This is a list of professional and semi-professional sports teams based in the New York metropolitan area, including from New York City, Long Island, Lower Hudson Valley, Northern and Central New Jersey, and parts of Western Connecticut. The collective area has a population of over twenty million people, making it the largest in the United States and among the top ten in the world. It also has the greatest concentration of professional sports teams of any region in the country with teams in all of the major sports and leagues in baseball, basketball, football, hockey, lacrosse, and soccer.
All of the major pro franchises are found within the five boroughs of New York City or approximately thirty miles of the center of Manhattan, near mass transit and highway access. These teams are part of the global New York City media market. Though some are based in New Jersey or Long Island, in proximity to Manhattan, the teams receive national and international media coverage generally defining them as dually being part of their location of origin (town or city, and state) and primarily the New York City - New York metropolitan area. Having acquired exclusive territorial rights in their respective leagues of the region or up to fifty to seventy-five miles of their base, teams can receive local broadcasting within this range, and have say over sharing rights with other teams. This range theoretically encompasses the bounds of the New York metropolitan area and the recognition of the teams belonging to and representing the entire region.
Other division league franchises, either found within or outside of the thirty mile New York City media market range, are mostly associated by their town or city, and state, rather than the whole metropolitan area, while still belonging to it. Media coverage varies locally. Collegiate teams are similarly identified with their location. Still, they are acknowledged and principally followed by the name of their schools, and receive local and national coverage depending on their division, conference, sport, standing, and popularity.
The New York metropolitan area is home to some of the country's top professional teams and leagues. They are the following:
The New York metropolitan area is also home to a variety of pro or semi-pro sports teams in the minor leagues, women's leagues, indoor leagues, and more.
Buffalo Bills
The New York metropolitan area is home to many top tier amateur teams as well.
The New York metropolitan area, broadly referred to as the Tri-State area and often also called Greater New York, is the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass, encompassing 4,669.0 sq mi (12,093 km2). The New York metropolitan area is one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world, the largest metropolitan area in the U.S., and the only U.S. metropolitan area home to more than 20 million residents as of the 2020 United States census.
The Polo Grounds was the name of three stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used mainly for professional baseball and American football from 1880 to 1963. The original Polo Grounds, opened in 1876 and demolished in 1889, was built for the sport of polo. Bound on the south and north by 110th and 112th streets and on the east and west by Fifth and Sixth (Lenox) avenues, just north of Central Park, it was converted to a baseball stadium when leased by the New York Metropolitans in 1880.
Maimonides Park is a minor league baseball stadium on the Riegelmann Boardwalk in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City. The home team and primary tenant is the New York Mets-affiliated Brooklyn Cyclones of the South Atlantic League. The stadium has also hosted other teams and sports; the NYU Violets Baseball team began playing at Maimonides Park in 2015, and soccer club Brooklyn FC will have its women's team playing at the ballpark in 2024, with its men's team joining them in 2025.
New York most commonly refers to:
The Long Island Rough Riders are an American soccer team based in South Huntington, New York, United States. Founded in 1994, the team plays in USL League Two, the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid.
The Staten Island University Hospital Community Park is a baseball stadium located on the northeastern tip of Staten Island in New York City. The ballpark is the home of the Staten Island FerryHawks, a member of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, and is the largest stadium in the league by capacity, at 7,171. Since 2022, it has also been the home of the Wagner College Seahawks baseball team and New York University Violets baseball team. In addition, local high schools have the chance to play at least one game a season at the park.
Sports in the New York metropolitan area have a long and distinguished history.
Throughout the years, a number of teams in the National Football League (NFL) have either moved or merged.
The Cosmopolitan Soccer League is a regional soccer league consisting of semi-pro and amateur teams based in and around New York City. Established in 1923, it is one of the oldest soccer leagues in the United States and has contributed greatly to the nation's soccer history.
The boroughs of New York City are the five major governmental districts that compose New York City. They are the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. Each borough is coextensive with a respective county of the State of New York: The Bronx is Bronx County, Brooklyn is Kings County, Manhattan is New York County, Queens is Queens County, and Staten Island is Richmond County.
Brooklyn has an active sports scene that spans over a hundred years. The borough is home of the Barclays Center and the National Basketball Association's Brooklyn Nets, and for many decades was the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers of Major League Baseball before they moved to Los Angeles in 1957.
New York has two Major League Baseball teams, the New York Yankees and the New York Mets. New York is home to three National Hockey League franchises: the New York Rangers in Manhattan, the New York Islanders on Long Island and the Buffalo Sabres in Buffalo. New York has two National Basketball Association teams, the New York Knicks in Manhattan, and the Brooklyn Nets in Brooklyn. New York has one Major League Soccer team: New York City FC. Although the New York Red Bulls represent the New York metropolitan area they play in Red Bull Arena, located in Harrison, New Jersey.
Sports in New York's Capital District are very popular, and there is a rich history of professional teams and college athletics.
The Knicks–Nets rivalry is a crosstown rivalry between New York City's two National Basketball Association (NBA) teams: the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets. Both teams compete in Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. The New York Knicks were established in 1946 as one of the charter franchises of the NBA, and have been based at Madison Square Garden in Midtown Manhattan since 1968. The Nets were established in 1967 as a member of the now-defunct American Basketball Association, and joined the NBA in 1976. They have been based at Barclays Center in Brooklyn since 2012, though have played in the New York metropolitan area their entire existence.
Sports in Newark, New Jersey, the second largest city in New York metropolitan area, are part of the regional professional sports and media markets. The city has hosted many teams and events, though much of its history is without an MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL team in the city proper. Two venues in the northeastern New Jersey metro region, Prudential Center and Riverfront Stadium (closed), are in Downtown Newark. Red Bull Arena is just across the Passaic River in Harrison. The Meadowlands Sports Complex is less than 10 miles away from Downtown and reached with the Meadowlands Rail Line via Newark Penn Station or Broad Street Station.
As of 2024, New Jersey has six teams from major professional sports leagues playing in the state, with only one team identifying themselves as solely being from the state. The other remaining teams identify themselves as being from the New York metropolitan area with the National Women's Soccer League team having a team name that includes both New Jersey and New York. The National Hockey League and National Basketball Association teams representing Philadelphia have their training facilities in South Jersey.
The sport of soccer has a long history in New York City, beginning in the 1910s with the first iteration of the American Soccer League. In the 1970s, with the rise of the first iteration of the North American Soccer League, the New York Cosmos became one of the most recognizable brands in American soccer.
The LIU Sharks football program represents Long Island University in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision level. The Sharks are members of the Northeast Conference and play their home games in the 6,000 seat Bethpage Federal Credit Union Stadium.