Sports in New York City

Citi Field, home of the New York Mets in Queens.

The New York City Marathon is the largest marathon in the world.

Madison Square Garden, home of the New York Rangers, New York Knicks and New York Liberty.

Sports in New York City have a long and distinguished history. The city has a several historic sports venues: the original Yankee Stadium, home of the New York Yankees from 1923 to 2008, before the team moved into their new stadium in 2009, Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1913 until 1957, was torn down in 1960, and the Polo Grounds in northern Harlem was the home of the New York Giants of Major League Baseball from 1911 to 1957 (and the first home of the New York Mets) before being demolished in 1964. The Mets, who previously played at Shea Stadium moved into the newly constructed Citi Field in 2009. Also the current Madison Square Garden, atop Pennsylvania Station in Midtown Manhattan, is actually the fourth separate building to use that name; the first two were near Madison Square, hence the name, and the third was at 50th Street and Eighth Avenue. New York City was also the host of parts of the 1996 World Cup of Hockey, and the 1998 Goodwill Games. In 2005, New York City bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics, but lost to London.

The New York City metropolitan area has nine teams in the four major North American professional sports leagues, each of which also has its headquarters in the city.

Baseball is the city's most closely followed sport. There have been fourteen World Series championship series between New York City teams, in matchups called Subway Series. New York is one of only two cities (Chicago being the other) and one of four metropolitan areas (the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas) to have two baseball teams. The city's two current Major League Baseball teams are the New York Yankees and the New York Mets. The city also was once home to the New York Giants (now the San Francisco Giants) and the Brooklyn Dodgers (now the Los Angeles Dodgers). Both teams moved to California in 1958. There are also two minor league baseball teams in the city, the Staten Island Yankees and Brooklyn Cyclones.

Football is the city's second most followed sport, slightly trailing baseball. The city is represented in the National Football League by the New York Giants and New York Jets. Both the New York Giants and the New York Jets play in MetLife Stadium in nearby East Rutherford, New Jersey near New York City. In 2014 the stadium will host Super Bowl XLVIII. Both teams share an intra-city rivalry, the only one of its kind in the NFL.

The New York Rangers and The New York Islanders represent the city in the National Hockey League, calling Madison Square Garden and Nassau Coliseum home.

In soccer, New York is represented by the New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer. The Red Bulls also play their home games in a new stadium of their own, also in New Jersey.

The city's National Basketball Association team is the New York Knicks and the city's Women's National Basketball Association team is the New York Liberty. The first national basketball championship for major colleges, the National Invitation Tournament, was held in New York in 1938, and its semifinal and final rounds remain in the city. Rucker Park in Harlem is a celebrated court where many professional athletes play in the summer league.

As a global city, New York supports many events outside these sports. Queens is host of the U.S. Tennis Open, one of the four Grand Slam tournaments. The New York City Marathon is the world's largest, and the 2004–2006 runnings hold the top three places in the marathons with the largest number of finishers, including 37,866 finishers in 2006. The Millrose Games is an annual track and field meet whose featured event is the Wanamaker Mile. Boxing is also a very prominent part of the city's sporting scene, with events like the Amateur Boxing Golden Gloves being held at Madison Square Garden each year.

Many sports are associated with New York's immigrant communities. Stickball, a street version of baseball, was popularized by youths in working class Italian, German, and Irish neighborhoods in the 1930s. In recent years several amateur cricket leagues have emerged with the arrival of immigrants from South Asia and the Caribbean.

Major sports

The New York metropolitan area is the only one in the United States with more than one team in each of the four major sports, with nine such franchises.

Baseball

• New York Mets and New York Yankees

In New York, baseball is still regarded as the most popular sport, despite being overtaken by football in terms of perceived popularity (but not attendance) throughout the country.

Yankee Stadium

The "Subway Series" is the annual regular season meeting between the Mets and the Yankees . Before Interleague Play was introduced in 1997, the only instance these two teams could have played each other would have been in the World Series. The Mets and Yankees did play for the World Series in 2000, with the Yankees winning the series 4-1.

