Mayor Bill de Blasio and First Lady Chirlane McCray announced Wednesday the completion of the 50th soccer pitch built as a part of the New York City Soccer Initiative (NYCSI), a project of the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City.
The new mini-pitch, located at PS 184 Shuang Wen in Manhattan, was completed on schedule along with the 13 mini-soccer pitches that were built around the city this year. This year, the city built fields in the Bronx at Agnes Haywood Playground on East 215th St and Barnes Avenue, and PS 1, at 335 E. 152 St.
“Investing in recreational spaces for our children builds stronger communities,” de Blasio said. “I am grateful to the Mayor’s Fund and our partners for their commitment to provide more youth with opportunities to participate in sports and programs where they can develop life skills to succeed on and off the pitch.”
The new mini-pitch is one of 13 installed this calendar year, marking the completion of 50 mini-pitches installed across all five boroughs in just five years — even amid the many challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to the new play spaces, NYCSI is enabling more than 10,000 New York City youth to have free access to soccer programming in historically underserved communities — including the U.S. Soccer Foundation’s Soccer for Success program run by the Department of Youth & Community Development (DYCD) and New York City Football Club’s (NYCFC) City in the Community (CITC) Foundation soccer programming.
Launched in 2016, NYCSI is a first-of-its-kind $3 million public-private partnership between the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, NYCFC of Major League Soccer, the U.S. Soccer Foundation, Adidas and Etihad Airways to create and maintain 50 mini-pitches across the city and expand free soccer programming to the next generation of New Yorkers. The initiative helped spur other cities — including Chicago and Newark — to launch their own initiatives to create mini-pitches and expand access to free, high-quality soccer programming. For more information on NYCSI and pitch locations visit https://www1.nyc.gov/site/
“Since our inauguration, we have been working to build a Club that is part of the fabric of this great City and one that will leave a lasting, tangible and positive impact across the five boroughs,” said Brad Sims, CEO of NYCFC. “Along with our incredible partners, we’ve made a significant step in realizing this vision by completing this ambitious 50-pitch project that will provide safe spaces for all New Yorkers to learn and play soccer. After just five years, we are tremendously proud to fulfill our promise, see these 50 pitches already having a huge impact on local communities and to know that they will forever be a part of New York City.”
