It’s not a bad time to be part of New York City FC.
The club has been a mainstay in the MLS playoffs and has made three of the last five Eastern Conference finals, while lifting MLS Cup in 2021. The current squad is strong and backed by City Football Group, while residing in one of the nation’s hotbeds for youth talent and boasting an academy consistently producing first-team-ready players.
And after playing the majority of their home games at baseball stadiums for a decade, next year the club will unveil its long-awaited crown jewel by opening a stadium it can truly call its own in New York City.
All of these factors made the club’s sporting director vacancy this winter one of the more attractive jobs in MLS. NYCFC landed on Todd Dunivant, who was the long-time sporting director at USL Championship’s Sacramento Republic and one of the most successful players in MLS history. It is Dunivant’s job to pick up where his predecessors left off and take the club into its new era.
“We’re opening the most important stadium in this league, in this country, we need to live up to that,” Dunivant recently told The Athletic. “That ‘pressure’ is not pressure. It’s opportunity.”
Etihad Park, NYCFC’s new $780 million and 25,000-capacity home, is set to open in Queens in 2027 and was named as one of the hosts for Olympic soccer in 2028. The stadium is situated across the street from the Mets’ Citi Field and less than a mile from the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, home to the U.S. Open.
The first part of 2027, however, will still be spent in Yankee Stadium and Citi Field, the two main arenas that NYCFC has had to call home throughout its painstaking stadium search. As MLS flips its calendar to sync with the top European leagues, it will stage a mini-season in the opening months of next year. NYCFC announced on Wednesday that it will be during the summer of 2027, when the switch fully takes place, that Etihad Park will be open for business. And it’s a development that is going to be widely appreciated.
“The club has been so good for its entire existence, there’s a history of success already,” Dunivant said. “But when you put a brand new stadium in New York City, it changes the game, not just for the club, but for the league. It’s going to raise the bar across the board and blow away revenue numbers, all kinds of things that will be important for the sport in this country.”
Etihad Park will be situated across the street from the Mets’ Citi Field (Courtesy of NYCFC)
Other folks at the club will be tasked with bringing the design to life and securing corporate deals and revenue. It’s the job of Dunivant, head coach Pascal Jansen and the players to ensure the on-field success continues.
Dunivant said his top priority was improving an already-strong roster that finished fifth in the Eastern Conference and then was humbled by Inter Miami in the conference final in Jansen’s first year. While Dunivant didn’t hire the manager, he has quickly built a strong rapport with him.
“Pascal, in his first year, established himself as a top coach in our league,” Dunivant said. “No doubt. He impressed a lot of people, myself included.”
The roster is anchored by designated player and attacker Nico Fernández Mercau, center back Thiago Martins (a designated player since he arrived in 2022, he will be bought down off that budget charge in 2026, sources say), U.S. international goalkeeper Matt Freese, and club legend Maxi Moralez. Not all players returned from last year’s squad, though, through departures and injury.
Homegrown defender Justin Haak left in free agency for the LA Galaxy, though NYCFC put the biggest offer on the table. Star forward Alonso Martínez suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament on international duty in November, putting the majority of his 2026 season in doubt, while midfielder Andrés Perea suffered a broken leg the same month.
Center forward remains a top priority. NYCFC had appeared to address that with a deal for Schalke and Mali international forward Moussa Sylla, but the transfer fell through. He was poised to be one of the club’s designated players, alongside Nico and Brazilian winger Talles Magno, who is back from a loan to Corinthians.
“Strikers are the most expensive players. I was hoping it was left back, but I chose poorly when I was a player. No. 9 is where the money is at,” Dunivant said with a laugh. He may not have been a designated player forward, but he didn’t do too badly for himself, winning five MLS Cups in his 13-year career in the league.
Magno will have the chance to re-establish himself as a high-quality MLS winger like he showed earlier in his NYCFC career before being tried out as a center forward and ultimately being benched by Nick Cushing prior to leaving on loan.
Talles Magno (L) and Tayvon Gray (R) should play sizable roles for NYCFC in 2026 (Daniel Jefferson / Imagn Images)
There’s also the potential for minutes for highly rated homegrown forward and Jamaica international Seymour Reid, if he earns it. The 17-year-old excelled in MLS Next Pro last year and scored his first senior goal in limited minutes.
NYCFC is a club that wants to maximize its academy. It’s where James Sands and Joe Scally broke through and where Gio Reyna starred before signing his first professional deal with Borussia Dortmund. The club has several talented academy graduates playing regular roles in the first team, such as Tayvon Gray, Jonny Shore and more.
“We had three homegrown players starting in the playoffs last year. Not many teams can say that,” Dunivant said. “That shows proof of concept in terms of what the club is doing. You look at the pyramid, if you’re a kid in the New York area, you know you can be part of the academy and work your way up. We want to make sure that’s a unified, cohesive pathway. It’s already shown a lot of success and we want to keep building on that.”
Dunivant called the club’s academy setup and natural talent in the area as a “competitive advantage” he wants to continue emphasizing.
“We have a coach who isn’t afraid to play players regardless of age, whether they are 17 or 38, we run the full gamut,” Dunivant said, with the latter figure referring to Moralez. The Argentine maestro started all 34 regular-season games and led the club in assists (11) last year. “Maxi has been a pillar of this club for so long.”
NYCFC may still be seeking a new forward, but it remains a forward-looking team, one poised to continue its period of competitive success in MLS. And no matter what transpires on the field in 2026, the lure of what’s to come in 2027 makes for a thrilling future.
“MLS needs to keep growing,” Dunivant said. “Having a flagship franchise in New York City is massive for the league. It’s certainly massive for our club. It’s going to be a great recruiting tool and a great cathedral for our team.”