For many New York baseball fans, the most intense rivalry is between the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. While the city rivalry between the Mets and the Yankees is also fierce, it is not so strong to prevent fans of one team rooting for their fellow New York team over geographic rivals. For example, after the Mets beat the Red Sox in the 1986 World Series, many Yankee fans attended the parade celebrating the Mets' win, saying that "anyone who beats Boston is worth coming down for."

There have been 14 Subway Series World Series match-ups between the Yankees and their National League rivals; the Mets (once), and with the two teams that departed for California in the 1950s — the Brooklyn Dodgers (6 times) and New York Giants (7 times).

New York City is also home to two minor league baseball teams that play in the short-season Class A New York - Penn League. The Brooklyn Cyclones are a Mets affiliate, and the Staten Island Yankees are affiliated with the Yankees.

Three early clubs, the Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Giants and New York Yankees, were among the most storied clubs of professional baseball, and were home to such players as Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays. The city currently has two Major League Baseball teams, the Mets (who were formed in 1962 to replace the Dodgers and, to a lesser extent, the Giants), and the Yankees.

On November 4, 2009, the Yankees won the World Series.

Basketball

• New York Knicks and New York Liberty

The first national basketball championship for major colleges, the National Invitation Tournament, was held in New York in 1938, and its semifinal and final rounds remain at Madison Square Garden. The NIT has spawned a major preseason tournament known as the NIT Season Tip-Off; the semifinal and final rounds of that event are also held at the Garden.

At Madison Square Garden, New Yorkers can watch the New York Knicks play NBA basketball, the New York Liberty play in the WNBA. The Prudential Center in Newark, located across the Hudson River in New Jersey, is home to the New Jersey Nets NBA basketball team. The New Jersey Nets will become the Brooklyn Nets after their move into Brooklyn's Barclays Center in 2012, the first major professional sports team to play in the historic borough in half a century.

Rucker Park in Harlem is a celebrated court where many NBA athletes play in the summer league.

Football

MetLife Stadium, home to both the New York Giants and the New York Jets.

As of 2010, both the New York Giants and the New York Jets play in MetLife Stadium in nearby East Rutherford, New Jersey near New York City. In 2014 the stadium will host Super Bowl XLVIII. The Giants and Jets were previously located in New York City (both teams played in the Polo Grounds and Shea Stadium, and the Giants played in Yankee Stadium). Neither team plays in the city itself presently, as both teams are located in the Meadowlands complex in East Rutherford, NJ, playing in Giants Stadium for many years before moving to MetLife Stadium. The Giants, a keystone NFL franchise, were founded in 1925, and exist today as one of the oldest presently active organizations in the NFL. Due to their long-spanning establishment and richer tradition of on-field success, as compared to the Jets, of the two teams, many consider the Giants to be the more popular. Founded in 1960, the originally named New York Titans, later branded as the Jets in 1963, were a charter member of the American Football League (AFL), joining the NFL as part of the AFL/NFL merger in 1970.

The New York Yankees played in the 1926 American Football League in 1926, and then competed in the NFL from 1927–1928. Another team, the New York Yankees (1936 AFL) played in the second AFL in 1936 and 1937. A third incarnation, New York Yankees (1940 AFL) played in the third AFL in 1940 as the Yankees, and then in 1941 as the New York Americans. Another version of the New York Yankees was a short-lived member of the American Association, and another team, the New York Yankees (AAFC) played from 1946–1949 in the All-American Football Conference.

The New York Bulldogs were founded in 1949, sharing the Polo Grounds with the New York Giants, and then being renamed as the New York Yanks and playing in the NFL in the 1950 and 1951 seasons. In 1952, the team was relocated to Texas and renamed as the Dallas Texans.

