Report: New MLS club in New York City close to landing stadium deal

The New York City Football Club hopes to be in its new stadium by 2018. (George Frey/Getty Images)

The New York City Football Club, an MLS expansion team that will begin play in 2015, is "very, very close" to signing a deal for a new stadium in the Bronx, a source told The New York Poston Tuesday.

The club, which is majority owned by the Manchester City football club (and 20 percent owned by the Yankees) is said to have a deal with GAL Manufacturing, an elevator parts company, to build a 28,000-seat stadium just south of Yankee Stadium.

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After exploring possibilities in Queens and Brooklyn, the club, which hired Jason Kreis to be its head coach on Tuesday, settled on the Bronx. The stadium, which reportedly has the approval of outgoing mayor Michael Bloomberg (but not yet mayor-elect Bill de Blasio), will cost about $400 million.

Funding will come from city-backed bonds, and bondholders will be guaranteed revenues from suite sales and naming rights, among other things. That is similar to how the Yankees and Mets funded their new stadiums.

The team plans to start playing games at Yankee Stadium and hopes to have the new stadium operational by 2018 or 2019, the source said.

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