MLB fields coordinator: NYCFC, Yankees sharing stadium not ideal, but doable

Posted April 15, 2014

Yankee Stadium has hosted a few soccer matches, including a friendly between Spain and the Republic of Ireland in 2013. (Mike Stobe/Getty Images)

Sharing is never easy, especially when it comes to Yankee Stadium and the needs of both a Major League Baseball and a Major League Soccer team. And while having both teams use the venue as their homeis not ideal, Murray Cook, MLBs fields and facilities coordinator, tells SI.com it is doable.

The New York Times reportedMonday night that New York City FC will play its first three MLS seasons, starting in 2015, in Yankee Stadium, with the official announcement expected next week. With Manchester City FC and the Yankees teaming up to bring MLS to New York City, Yankee Stadium was the logical business choice for a stopgap home.

But logistics have to work on the fieldtoo.

Is it ideal? Cook ponders. It is not the greatest, but it works. It is doable.

MLB and MLS seasons run concurrently, meaning stadium crews must handle 81 baseball games and at least 17 soccer games each year. Weve already seen a taste of what soccer looks like on the Yankee Stadium grass, with the 50,000-seat venue hosting four games in the last two years and another game planned for July 30 when Manchester City plays Liverpool. Without a designated width for a soccer field just parameters to fall within Yankee Stadiums baseball-first design forces a narrower pitch than typically seen. It also requires temporary grass every time soccer is played.

With the field running from the left field wall toward the first base line foul territory, sod must cover the vast majority of infield clay. Cook says laying ready-play sod has turned commonplace.

You literally lay it down and that day you can play on it, he says.

Two MLB and MLS teams streamlined that practice already when the Washington Nationals and D.C. United shared RFK Stadium nearly a decade ago.

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MLB fields coordinator: NYCFC, Yankees sharing stadium not ideal, but doable