In the 1974, New York briefly hosted a team known as the New York Stars for the short-lived World Football League, but in mid-season the team was relocated to Charlotte and became the Charlotte Hornets (WFL).

In 1988, the New York Knights played for one season as part of the Arena Football League, and then ceased operations. In 1997, another AFL team was founded, the New York CityHawks, renamed as the New England Sea Wolves in 1999, and then relocated to Toronto in 2001 and renamed as the Toronto Phantoms, at which point the AFL's Iowa Barnstormers relocated to New York and were renamed the New York Dragons.

The Jets are sometimes regarded as "Long Island's Team" supported by the fact that until 2008, the team trained in Hempstead at Hofstra University, and used to play at Shea Stadium (former home of the New York Mets baseball team) which is close to Nassau County. Statistically, the largest percentage of the Jets fanbase derives from Long Island, hence, the Jets generally receive more media coverage in that part of New York. Fans of both the Giants and Jets traditionally root for both the New York Yankees and the New York Mets as well as the New York Knicks of the NBA.

Along with New York's two NFL teams, NYC is home to the New York Sharks. [1] The NY Sharks are NYC's premier professional women's tackle football team. Established in 1999 the Sharks are the longest-running and winningest team in women's tackle football having won 3 conference titles (2002, 2003, 2004 IWFL East) 6 division titles (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 IWFL) and one championship title(2002 IWFL). The Sharks play at many fields and have no official home stadium. The season for women's football is from April to June with playoffs and the championship game occurring from June to July. As of 2011 the Sharks are now with the WFA (Women's Football Alliance [2]) along with the Bay Area Bandits, Boston Militia, Chicago Force, Dallas Diamonds, DC Divas, Kansas City Tribe, Pittsburgh Passion, and the San Diego Surge in an effort to bring together the best franchises of women's football.

In 2009 the independent United Football League, fielded the New York Sentinels for their premier season. After the 2009 season the UFL decided that due to the high costs of using then Giants Stadium, in addition to low fan attendance, the team was located to Hartford, CT and renamed the Hartford Colonials.

Hockey

The New York Rangers of the National Hockey League play in Madison Square Garden. The Rangers are one of the Original Six — a term given to the six NHL teams in existence before the league doubled its size in 1967.

The NHL's New Jersey Devils played in the New Jersey Meadowlands at the Continental Airlines Arena, now the Izod Center, before moving to the Prudential Center (Newark, NJ), while the New York Islanders, the third NHL team in the Metro area, play their home games in Nassau Coliseum on Long Island. All three teams play in the Atlantic Division, providing fans with intense rivalries. However, all three teams also have bitter rivalries with the Philadelphia Flyers.

There is an intense rivalry between the Rangers and Devils who have met in the playoffs five times, including a dramatic 7 game series in the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals, ending in a double-overtime goal by the Rangers' Stephane Matteau. The Devils took a 3–2 series lead into Game 6 in New Jersey and jumped out to a 2–0 lead. However, Mark Messier's famous guarantee and hat-trick led the Rangers to victory and a seventh game. As time wound down in Game 7, the Rangers were clinging to a 1–0 lead on a goal when New Jersey's Valeri Zelepukin tied the game with 7.7 seconds left in regulation to silence the Garden crowd and send the game into overtime, where Matteau won it for the Rangers. The two teams have met four other times in postseason play; the Devils' win in 2006 was their only playoff series victory over the Rangers.

Though the rivalry has cooled recently, the Islanders and Rangers had a bitter rivalry in the 1970s and the 1980s, as the Islanders won four consecutive Stanley Cup titles. The two teams have met eight times in the playoffs, with the Islanders winning five of those matchups.

The NHL's headquarters are also located in New York City.

Soccer

Soccer is, as in the rest of the country, rapidly growing in popularity in New York. In addition to the current New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer, the area was home to the New York Cosmos, arguably the most popular American soccer team ever. Playing in the defunct NASL, the Cosmos were known for fielding some of the world's greatest players including Pelé and Franz Beckenbauer albeit in the waning years of their professional careers. The New York Cosmos have been restarted with youth soccer programs, and have plans to join MLS as a future expansion team, playing their games at a site yet to be built in Queens.

