A small part of the 2028 Summer Olympics is coming to Queens.
The organizers of the upcoming Los Angeles, California-based Olympic and Paralympic games today announced that Etihad Park, set to open in Willets Point in 2027, will be a venue for some portion of the early rounds of the 2028 Olympic soccer tournament.
The Olympic soccer tournament will culminate in semi-finals and finals held at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, with the men's gold medal match on July 28, and the women's tournament ending on July 29.
The new permanent home of New York City FC will be part of a cross-country progression that brings Olympic medal hopefuls from East Coast to West Coast as they advance in the tournament.
Oliver Strand
The release announcing the soccer venues for the Olympics stressed that teams will move "progressively from east to west" as they win and make progress toward the finals, a design meant to lessen the amount of travel athletes deal with during the games.
All the newly-announced soccer stadiums hosting the 2028 Olympic soccer tournament are home to Major League Soccer franchises. The list of non-Rose Bowl venues is as follows:
- Etihad Park, Queens, NY
- ScottsMiracle-Gro Field, Columbus, OH
- GEODIS Park, Nashville, TN
- Energizer Park, St. Louis, MO
- PayPal Park, San Jose, CA
- Snapdragon Stadium, San Diego, CA
There's no schedule yet available specifying when Etihad Park will have its Olympic soccer moment, with the release announcing venues saying that "the schedule for both the women's and men's Football (Soccer) tournaments, including the dates and match distribution per stadium, will be announced before the first ticket drop in April 2026."
Brad Sims, the president and CEO of New York City FC, said of the announcement that Etihad Park will host the Olympics, "I know that New Yorkers will eagerly look forward to seeing these matches played at New York City's new home for football." This might not be the only big international competition held at Etihad Park once it opens, as the stadium is one of many possible proposed venues that could, maybe, host matches during the 2031 FIFA Women's World Cup.
The Trump angle
As with all international sporting events held in the United States these days, World Cups included, there is a President Donald Trump angle to the news that Etihad Park will be a venue for Olympic soccer.
In May 2025, Trump was overheard discussing Etihad Park while meeting with business leaders in Abu Dhabi – among them Khaldoon Al Mubarak, the chairman of City Football Group.
Some jumped on a question Trump asked about Etihad Park being utilized during the 2028 LA Olympics and ran with it as a sign of Trump's confusion about where the games were being held (in Los Angeles).
Andrew Leigh
Now with today's soccer venue announcements, it's fair to winder if Trump knew about this in advance, or put in a good word on behalf of the new stadium built in the borough of his birth, and built with the money of businessmen from Abu Dhabi with whom Trump has a, shall we say, friendly relationship.
As for Etihad Park the stadium, construction appears to humming along, with the structure looking more and more like a nearly-there stadium by the day. Photographer Andrew Theodorakis shared recent drone footage shot above Etihad Park on Instagram, a sampling of which you'll see below.
Video from @andrewtheophoto
