Group has another proprietor with a Columbia association, and another home for 2017
After an exciting ride offseason, the New York Cosmos are set to start another time in Coney Island under the authority of new director Rocco B. Commisso.
Not long after the group won its second successive North American Soccer League title last November, reports developed that the establishment was on the very edge of collapsing. For half a month, the eventual fate of the Cosmos — and the NASL in general — appeared to be in uncertainty. To the safeguard came Commisso, the author and CEO of satellite TV goliath Mediacom, who purchased a lion's share stake in the club and guaranteed its survival.
"I just couldn't see the group not playing in 2017, given what it's implied for anybody that grew up with the amusement in the '70s in the New York region," Commisso said. The Cosmos turned into a commonly recognized name in the 1970s with worldwide stars Pelé, Giorgio Chinaglia, and Franz Beckenbauer, and conveyed proficient soccer to the American standard. The first Cosmos establishment collapsed in the 1980s, however the group came back to rivalry in 2013 under another proprietorship assemble.
Commisso met with Cosmos players interestingly a week ago amid a practice at Columbia University's soccer stadium in Inwood. The practice was a homecoming of sorts for Commisso, who featured for the Columbia Lions men's soccer group from 1967 to 1970 and later got to be distinctly one of the Columbia soccer program's most conspicuous contributors — so unmistakable, truth be told, that the stadium where the Cosmos rehearsed is named after him.
Head mentor Giovanni Savarese, who has helmed the club since it was restored, will return for the 2017 season. "We generally said that everything that we were doing was another section in the book that we were composing," Savarese said. "I think what occurred in December has a radical new book without anyone else, on the grounds that there was such a great amount of going ahead from the time that we completed the title to where we are at this moment."
"For us to have the capacity to be back is an incredible feeling," he included.
In spite of the Cosmos' tumultuous late history, Commisso is certain that he can convey soundness to the establishment. "I would prefer not to state I have a great deal of cash to squander, yet I do," he said with a grin.
Notwithstanding another proprietor, the Cosmos have another home. The club will play its 2017 home diversions at Coney Island's MCU Park, home of the Brooklyn Cyclones. Hofstra University's James M. Shuart Stadium filled in as the Cosmos home field for the last four seasons, yet the group played two recreations at MCU Park in 2015. "My goal from the get-go was to convey the Cosmos to New York City," Commisso said.
"I jumped at the chance to play at Hofstra, it was an awesome stadium for us," Savarese said. "The main thing, it was exceptionally troublesome for individuals to arrive. Presently MCU Park gives you the likelihood to take the metro and be there. So perhaps a few people that didn't come originate from the city will now have the likelihood to be there."
In the wake of battling with participation at Hofstra, the Cosmos are confident that the Q prepare, which now interfaces Coney Island with the Upper East Side by means of the Second Avenue metro development, will draw new fans. Commisso said he would like to sign Russian, Ukrainian, and Caribbean players to interest neighborhood settler groups.
The Cosmos will play 16 coordinates in Brooklyn amid the 2017 NASL consistent season. The group is planned to play its first round of the 2017 season March 25 in Puerto Rico, and will have its first home diversion at MCU Park on April 1 against Miami FC.