The Red Bulls' owner, the Austrian beverage company Red Bull, completed building a new stadium in Harrison, New Jersey for the 2010 MLS season. The venue, named Red Bull Arena, is a football-specific stadium with a capacity of just over 25,000.

Sky Blue FC is one of the seven inaugural teams in Women's Professional Soccer, the second attempt to launch a women's professional league in the US. The league started play in 2009, with Sky Blue playing its home games in New Jersey at Yurcak Field on the campus of Rutgers University. Sky Blue became the league's inaugural champion despite finishing fourth in the league during the regular season, which meant that they had to play on the road in all three WPS playoff games.

The Brooklyn Knights, a fourth-division side playing at Metropolitan Oval and Aviator Field in Brooklyn.

Notable New York City Area Teams

Club	League	Venue	Location	Established	Championships	Local Cable Network
New York Yankees	MLB Baseball	Yankee Stadium	The Bronx	1901	27	YES Network
New York Giants	NFL Football	MetLife Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ	1925	8	MSG Network
New York Rangers	NHL Ice Hockey	Madison Square Garden	Manhattan	1926	4	MSG Network
New York Knicks	NBA Basketball	Madison Square Garden	Manhattan	1946	2	MSG Network
New York Jets	NFL Football	MetLife Stadium	East Rutherford, NJ	1960	1	SportsNet New York
New York Mets	MLB Baseball	Citi Field	Queens	1962	2	SportsNet New York
New Jersey Nets	NBA Basketball	Prudential Center	Newark, NJ	1967	2	YES Network
New York Islanders	NHL Ice Hockey	Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum	Uniondale, NY	1972	4	MSG Plus
New Jersey Devils	NHL Ice Hockey	Prudential Center	Newark, NJ	1974	3	MSG Plus
New York Red Bulls	MLS Soccer	Red Bull Arena	Harrison, NJ	1995	0	MSG Network
New York Liberty	WNBA Basketball	Prudential Center	Newark, NJ	1997	0	MSG Network

Current issues and new stadiums

The 2000s have seen almost a complete revamping of the area's major sporting venues. This began in 2007, when the New Jersey Devils moved to Newark, NJ and opened the Prudential Center. In 2009, both the Mets and Yankees opened new baseball stadiums adjacent to their old homes, with the Mets replacing Shea Stadium with Citi Field and the Yankees building a new Yankee Stadium. In 2010, the Jets and Giants moved to a new shared facility called New Meadowlands Stadium (now MetLife Stadium) and the New York Red Bulls opened their own soccer-specific stadium in Harrison, NJ called Red Bull Arena (the three had previously shared Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ). The remaining teams in the metropolitan area all have plans in the works to replace or refurbish their current buildings as follows:

New York Rangers, New York Knicks, and New York Liberty: Madison Square Garden is in the process of a massive renovation. The $850 million project began in 2010 and will be complete in time for the 2013-14 NHL and NBA seasons. The transformation will include a rebuilding of the seating bowl and concourses, new luxury suites, new LED scoreboard and ribbon boards, and two new spectator bridges that will span 65 feet (20 m) above the arena on each side of the playing surface. Because the work will take place over the summer months, the New York Liberty will spend three seasons (2011–2013) playing their home games at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ.

New Jersey Nets: Moving to the Barclays Center (currently under construction) in Brooklyn for the 2012-13 NBA season (playing in the interim at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ).

