Metropolitan Oval
Encyclopedia
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Village Voice named the complex, which takes up 4.2 acres (16,996.8 m²), the "Best full soccer field in the middle of a residential neighborhood" in 2004, for its "pristine" playing surface and the view of the Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
skyline.
History
The Metropolitan Oval was originally built in 1925 by Germans and Ethnic German-Hungarian Immigrants to be a European style soccer field with facilities. From 1925 onwards, the Oval served as a soccer field for men and boys of all ages and ethnicities. Many U.S. national team players from the New York region played games at the Oval while youths.By the 1990s, however, the Oval was in a state of disarray. Any grass the field once had was gone from overuse. It owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes and was scheduled for foreclosure by the city.
In response to this state of affairs, the Metropolitan Oval Foundation was formed to save this historic site. The non-profit organization led by Jim Vogt, a longtime Queens native, and Chuck Jacob and Valerie Jacob, two New York lawyers dedicated to the restoration of historic soccer fields across the city, raised enough money to save the field from foreclosure. In addition, Nike
Nike, Inc.
Nike, Inc. is a major publicly traded sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States. The company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, which is part of the Portland metropolitan area...
and U.S. Soccer Foundation each contributed $250,000 towards the construction of a FieldTurf
FieldTurf
FieldTurf is a brand of artificial turf playing surface. It is manufactured and installed by the FieldTurf Tarkett division of Tarkett Inc., based in Calhoun, Georgia, USA. In the late 1990s, the artificial surface changed the industry with a design intended to replicate real grass...
field and new lights for the complex.FIFA
FIFA
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association , commonly known by the acronym FIFA , is the international governing body of :association football, futsal and beach football. Its headquarters are located in Zurich, Switzerland, and its president is Sepp Blatter, who is in his fourth...
president Sepp Blatter
Sepp Blatter
Joseph S. Blatter , commonly known as Sepp Blatter, is a Swiss football administrator, who serves as the 8th and current President of FIFA . He was elected on 8 June 1998, succeeding João Havelange. He was re-elected as President in 2002, 2007, and 2011...
, who visited the Met Oval in November 2001 after the field was resurfaced, called FieldTurf the "future of football".
Currently, the Oval hosts 15-20 games a week from March to November on the field; more than any other facility in New York City. The Brooklyn Knights
Brooklyn Knights
Brooklyn Knights is an American soccer team based in New York, New York, United States. Founded in 1999, the team plays in the USL Premier Development League , the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in the Mid Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference.The team plays its home games at the...
teams, ranging from U-10 to U-23 (their PDL
USL Premier Development League
The USL Premier Development League is the amateur league of the United Soccer Leagues in the United States, Canada, and Bermuda, forming part of the American Soccer Pyramid...
franchise), and various New York City college soccer teams call the Met Oval their home.