“The day has finally arrived!” One user on X tweeted out days before the big day. Another tweeted out that New York has surpassed a milestone that “reflects years of hard work and commitment.”

That milestone will be seen, heard and felt by hundreds of fans as they gather for a monumental sporting event for the city of Brooklyn. If not, then at least they can settle for the roller coasters, claw machines, funnel cake and hot dogs.

On June 8th, 2023, the United Soccer League (USL) League One awarded an expansion team to the city with investment group North Sixth to be its main financier. “This has been my baby for the last two years, I haven't told anybody about it,” CEO Matt Rizzetta told Forbes. “The vision is to bring world-class professional soccer to Brooklyn and to really turn Brooklyn into an international destination for soccer ahead of the 2026 World Cup.”

The team is Brooklyn Football Club and they will play their home games at Maimonides Park, the baseball ground for minor league baseball team Brooklyn Cyclones, and it sits right next to waters of Coney Island Beach and Luna Amusement Park. With the men’s team set to play in 2025 in the USL Championship (USL), the women’s team will be ready to play this year in September after originally postponing an August home debut. They will play in the newly formed USL Super League (USLS).

It should come as no surprise that the city of Brooklyn is once again dipping their toes in competitive soccer. So long as immigration has existed on this planet, the world’s biggest sport has trailed alongside it.

A myriad of soccer teams have existed throughout the city that drew their inspiration from some of the world’s biggest teams. Immigrants from countries such as Spain, England, Scotland, Israel and Greece brought their love of the sport to the city during the Great Migration. While a record of all New York amateur clubs is not easy to come by, one of the oldest known soccer clubs the city has ever produced is Brooklyn Field Club, which played in 1898 through to 1924 in the National Association Football League, one of America’s first amateur soccer leagues.

During the 1913-14 season, they won the title and followed it up by winning the first-ever National Challenge Cup against city rivals Brooklyn Celtic with a 2-1 win in the final. The National Challenge Cup was the earliest version of what would later be known as the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, the oldest still-active professional soccer tournament in the United States.

At the time of writing, there is only two men’s professional soccer clubs in the New York area: the New York Red Bulls and New York City Football Club (NYCFC). They both are part of Major League Soccer or MLS, America’s top division of soccer. They both also have youth teams that compete in a reserve league called MLS Next Pro. While NYCFC are the only team to win a league title in MLS, Red Bulls are the oldest MLS club to play in New York, being part of the original 10 teams when the league began play in 1996.

There is only one professional women’s team: NY/NJ Gotham FC and they play in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) and are the current champions. Apart from that, more than 40 teams call New York home, from semi-professional to recreational amateurs. Brooklyn FC will join the USL Championship and be considered a Division 2 team and the same applies to the women’s side.

On July 13th, 2024, the Brooklyn FC men’s side made their anticipated home debut in a preseason friendly against Ecuadorian side Deportivo Cuenca in a 3-3 thriller to a packed Maimonides Park. Brooklyn FC went 1-0 down at the end of the first half, then equalized at the start of the second. After conceding a second and being 2-1 down, they dragged themselves back and took advantage of a dismantled defense to earn a penalty to equalize again. Cuenca snatched yet another equalizer after Brooklyn went 3-2 in the final stages as the sun began to set over Coney Island Beach to end 3-3. Player of the Match Hamouda Maroc was found ecstatic in front of the home fans after the final whistle.

The women’s team was expected to make their professional debut in a USLS match against Carolina Ascent FC on August 31st but due to home pitch maintenance issues at Maimonides Park, the match was postponed for a later date. They will instead make their home debut on September 25th, with the game against Carolina yet to be rescheduled.