New York Islanders: Proposed to rebuild or renovate the Nassau Coliseum by the time their lease at the arena is up in 2015. However, various proposals to do so have stalled. The team has said that they would not remain in the current arena past the end of the lease. There is talk that the Islanders could relocate to Suffolk County, to a new arena in the Willets Point section of Queens near Citi Field, the home of the Mets, or to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Major League Soccer is currently working with various local groups in order to allow for an expansion team to begin play sometime between 2013-15 to New York City. It would be the 20th team in the league and second MLS team in the New York City area, the first being the New York Red Bulls. An expansion team would be contingent on whether the prospective ownership groups, which includes a relaunching of the New York Cosmos, are able to finance and construct a new soccer-specific stadium in the city. Plans to build the new stadium in Queens, with locations in Flushing Meadows and Long Island City are currently being discussed.

Other sports

The New York metropolitan area is also home to professional soccer and lacrosse teams, such as the New York Red Bulls in Major League Soccer, Sky Blue FC in Women's Professional Soccer, the Brookyln Knights of the USL PDL, and both the Long Island Lizards and the New Jersey Pride in Major League Lacrosse. New York is also considered to be the "world capital" of one-wall handball.

Further information: List of New York City sports teams

Gaelic games

Gaelic games have been played in New York since the foundation of the Gaelic Athletic Association. New York is considered a GAA county and plays in the Connacht Senior Football Championship.

Rugby League

The City contributes actively with two semi professional rugby league football sides, New York Raiders, who play at Andrews Field, and the New York Knights, who play at Hudson River Park's Pier 40 in Manhattan. The Raiders have yet to win a trophy while the Knights have won the Championship twice in 2002 and 2009. New York City consistently produce players of international standard who play in the United States national rugby league team.

Rugby Union

The city has two division one rugby union teams, the New York Athletic Club RFC, which was established in 1973 and the Old Blue, both who play in the Rugby Super League (rugby union). The city has other amateur rugby union clubs as well, paying in the Metropolitan New York Rugby Football Union. The clubs have contributed to the national team, the Eagles, who have participated at the Rugby Union World Cup.

Field Hockey

There is a thriving field hockey competition in New York City played predominantly by European and Commonwealth expats. The North East Field Hockey Association (www.nefha.org) is run by the member clubs and games are played at Columbia University, Hofstra University, DeWitt Clinton High School and Drew University. The current champions are Rye FHC (www.rye-fieldhockey.com). Teams from New York also regularly compete in indoor and outdoor tournaments around the country.

Cricket

With around 20% of the New York City area's population originating from a cricket playing nation, it is not surprising that cricket's popularity is rising. The majority of players are expatriate and look to cricket to provide a link back to their homes: Often teams are composed of one ethnic or national background - and linked to local social clubs.

Since the players are mostly politically weak and financially strapped immigrants, the sport lacks consistent central funding. Combine these factors with the politics and mis-management of the USACA, and the result is that most facilities are poor; there are no turf wickets (most cricket is played on coconut matting), the outfields are often shared with active soccer games, and the facilities are rudimentary.

Despite all the challenges, the standard of cricket can be very good with ex-test and regional representatives playing in some leagues (e.g. the Commonwealth League). Like any other weekend sport there are also places for the less-skilled enthusiast to play (e.g. the Tri State World Series League).

New York is the center of the region's cricket, the nexus between all the activity in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey. Most clubs play in the major parks in the outer boroughs, for example:

• Bronx - Van Courtlandt Park
• Brooklyn - Prospect Park/Breezy Point
• Queens - Flushing Meadow/Randall's Island
• Staten Island - New Dorp (by Miller Field)
• Note - there are no cricket grounds on Manhattan.

Most teams also play further afield. The oldest cricket team in America is based in Staten Island, and there are other active teams from Hoboken, New Jersey to Greenwich, Connecticut.

Running

The New York City Marathon is an annual marathon foot-race run over a 42.2 km (26.2 mi) course through the five boroughs of New York City. Next to the Boston Marathon, it is considered the pre-eminent long-distance annual running event in the United States.

The race is produced by the New York Road Runners and has been run every year since 1970. In recent years, it has also been sponsored by financial giant ING. It is held on the first Sunday of November and attracts professional competitors and amateurs from all over the world. Because of the popularity of the race, participation is limited to 35,000 entrants chosen by a lottery system, with preference given to previous participants.

