Update 9/2/2026: New York City FC and MLS Next Pro today confirmed this report. The new club, tentatively known as "New Jersey MLS Next Pro," will debut in July 2027, with New York City FC also creating a new "Regional Hub" for its youth development program in Middlesex County. You can read the full releases from the club, here, and the league, here. Our original report, published August 14, 2026, can be read in full below.
It seems New York City FC will be moving its reserve team across the Hudson River.
According to sources, who were granted anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the information, New York City FC II is planning to jump from New York City proper to Middlesex County, New Jersey.
Sources said Hometown Soccer Holdings has been in talks with multiple sites in both New Jersey and New York. However, a new sports development project in Middlesex County seems to be the overall favorite. The venue appears to be the Middlesex College Stadium in Edison, New Jersey, a soon-to-be-completed 6,500-seat multi-purpose stadium that is said to "meet Big Ten, NCAA, Minor League Baseball, and FIFA standards," and will also be home to Rutgers University's baseball team.
New York Soccer Journal reached out to Hometown Soccer Holdings and asked for comment on the planned move for NYCFC II, but Hometown Soccer Holdings said it would not be commenting. New York City FC, KKR, and The Sports Facilities Companies (SFC), operator of the new Middlesex College Stadium, did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication.
The move for NYCFC II would be made as part of the new Hometown Soccer Holdings initiative. In April, MLS Next Pro announced it was partnering with private-equity firm KKR to create a central entity, Hometown Soccer Holdings, that would take control of commercial operations for Next Pro teams, should the MLS-affiliated Next Pro teams opt in to the endeavor.
MLS teams would retain all control of the soccer decision-making and operations, but their Next Pro affiliates would become new teams in new markets, ideally with new, appropriately-sized soccer-specific venues.
Last week, New York City FC's president and CEO, Brad Sims, participated in a roundtable interview with members of the media where New York Soccer Journal's founder and editor, Andrew Leigh, asked about the reserve team and the potential for opting in to Hometown Soccer Holdings, with NYCFC II rebranding and relocating.
"I'll give a quick answer: Yes, we're going to do it, yes I think we'll be one of the first teams that do it, maybe the first team that does it," Sims said.
In his response, which you can read in full here, Sims said the final details of the new plan for NYCFC II would be publicly announced in "30-to-60 days," while also praising Hometown Soccer Holdings as "a smart business model," comparing it favorably to Diamond Baseball Holdings, the entity that currently owns and operates around 50 Minor League Baseball teams after an HSH-like collaboration with another private equity giant, in this case Silver Lake. Incidentally, HSH is led by CEO Tom Glick, a former president of New York City FC from 2015 to 2016.
New state, new me
Details at this time are scarce, but it appears this would be a complete rebrand of the NYCFC II team. According to a source, this would include a separate, but connected, staff in New Jersey, with all training and other activities being detached from the training facility in Orangeburg, NY.
Officially part of the NEXUS complex, a new $126 million sports and entertainment destination in Edison, NJ, the stadium that would become the II team's new home is set to also serve as the new home for Rutgers University's baseball team.
It was originally set to open for the 2026 college baseball season. However, the team remained at its old home of Bainton Field for the year, with completion now expected sometime in 2027. The field is said to be able to host multiple sports and a wide range of “community, cultural, and entertainment events,” according to the county. One of those, which is specifically illustrated by the county, is converting the stadium for soccer purposes.
Aerial renderings of the Middlesex College Stadium hosting both baseball and soccer | Credit: Middlesex County
The park has been closed since 2022 for improvements, including the creation of 10 multi-sport artificial turf fields, three multi-sport baseball/softball fields, and more.
In June, the county announced a partnership with The Sports Facilities Companies (SFC) to manage the three new sports venues coming to Middlesex College, including the stadium. SFC will manage day‑to‑day operations, maintenance, scheduling, and programming for the venue.
