For the past several days, New York City FC has been teasing that the club would do something big on July 8. Pundits and stans in the NYCFCiverse debated what it might be: Could it be a new kit? A new signing?
They would have done better to repeat the old Superman intro, and stop short: Is it a bird?
Yes.
New York City is amping up the club's profile during this Summer of Soccer by sending a 5-story-tall inflatable pigeon on a tour of the city's waterways. The 700-pound bird will be mounted on a barge that will leave Staten Island at 8:30 am ET this morning, travel up the Hudson River, then go back down to the Battery before floating up the East River to Long Island Sound at Malcom X Promenade in Queens, close to the location of the stadium the club is currently building in Willets Point. The pigeon will then return to Brooklyn Bridge Park and Battery Park before going back to Staten Island at 5:00 pm ET.
You can find the full list of the pigeon's ports of call below.
The journey will be live-streamed on YouTube (below).
Dubbed the Five-Borough Flight, it's timed to the start of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup Semifinals, which kick off at MetLife Stadium today at 3:00 pm ET. With the entire footballing world focusing on New York City New Jersey, it makes sense that the local team wants some of the attention.
According to the club's official release, the pigeon "was designed to stop soccer fans in their tracks during a peak moment for the sport and kick start the future of NYC football."
The release calls the pigeon "New York’s most prolific resident and the Club’s unofficial mascot," which makes us wonder: Will the bird become NYCFC's official mascot?
The team was ambivalent in the past. Back in 2024, the team's president and CEO, Brad Sims, told Hudson River Blue that "as it pertains to the pigeon, I don’t know that we’re ever going to get a consensus. I think pro-pigeon, anti-pigeon feelings with our fanbase is like 51%-49%, or 53%-47%, or 55%-45% one way or another....I’m actually scared to go on record by saying if I’m pro-pigeon or anti-pigeon, because I’ll alienate half of our fans."
But earlier this year, NYCFC II debuted a jersey with a flying pigeon as the badge. It's a good-looking shirt, and represents a new direction for the club's identity.
The Outfield documented how the figure will have a place of honor at the team's new stadium when a "heroic" 31-tall pigeon will be sculpted into a wall at Etihad Park.
Could NYCFC add a mascot along the lines of Tempo the Coyote of Nashville SC, or Phang of Philadelphia Union? If so, what will it be named?
In the meantime, the club now finds itself in possession of a 5-story-tall pigeon that weighs 700 pounds. We hope to see it outside of NYCFC games sometime soon.
New York City FC | Five-Borough Flight
Embedded iFrame
