A special topping-out ceremony was held at Etihad Park, New York City’s first-ever soccer-specific stadium, on Wednesday, March 25th, celebrating the last steel beam added at the top of the structure. Despite enduring an extremely harsh winter, the new 25,000-seat stadium is on track to open by mid-summer 2027 in time for Major League Soccer’s regular season. It also will be the country’s first fully electric outdoor stadium.
NYC F.C. ownership, fans, elected officials, community members, labor leaders, and hundreds of union tradesmen and tradeswomen attended the ceremony on the stadium grounds. In addition to Local 3 IBEW, the all-union construction workforce were represented by Local 1 Plumbers, SMART Local 28, Local 45 Carpenters, Local 79 Laborers, Local 638 Steamfitters, Local 731 Excavators, Local 1456 Painters, DC9 Painters, and Local 46 Metallic Lathers, and members of Iron Workers Local 361 installed the final steel beam. Signatory employers Allran Electric, Forest Electric, Kleinknecht Electric, ASR Electrical, and Touchtel Electric & Datacom are active on this project. When it opens, the stadium will be operated by service workers represented by SEIU 32BJ and UNITE HERE Local 100.
The soccer stadium is just one part of the Willets Point Redevelopment that will transform the area, once infamous for its chop shops and junkyards, into a full-fledged neighborhood with a public school, retail space, a new hotel, and public open space across the street from Citi Field. Overall, it is expected to create 1,550 permanent jobs and 14,200 construction jobs.
