Believe it when you see it: New York Cosmos propose $400 milllion stadium

Jan 16, 2013, 1:05 PM EDT

The renderings (below) look pretty cool, but this is a team that’s still yet to play a competitive game since its relaunch, and having brought in the likes of Eric Cantona and Cobi Jones for name value (as well as played an exhibition in a Paul Scholes testimonial), it’s fair to say that the New York Cosmos tend to go for sizzle and then worry about substance.

And this art is sizzling. There’s a field with a huge serpentine corridor extending down, making the whole facility look like a galaxy of its own. While it wouldn’t be in the “heart” of New York (like the Queens facility Major League Soccer’s looking to build), the Long Island location at Belmont Park’s race track could still be highly accessible. At least, it should be far easier to get to than the transit-challenged Red Bull Arena (AUTHOR’S NOTE: Or perhaps my memory failed me, see comments).

Soccer fans, here’s your hypothetical team’s hypothetical stadium:

It looks amazing, but I really can’t stress this enough: This facility may only exist in Imaginationland, and unless you and three of your friends know a cartoon with a hot air balloon, you’re not getting there. New York’s Empire State Development Corporation still has to approve it, it will cost a proposed $400 million …

And the people who are building it don’t have an actual team. Yes, I know the Cosmos are supposed to play in the new NASL later this year. And I know history, biggest brand in U.S. soccer history – blah, blah, blah. This is still not a team. It’s only a brand. And we’re talking about $400 million stadiums.

So if you’re a municipal development entity and you’re trying to figure out how best to use your most valuable resource (land), would the hypothetical nature of your tenant be a problem? Let alone the fact that they’ll play in the second division, may compete in the market with two first division teams, and (given MLS may have two New York-based teams) have no viable route to the first division? These seem like issues, no?

But the art work’s cool. They want to open it in 2016.

Here’s another shot: