Soccer is growing in popularity as a top sport here in America. Currently Major League Soccer (MLS) has a total of 19 teams in North America, 16 around the country and another three in Canada, and they are looking to expand further.

After a thorough search of the country for a proper location, the MLS is now working with the City Council and state Legislature on unveiling plans to build a new soccer field in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. The arrangements proposed by the MLS would include building a 25,000-seat stadium, which would take up about eight acres of land in the park, six of those acres being an unused and abandoned pool on the park premises. The stadium will be privately financed. In return for allowing the construction of this new soccer arena, the MLS will repair public soccer and baseball fields around the park as well as creating new cricket and volleyball courts.

The Executive Director of the Queens Chamber of Commerce Jack Friedman said, “He was surprised by any opposition to the project,” but not everyone is happy with it.

The Wilpons, who own the New York Mets, are not completely on board with the idea of building an arena so close to theirs, according to one news source. They believe it might take away business opportunities such as concerts and international soccer matches from Citi Field and they will lose out in the long run.

In the next few years Queens will undergo some major renovations and reconstruction. If the proposed soccer field plans do get approved it will join the refurbishing of the neighboring USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center and the newly released plans of development of Willets Point on the city’s to do list. The new soccer facility alone will create about 2,000 construction jobs and approximately 200 full-time and 900 part-time jobs after the completion.