De Blasio hunts for pro soccer stadium site

Mayor Bill de Blasio is gearing up to find New York City’s first pro-soccer team a permanent home.

The New York City Football Club, owned jointly by the Yankees and Sheik Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan of Manchester City, came close to inking a deal at the end of 2013 for a new stadium in the Bronx, Capital New York reported.

However De Blasio backed out, worried such an agreement would require tax breaks and other indirect subsidies, according to the article. Now, the administration is starting over.

“The de Blasio administration has begun a dialogue with key stakeholders on how to best proceed on the construction of a soccer stadium that also invests in community benefits, preserves public space and provides good-paying jobs,” Marti Adams, a spokesperson for de Blasio, told Capital New York.

A previous version of the proposed stadium deal involved subsidies in the form of tax breaks and access to tax-exempt bonds, terms that reportedly rankled the new mayor. Should a revamped proposal come to fruition, foregoing all such subsidies would likely be a requirement, sources told the news site.

For now and the next three years, the team will be sharing Yankee Stadium. [Capital New York] — Angela Hunt