The Millrose Games is an annual indoor track and field meet held on the first Friday in February in Madison Square Garden since 1914. The games were started when employees of the Wanamaker's department store formed the Millrose Track Club to hold a meet. The featured event is the Wanamaker Mile.

Tennis

The U.S. Tennis Open is the fourth and final event of the Grand Slam tennis tournaments and is held annually in late summer at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows Park in Queens. The main tournament consists of five championships: men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles and mixed doubles, with additional tournaments for junior and wheelchair players.

The National Tennis Center, open to the public whenever the USTA is not holding an event, features the world's largest stadium built specifically for the sport, the 23,200-seat Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Horse racing

Aqueduct Racetrack (the Big A) and Belmont Park feature horse racing all months of the year except August. Aqueduct is located within the city limits in Ozone Park, while Belmont is situated just outside the city, in Elmont, New York. Harness racing is offered at Yonkers Raceway north of the city and Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Arena Football

The New York Dragons were the final AFL team for NY. They played at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, NY. New York also had arena football teams play short runs at Madison Square Garden previously—the New York CityHawks and the New York Knights.

Arm Wrestling

The New York Arm Wrestling Association (NYAWA) www.nycarms.com is dedicated to the promotion of arm wrestling in NY since 1977. The NYAWA features the New York Golden Arm Series, Empire State Arm Wrestling Championships and NYC Big Apple Grapple International. Their website is www.nycarms.com

Auto Racing

The CART series held a race at the Meadowlands from 1984–1991. ISC and NASCAR unsuccessfully attempted to build a speedway in Staten Island. Another possible Meadowlands speedway project (Liberty Speedway) was discussed but abandoned in the early 2000s.

Sports culture

Although in much of the rest of the country American football has surpassed baseball as the most popular professional sport, in New York baseball arguably still stirs the most passion and interest. A championship win by any major sports team is considered to be worthy of the highest celebration, including a ticker-tape parade for the victorious team. In the past, ticker-tape parades have been held for the Yankees, Mets, Giants and Rangers. New Yorkers, however, tend to rally around any of the local teams who win (such as the 1994 Stanley Cup champions New York Rangers, or the 2007 New York Giants).

Rivalries

Due to their geographic locations, New York has intense sports rivalries with the cities of Boston and Philadelphia.

Boston

See also: Sports in Boston, Yankees–Red Sox rivalry, and Jets–Patriots rivalry

Teams in Boston and New York offer some of the best rivalries in their respective sports, none are more famous, however, then the longtime feud between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox in Major League Baseball. The viciousness and fierceness of the rivalry has led to the New York–Boston rivalry being evident between the Jets and the Patriots in the National Football League and the Knicks and the Celtics in the National Basketball Association. The Rangers have been longtime rivals with the Boston Bruins also due to the fact that both teams are members of the National Hockey League's Original Six franchises, but this has been eclipsed by the Atlantic Division rivalries in recent years.

Philadelphia

See also: Sports in Philadelphia, Mets–Phillies rivalry, Eagles–Giants rivalry, and Flyers–Rangers rivalry

In each of the four sports leagues, there is intra-division competition between teams from New York City and Philadelphia, as seen in the rivalries between the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies in Major League Baseball, the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles in the National Football League, and the New York Rangers and the Philadelphia Flyers in the National Hockey League. There is also a rivalry between the New York Knicks and the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association, although it is not as intense as the other three rivalries.

However, New York NHL teams' primary rivals are one another, although they have intense rivalries with the Flyers—since, unlike baseball and football, the three local NHL teams are in the same division and are therefore in direct competition with one another.

See also

• Sports in Brooklyn
• Multiple major sports championship seasons

External links

• New York City Sports Commission webpage. NYC: The Official Guide website
• New York City Sports Travel Guide