Will New York City FC finally get out of Yankee Stadium?

Well, according to a story in the New York Post, mayor Eric Adams is expected to announced he has approved plans for soccer stadium that would be near Citi Field, home of the New York Mets.

According to a source, “A deal is close, but negotiations are ongoing.”

The story said that a 25,000-seat stadium could be built by 2025. The key word is could.

NYCFC has played at Yankee Stadium since it joined Major League Soccer in 2015. The team figured it would play there for three or four years while a stadium was found.

There have been many fits and starts to the process, including the possibility of building one near Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, but that has not come to fruition.

According to the Post, a spokesman for Adams said, “There is no agreement at this time. We continue to engage in ongoing conversations around the mayor’s goals of building a world-class stadium in New York City that will finally give NYCFC a permanent home, bring in millions of dollars in revenue to boost the local economy, and grow affordable housing options for New Yorkers.”

It has been an embarrassment for the league that a team, especially one in New York City, is still playing at a baseball park.

And it certainly is not fitting for an MLS Cup champion – the defending champions – to call a baseball park home in the 27th year of the league. The field is too narrow for decent soccer and there are ugly patches of turf laid atop the infield.

So, will the new stadium happen?

Who knows? We’ve seen this movie so many times before.

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.