Ain’t that a kick!
The New York Cosmos soccer team is getting set to announce that it will build a new $400 million stadium at Belmont Park.
The stadium will be privately funded and will feature 25,000 seats on the south lot of the racetrack, The Post has learned.
The new venue in Elmont, LI, could be a boon to heartbroken Long Island sports fans, who recently got the news that their beloved Islanders NHL team is set to join the NBA’s Nets at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center in 2015.
The move by the Cosmos settles ongoing speculation that the team may join the more elite Major League Soccer. The MLS will be adding its own franchise in Flushing, Queens in the near future.
The Cosmos franchise made its return in 2011 to the North American Soccer League, a minor league compared to Major League Soccer.
The team was considered a leading contender to join the larger MLS, but is likely to stick with the NASL as it settles into its expensive new stadium.
The project also will include a 175-room hotel, restaurants and stores, according to Newsday.
The stadium plan comes after the Cosmos hired former Red Bulls executive Erik Stover, who oversaw the construction of the Red Bull Arena in Harrison, NJ.
When Stover parted ways with the Red Bulls last August, he had overseen a 150 percent increase in season ticket holders and watched- the team spike from dead last in MLS in attendance to fourth.
Stover is tasked with building yet another expensive soccer stadium in the area.
For the time being, the Cosmos will continue to play at Hofstra’s James M. Shuart Stadium.
The Cosmos franchise has a storied history in the sport, playing to packed crowds at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ, in the late 1970s and ’80s.
The world-class squad once boasted such international stars as Brazilian legend Pelé and Franz Beckenbauer of Germany before going defunct in 1985.