This was a record-breaking year for Hudson River Blue: The site was visited by an eye-popping 306,000 readers from 216 countries and territories, with page views climbing above 775,000 for the first time. Shoutout to Afghanistan, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Eritrea, Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, and Western Sahara — love that you found us.
To celebrate the end of 2025, we're posting two wrapped-style lists of the year's most memorable posts. Today, it's the Top 10 Stories by readership, a countdown decided by page views. Tomorrow, we'll run the Best 10 Stories as decided by the HRB editors, a look at the posts we enjoyed researching, writing, and sharing with you.
Thank you for reading HRB in 2025.
10. Professional soccer coming to Paterson's historic Hinchliffe Stadium
By Michael Battista
February 14, 2025
If you want to know what's going on in lower-league soccer within the Tri-State Area, follow Michael Battista. The lifelong Red Bull fan (there, said it) is the single best source for breaking news when it comes to the blue-collar soccer that makes the sport so important to this country.
Case in point: Battista's coverage of an organization called North Jersey Pro Soccer, which announced at the start of this year that they would launch men's and women's teams to play in the historic 93-year-old New Jersey stadium, located in the shadows of Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park.
Of course, North Jersey Pro Soccer turned out to be the group that re-launched the Cosmos. (See #4, below.)
Michael Battista
9. Where things stand with the Citi Field casino after latest approval
By Andrew Leigh
October 7, 2025
Against all odds, Metropolitan Park got the OK: The casino project from New York Mets owner Steve Cohen looked dead on arrival when New York State Senator Jessica Ramos came out against it last year, but the proposal was recently approved after the team masterfully navigated the state's selection process.
Andrew Leigh isn't just the Executive Editor of HRB, he's an expert on city planning and approval processes after chronicling New York City's Stadium Saga, and he brought his deep experience to his coverage of Metropolitan Park.
Andrew Leigh
8. A peek inside the Etihad Park construction site in Queens
By Oliver Strand
September 30, 2025
After Oliver Strand went on a hard hat tour of the Etihad Park construction site in Queens with other members of the city's press corps, we thought about how to present our readers with an original story they won't find elsewhere.
Strand studied architecture in college before switching to art history (don't ask), and when he realized that many of the construction photos lined up with the architectural renderings released by the club, he put together a slide show that let you see what the stadium looks like now, and what it will look like when it opens in 2027.
You should take a moment to flip through the images, if you haven't already.
Oliver Strand
7. What to Eat at Citi Field: 2025 Update
By Oliver Strand
May 3, 2025
Not only is the food at Citi Field surprisingly good, it evolves every year: There are new vendors, and new signature dishes. First, Strand previews the upcoming lineup according to information released by Citi Field. Then, he arrives early at NYCFC's first home game to walk the concourses and make sure our listings are accurate.
Finally, he heads over to Flushing after the end of the game because that's the pro move.
Oliver Strand
6. Vermont Green vs Ballard FC is the national championship American soccer deserves
By Michael Battista
August 1, 2025
Arguably, the best title game in America this past year was the 2025 USL League Two Championship between Vermont Green and Ballard FC. In this story, Battista explains why it's what grassroots soccer can be in this country when done right.
Michael Battista
5. What's the deal with DAZN?
By OIiver Strand
June 23, 2025
Like most soccer sickos in the United States, Strand found himself uploading the DAZN app to watch the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup. That prompted him to wonder: What is DAZN, why did it pay $1 billion to broadcast the games, and how does that sum line up with the $1 billion in prize money promised by FIFA, and the $1 billion Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund put into DAZN?
DAZN did a good job with the broadcasts, tbh. Easy to stream, no real glitches.
Oliver Strand
4. Are the New York Cosmos back?
By Michael Battista
July 1, 2025
Nothing gets the needles moving in soccerland like the word "Cosmos."
That name – that logo! – still resonates. So what if it's essentially just a brand identity now? The Cosmos are back, and "Scoop" Battista was the first journalist to break the story of their return: His meticulously sourced post went up on July 1. The club confirmed the news nine days later on July 10.
Michael Battista
3. 2026 FIFA World Cup Draw: MetLife Stadium games are set
By Hudson River Blue Staff
December 5, 2025
We watched the FIFA World Cup draw so you didn't have to — and, to be honest, we never want to do it again. It took more than two interminable hours for FIFA to set the groups, then another 20 or so hours for the venues and dates to be decided.
But we'll do anything for our readers.
Hudson River Blue Staff
2. New York City FC Transfer Tracker: All 2025 news and rumors
By Hudson River Blue Staff
November 2, 2024 - September 18, 2025
We launched the New York City Transfer Tracker in 2023 as a place to keep tabs on all the rumors and legit news that surround Silly Season. Now it's one of the most-viewed feature on the site.
The 2025 edition of the tracker was updated more than 90 times over 10 months, and we always made a point of separating the wheat from the chaff. Not only did we keep you abreast of the latest news regarding Nicolás Acevedo, Nico Fernández Mercau, Christian McFarlane, Jovan Mijatović, Aiden O'Neill, Pascal Jansen, and Santiago Rodríguez, we also covered prospective players such as Mickaël Nadé, Julián Martínez, Dany Mota, Kenneth Omeruo, and Allahyar Sayyadmanesh, to name a few.
In other words: It's a must-read before any New York City FC pub quiz.
Hudson River Blue Staff
1. Donald Trump keeps FIFA Club World Cup trophy for himself
By Oliver Strand
July 14, 2025
True story: While fact-checking Battista's Game Recap of Chelsea FC's surprise 3-0 win over Paris-Saint Germain in the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup Final, Strand came across a short clip on the FIFA media resources page that featured Donald Trump making the offhand comment that Giani Infantino gave him the original trophy to keep.
"They said, 'Could you hold this trophy for a little while? We put it in the Oval Office,'" Trump told the broadcaster during a mid-game interview aired on DAZN. "And then I said, 'When are you going to pick up the trophy?' He says, 'We’re never gonna pick it up. You can have it forever in the Oval Office. We’re making a new one.' And they actually made a new one. So, that was quite exciting. But it is – right now it’s in the Oval."
Come again? The first-ever FIFA Club World Cup trophy was a host gift? That felt news-worthy to us, and for a few hours, HRB was the only publication on the planet to report that Trump kept the trophy for himself. It became the most-viewed story in the history of the site.
Other media giants took note, and soon the news was re-reported everywhere from The Athletic to the Guardian to ESPN. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, etc.
But: You saw it here first.
Oliver Strand
