New York City FC today announced Phase 1 of the Club’s Continuation of Play for the 2020 MLS regular season.
NYCFC will kick off on Thursday, August 20 against the Red Bulls for the first Hudson River Derby of the season. Just a few days later on Monday, August 24, NYCFC will seek to even up the season series against the Columbus Crew at home.
Rounding out the first six games, NYCFC will take on Chicago Fire FC at home on Saturday, August 29 followed by two away games – Wednesday, September 2 at the New England Revolution and Sunday, September 6 at D.C. United. The final Phase 1 game will be at home on Saturday, September 12 vs. FC Cincinnati. All games will be televised Live on YES Network, with the exception of the September 2 game which will be streamed live on Fox Sports Go.
With Yankee Stadium being unavailable due to COVID-19 health and safety protocols that prevent other events in MLB stadiums during the baseball season, NYCFC will play their Phase 1 and Phase 2 home games at Red Bull Arena. NYCFC will have the option to move any home games scheduled after the conclusion of the Yankees’ season to Yankee Stadium. Fans will not be permitted to attend any Phase 1 games at Red Bull Arena. The schedule for Phase 2 of the 2020 regular season will be announced by MLS in the coming weeks.
NYCFC CEO, Brad Sims, said: “We are very excited to return to play with the 2020 regular season resuming across the league. This is an important milestone for our Club and the sport of soccer in the U.S.
“I would like to congratulate MLS for the great job they did putting together the MLS is Back Tournament. They ensured that the health and safety of everyone involved was the number one priority. There are a lot of learnings from Orlando which make the league and teams confident that we’ll be able to return safely to home markets and continue the MLS 25th Anniversary season.
“We conducted a thorough review of potential venues with our first choice always being to play home games within the Five Boroughs, however due to league COVID-19 protocols, Red Bull Arena was the best choice for us at this time. We look forward to returning to our home at Yankee Stadium when we are able to.
“These are going to be very important games for us. We remain as ambitious as ever and our goal continues to be to win trophies. We are really excited that our first match back will be a Hudson River Derby game taking place in less than two weeks and it will be an exciting way to resume our chase for the 2020 MLS Cup. We are going to miss our incredible supporters being in attendance, but we will do everything we can to ensure our fans still feel close to the Club during a time when their support means more than ever.”
Though fans will not be allowed to attend home games, the Club will continue to provide at-home experiences with the official pre-game show “At Home with The Cooligans, presented by El Jimador”, interactive Cisco Webex rooms and much more.
NYCFC Phase 1 Schedule:
- Thursday, August 20 @ Red Bulls – 7:00 p.m.
- Monday, August 24 vs. Columbus Crew – 7:00 p.m.
- Saturday, August 29 vs. Chicago Fire – 7:30 p.m.
- Wednesday, September 2 @ New England Revolution – 8:00 p.m.
- Sunday, September 6 @ D.C. United – 7:00 p.m.
- Saturday, September 12 vs. FC Cincinnati – 7:00 p.m.
