9. “I know it`s not ideal for a lot of them, too, because there`s only one bus that comes here, but you adapt.”
About two hours before kickoff, the M35 bus ran roughly every 12 minutes—not peak convenience, but still faster than the 20-minute wait for a PATH train from Sports Illustrated Stadium after a regular Gotham home match. In true New York fashion, minor hassles are balanced by simple perks: the M35 stops directly behind Icahn Stadium, and perhaps more importantly, next to a truck selling tacos and Mister Softee, an ice cream vendor as ubiquitous as Starbucks in the city.
Icahn Stadium embodies quaintness; on a damp day, it evokes the feel of an English non-league ground transplanted to New York, a stark contrast to Wimbledon`s annual attempt to replicate its famous hill at Brooklyn Bridge Park. The venue offers an eclectic blend of the ordinary and the glamorous, true to a city that is enjoyably grittier than its superficial portrayal in media. Though muted by cloudy skies, a light blue track encircles Icahn Stadium`s pitch, a historic spot where Usain Bolt set a 100-meter world record at 9.72 seconds.
“My parents are both track and field athletes and inside on the wall, there`s this list of all the world records that were broken here and my dad is actually here tonight,” Averbuch West shared. “He competed at the Olympic trials level and sometimes here, so understanding the historic aspect of this place, being in New York, and even the view—everything about it—I think it`s truly iconic and special for us to be here.”
Randall`s Island also boasts a rich soccer heritage: Icahn Stadium stands on the site of Downing Stadium, which hosted Pelé`s 1975 debut for the New York Cosmos, a nationally televised event. It was a fitting venue for the inaugural Concacaf W Champions Cup winners as they began their second season in the competition, despite the stadium`s multi-sport history occasionally presenting challenges for soccer viewing.
“It is what it is,” Muller acknowledged. “It`s obviously not ideal for convenience. You`re also further away from the field with the track here, but that`s what happens when you don`t have your own stadium, right?”
Gotham`s Stadium-Hopping Journey
Averbuch West did not explicitly mention scheduling conflicts at Sports Illustrated Stadium—the New Jersey home of MLS`s New York Red Bulls, which Gotham leases for NWSL matches—but rather emphasized that the Concacaf fixtures presented a unique opportunity to play away. Last season`s Champions Cup matches were not particularly well-attended, making the 5,000-seat Icahn Stadium suitable. Crucially, it allowed Gotham to honor its identity as a club representing both New Jersey and New York.
“We don`t often get to be closer to our New York contingent, so we felt it was clearly a really cool venue and opportunity for us to be more convenient for a group of our fans who travel to New Jersey every week to see us play,” Averbuch West stated. “We always have the debate—are we more New Jersey or are we more New York, and we truly are both.”
Muller noted that Cloud 9 boasts a fairly even split between fans from New Jersey (the team`s historical base) and New York, a long-standing trend. Before 2020, New York-based fan groups routinely traveled to Rutgers University`s Yurcak Field in Piscataway, central Jersey. Since then, Gotham has played at several area venues, including MSU Soccer Park during the pandemic-era NWSL Fall Series and some one-off games at Subaru Park, home to MLS`s Philadelphia Union. Muller cautions against assuming Subaru Park is convenient due to the New York/New Jersey distinction; Icahn Stadium surpasses it, despite its occasional resemblance to Yurcak Field.
Beyond affordable concessions with vegan options, the Randall`s Island venue offers something other regional stadiums currently lack: a pristine pitch. A $3 million donation from New York City FC in 2023 made this possible, with the MLS Next Pro team now calling Icahn Stadium home. The pitch appeared to withstand Wednesday`s wet and windy conditions admirably, a welcome relief for players, as Sports Illustrated Stadium`s grass still bore the scars of a recent concert.
“I don`t really want to talk too much about it, but Sports Illustrated Stadium has traditionally been the best pitch in the league,” Gotham head coach Juan Carlos Amoros commented after the match, “and the last couple of games, it`s definitely been far away from that, so this pitch here is outstanding.”
It was a perfect setting for a new kind of chaotic Concacaf night, where players were free to embrace the unexpected. A free-flowing first half, with Gotham scoring twice and Monterrey once, gave way to a more organized second half, contrasting with the increasingly heavy downpour that, combined with the floodlights, resembled fog. The acoustics were incredible, perhaps thanks to the unadorned corrugated metal roof, which valiantly attempted to offer shelter from the rain, even if the wind had other plans.
The typical sounds of a sporting event were unmistakable, with cheers from both sets of fans ringing loud and clear. Many unique auditory experiences underscored Icahn Stadium`s quaint charm—players` voices were audible from the last row, as were the sirens of an emergency vehicle passing by in the opening minutes. So too was Mister Softee`s iconic jingle, starting and stopping three times pre-match, a more authentic New York anthem than anything Frank Sinatra or Taylor Swift ever produced.
“These Concacaf games are always a little crazy,” goalkeeper Shelby Hogan remarked after the game. “It`s fun. I just think it brings new challenges, playing teams from other countries. It`s a cool opportunity to play teams from all over, so I think it constantly throws new things at us, components we don`t always see in the NWSL.”
Concacaf`s reputation for quirky antics precedes it, but rarely does the confederation match New York`s entertaining disarray. Just as no one argues that Concacaf provides the highest quality soccer matches, none of the 858 fans in attendance would suggest Icahn Stadium should regularly host a professional team. All this is beside the point—the world`s most popular and diverse sport isn`t all glitz and glamour, nor has it ever been. One tunes into a Concacaf-organized match because they are a soccer romantic (or a “soccer sicko,” though one could argue they are one and the same). New York is similar: a city often sanitized for the masses but at its best, a combination of lived-in, hidden gems tucked within small but vibrant neighborhoods.
Surprisingly, Wednesday`s match might have just delivered the most authentically New York soccer experience, complete with all its inherent challenges and charms.
