New York City FC (NYCFC) CEO Brad Sims believes the club “really got it right” by appointing head coach Pascal Jensen ahead of the 2025 MLS season as NYCFC prepares for a six-game stretch that will define Jansen’s first season in charge.
NYCFC currently finds itself in eighth place in the Eastern Conference with six games of the regular season left to play but boasts games in hand on almost every team in the top seven.
Those games in hand, coupled with a number of fixtures against direct play-off rivals in the remaining six games of the season, mean there is every chance that NYCFC can not only lock in a play-off berth but also secure a place in the top four, which would guarantee two home fixtures in the best-of-three series for the opening round.
However, the tricky run of fixtures, including five matches against teams ranked higher in the MLS standings and one away date with New York Red Bulls, means that NYCFC could miss out on a play-off place entirely.
Nonetheless, Sims is pleased with Jansen’s first season in charge at the 28-game mark of the MLS season, noting that the club’s average of 1.68 points per game would generally be enough to place in the top four of the Eastern Conference.
“It’s an interesting season in the MLS,” Sims said. “The Eastern Conference, I think, has almost never been so competitive.”
NYCFC currently boasts the second-youngest team in the MLS by average age, with the club’s average age of 24.8 bettered only by CF Montréal’s average age of 23.4. Sims said Jansen has played a critical role in bringing that average age down.
When the club sold striker Mounsef Bakrar to Croatian outfit Dinamo Zagreb over the summer, for example, Sims said NYCFC higher-ups approached Jansen about finding a suitable replacement to serve as back-up striker to Alonso Martinez. Jansen, however, pointed to 17-year-old academy striker Seymour Reid as the ideal replacement for Bakrar. Reid has since opened his NYCFC account with a goal in the 3-1 win at Chicago Fire earlier in September.
Similarly, Sims credited Jansen for blooding in talented academy product Jonny Shore throughout the season, with the 18-year-old becoming a mainstay in the New York midfielder in the 2025 campaign.
“We’re really proud of some of our home grown players that have made real impacts on the pitch this season,” Sims said.
Jansen’s willingness to give youth a chance ties in with the club’s overall strategy of blending talented young academy products with seasoned pros brought in from other clubs.
“We don’t want to be a top-heavy roster where we have two or three really top players and then a drop off in quality,” he added. “We want to be quality all the way across the roster… and we feel that’s the best way to build a winning squad.”
NYCFC currently only has two designated players in its roster, including Thiago Martins and new signing Nicolás Fernández, who arrived from Spanish club Elche in the summer. That leaves NYCFC in the position to add another designated player during the winter transfer window and Sims said the club is prepared to move for the right player. However, he cautioned that the club will only sign a designated player if it is absolutely certain.
“You make a bad decision there and you’re locked in that bad decision for three, four or five years.”
Sims believes the club’s current model allows it to remain competitive in the 2025 and 2026 MLS seasons before it moves to its new home in Willets Point in 2027.
NYCFC is currently building a 25,000-seater soccer-specific stadium opposite Citi Field and Sims said progress at the new stadium has been “fantastic.”
Club officials said construction on the stadium’s west stand has made significant progress, with Sims adding that the stadium is still expected to open as scheduled ahead of the 2027 MLS season.
That may represent a truncated MLS season after Sims revealed to NYCFC’s in-house media that the possibility of the MLS converting to the FIFA calendar by the summer of 2027 remains “on the table.” Sims added that the club is heavily in favor of a change in calendar.
“We would strongly push the league to start in the summer of 2027,” Sims said in an interview with NYCFC’s in-house media.
Sims said the majority of MLS clubs are in favor of the season change and added that the 2027 season would be replaced with a mini tournament before a new season launches for the 2027/28 campaign.
Whatever happens with the 2027 season, NYCFC plans to hit the ground running in its new home, preferably off the back of two strong campaigns.
“We always want to put ourselves in the best position to compete for championships,” Sims said.
Sims hopes that this season and the 2026 season can be a springboard to life at Willets Point, describing the 2024 campaign as a “bit of a down year.”
The club, under former manager Nick Cushing, finished sixth in the Eastern Conference before losing to the Red Bulls in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
A similar league finish is not off the cards by any means this season, but Sims insisted that it would not represent another down year for the club.
“If we were in the west, we’d be in fourth place right now,” Sims said. “I think that’s still attainable for us (in the east).”
He also insisted that “anything can happen” in the play-offs, noting that the top three seeds in the Eastern Conference were dumped out in the first round last season.
Regardless of what kind of form NYCFC enters its new home in, the move represents a welcome change of scenery for Sims – and the club.
Even Wednesday’s clash with Columbus is proof of how badly the club needs a stadium of its own.
Originally scheduled for early August, the fixture was postponed at the last minute due to necessary field maintenance issues at Citi Field, leaving NYCFC now facing into a busy 10-day period which will see them play four crucial league matches.
Similarly, the club does not yet know where it will play its decision day fixture against the Seattle Sounders on Oct. 18 as it waits to see how the Yankees and the Mets progress through the MLB post-season.
Neither of those issues will arise when NYCFC moves home in 2027, with Sims describing the original postponement of the Columbus fixture as “super unfortunate.”
“That was going to be probably our third biggest gate of the year, just behind Miami and the Red Bulls game,” Sims said. “It was built up. It was our kids’ day. It was our one marquee Saturday night in the summer schedule. So, yeah, it was really rough.
“But it’s not something we’ll have to worry about come 2027.”
