New York, NY - The Borough Boys began as a movement in 2008 to attract a top tier professional soccer club to New York and for the past five years we have worked closely with various potential owners, Major League Soccer, local community leaders and politicians to see our goal come to fruition.
At times it was frustrating, but always full of hope, that eventually those efforts would yield a club worthy of the support of not only the Borough Boys but for New Yorkers everywhere, with a club that would truly represent the values and authenticity of our great city.
While we are pleased that Major League Soccer has signaled their commitment to establish a franchise in New York, we are ultimately disappointed and concerned about their expansion announcement. For years we have been told by MLS that a stadium was required in order to award a club, for years we were led to believe that MLS was committed not just to obtaining a club here but also that the club would represent New York and what we stand for.
While we always desired an MLS franchise, what we never desired was being forced to accept a foreign clubs world wide branding ambitions, using New York City as a vehicle to promote a separate soccer club abroad. The news that Manchester City will be establishing a new MLS expansion franchise, using synergies, cross promotion and color schemes of the parent club can only be described as disheartening.
Over the past three years, we have been working closely with the New York Cosmos, in part because we felt they were the best choice for MLS expansion and in part because they demonstrated a commitment to being an authentic New York club, a club that was born of New York, made its history in New York, and a club whos very iconic status in this great city attracted countless members to the Borough Boys.
We can not overstate the enormous amount of support we have encountered for the revival of the New York Cosmos, and in turn we can not overstate the level of dedication, support and cooperation we have received back from the New York Cosmos.
The Borough Boys have satisfied their initial mission by not only helping bring one professional soccer team to New York, but two. At this time our mission has changed from promoting the idea of bringing a soccer team to New York to supporting one. With the New York Cosmos we are confident that we are behind a club that not only represents a piece of New York soccer history, but also one many fellow New Yorkers can positively relate to.
Many of our members have came to us and expressed their support for the Cosmos and believe they are a club that will truly represent the city unconditionally and look forward to helping them return to their rightful place in American soccer while continuing to build upon their storied history; and perhaps one day our support of the New York Cosmos and MLS will merge again.
Sincerely,
The Borough Boys