, Courier News
The irony, of course, would come from the fact that NYCFC would once again have a team playing on a baseball field. After a decade of playing at Yankee Stadium, NYCFC will move to the soccer-specific Etihad Park in Queens when the first Fall/Spring MLS season kicks off in July 2027.
Typically in MLS, reserve teams are meant to operate within a team's Homegrown territory. If that is still the case, NYCFC II moving to Edison does fall within the team's territory, the part that is shared with Red Bull New York.
Since launching ahead of the inaugural MLS Next Pro season in 2022, NYCFC II has called two venues home. Belson Stadium on the campus of St. John's University in Queens has been the primary home — the same venue the New York City FC first team has used for select home US Open Cup matches over the years. The venue also hosted NYCFC II's entire 2024 Open Cup run, historically ending in the Round of 16 as the farthest-advancing Division III team in the tournament.
In 2024, NYCFC also announced a $3 million donation made to the Randall’s Island Park Alliance to bring renovations and a new pitch to Icahn Stadium, which was to also be used for select NYCFC II games.
While Icahn Stadium became a sometimes-venue for the IIs, New York City FC never committed to turning the stadium into their MLS Next Pro affiliate's forever home, continuing to shuffle between Belson and Icahn Stadiums. So far, the team has played eight total matches at Icahn Stadium — two in 2024 and five during the 2025 season — with a first match of 2026 played there on Tuesday morning against Orlando City B, and with four more scheduled on Randall's Island for the remainder of the 2026 Next Pro season.
The team has not found consistent success on the field, no matter where the home games have been. In four seasons, the Baby Blues have only qualified for the MLS Next Pro playoffs one time, in 2024, when they were eliminated by Philadelphia Union II in their first game. This year, the team currently sits 9th in the Eastern Conference with a record of 9W-4D-7L.
Other attempts at rebrands and relocations
Despite only officially partnering with Hometown Soccer Holdings earlier this year, Major League Soccer has had an eye on diversifying its reserve teams for some time. Back in the 2010s, the partnership between MLS and USL saw multiple reserve teams relocate away from their first teams with new names while playing in the United Soccer League (later becoming the USL Championship). These included Bethlehem Steel FC (Philadelphia Union) and Swope Park Rangers (Sporting Kansas City).
Over time, these experiments came back home, with the more standard "II team" names sticking since the launch of MLS Next Pro.
However, the idea of relocating the reserves has gotten popular once again. Nashville SC's reserve team launched as Huntsville City SC in 2022, playing over 100 miles away from the MLS side in northern Alabama. On the west coast, both the LA Galaxy and San Jose Earthquakes also moved their reserve teams into new areas and gave them new, unique brands and names.
Galaxy II became Ventura County FC, playing in Thousand Oaks, California, north of Los Angeles. That came with controversy when it was revealed that the team originally wanted to move operations to Orange County and essentially evict USL Championship side Orange County SC, before the plan was scrapped.
Farther north in the same state, Quakes II became The Town FC and played in Oakland, California, across the bay from San Jose. That partnership, however, came to an end last season.
When then-new MLS Next Pro president Charles Altchek was interviewed by Joseph Lowery of Backheeled last year about growing the league, he specifically mentioned bringing reserve teams to new markets.
"One is for us to have more of our affiliated teams moving into new markets like we have in Huntsville, with Nashville's MLS Next Pro team having launched in Huntsville in a new soccer stadium in partnership with the city. It's been a great two seasons so far and we're really excited for season three as they continue to grow that club and grow their connection to Huntsville and to the region."
"We’ll have a different version of that starting next year in Mansfield, Texas, with North Texas SC, FC Dallas’ MLS Next Pro Team, moving into a new stadium in partnership with the city of Mansfield and again bringing professional soccer to a new market. We have many of our other teams that are working on projects like that, where they’ll move into a new market and be able to grow the game."
He went on to say that moving reserve teams into new markets was a "priority for the league," while mentioning that finding the right-sized markets to provide great fan experiences can take time.
Andrew Leigh
