The New York Cosmos (simply the Cosmos in 1977–1978) was an American professional soccer club based in New York City and its suburbs. The team played home games in three stadiums around New York, including Yankee Stadium in the Bronx and Downing Stadium on Randalls Island, before moving to Giants Stadium in nearby East Rutherford, New Jersey in 1977, where the club remained for the rest of its history.
Founded in December 1970, the team competed in the North American Soccer League (NASL) until 1984 and was the strongest franchise in that league, both competitively and financially – based largely around its backing by Warner Communications President Steve Ross, which enabled it to sign internationally famous stars of the day such as the Brazilian forward Pelé, Italian striker Giorgio Chinaglia, the West German sweeper Franz Beckenbauer, and Brazilian rightback Carlos Alberto Torres. The acquisition of these foreign players, particularly Pelé, made the Cosmos into what journalist Gavin Newsham called "the most glamorous team in world football", and contributed to the development of soccer across the United States, a country where it had previously been largely ignored.
By the end of the 1980 season, the NASL was faltering, feeling the effects of over-expansion, the economic recession, and disputes with the players union. Attendances fell, the league's television deal was lost, and it finally folded in 1985 after playing its last season in 1984. The Cosmos attempted to continue operations in the Major Indoor Soccer League, but attendances were so low that the club withdrew without completing a season. The team attempted an independent schedule in 1985, but also canceled that because of low attendance, and the Cosmos folded. Former club employee Peppe Pinton assumed the trademarks and property of the club when it was dissolved, in part because nobody else thought they had any value at that point. Pinton put the trophies, uniforms, and equipment into storage and operated a New Jersey day camp for children under the name "Cosmos Soccer Camp".
Attempts were made to revive the Cosmos name during the 1990s and 2000s, most notably as a Major League Soccer (MLS) club. Pinton refused to sell the name and image rights, believing that MLS would not honor the club's heritage. Following the revival of several former NASL names in MLS, Pinton sold the rights for $2 million to an international, English-based consortium in August 2009. That group ultimately chose not to join MLS, and the new Cosmos team played parts of five seasons in second- and third-tier leagues before suspending operations.
In July 2025, it was announced that the Cosmos name and identity had been sold again, this time to a new expansion club that plans to begin playing in the third-tier USL League One at Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson, New Jersey in 2026.
History
Creation and naming
thumb|left|The Ertegun brothers, [[Ahmet Ertegun|Ahmet (left) and Nesuhi (right), two of the co-founders of the Cosmos.|alt=Two men in suits smile for the camera.]]
The club was founded in December 1970 by Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun, renowned executives at Atlantic Records, along with eight other executives from Atlantic's parent company Warner Communications, including CEO Steve Ross, president Jay Emmett, and Warner Bros. studio head Ted Ashley, each of whom put up one-tenth of the $350,000 NASL expansion fee. After several months of mounting financial losses, Emmett convinced Ross that the company should take on the financial burden. The ten investors sold the club to their employer Warner Communications for one dollar, and Ross threw the conglomerate's weight behind the Cosmos. Emmett later said of the move "(the Cosmos) was an entertainment vehicle, (Warner) was an entertainment company."
The team's first recruit was the Englishman Clive Toye, a former sportswriter who had moved to the United States in 1967 to become general manager of the short-lived Baltimore Bays; he was given the same post in New York. Toye sought to convey the new team's ambitions within its name, and reasoned that he could outdo the "Metropolitans" label referenced by the then-nine-year-old New York Mets baseball team by calling his team the "Cosmos", shortened from "Cosmopolitans". However, the owners preferred other possible names: the Erteguns wished to use the name originally suggested by Nesuhi, the "New York Blues"; and another part of the ownership group wanted to adopt the name "New York Lovers". Toye then staged a rigged "name the team" contest, receiving 3,000 entries and selecting one that just happened to match his pre-determined winner. Two NYC teachers, Meyer Diller and Al Capelli, from Martin Van Buren High School in Queens, entered the contest and submitted the name "Cosmos". The two physical education teachers had independently used Toye's method of deriving it from "cosmopolitan". The two men were awarded a trip to Europe as a prize. The team name was officially unveiled on February 4, 1971.
North American Soccer League
The New York Cosmos entered the 1968-founded North American Soccer League (NASL) in 1970 and made their field debut in the league's fourth season in 1971. The first roster signing of the club was Gordon Bradley, an English professional who had moved to North America in 1963 and played for the New York Generals in 1968. He was made player-coach, a position he would hold until 1975. In 1972, the team moved to Hofstra Stadium where they won their first league title with a 2–1 victory over the St. Louis Stars. Horton was the league's top scorer and Most Valuable Player, with 9 goals and 22 points from the 14 regular-season games and two post-season matches. The Cosmos reached the play-offs once more in 1973, but were knocked out at the semi-final stage. Before the 1974 season, the Cosmos moved again, settling at Downing Stadium on Randall's Island. In their first year at their new base, they finished bottom of their division. whom they had been attempting to sign since the team was created.
Although New York finished third at season end, it was still too low a placing to reach the post-season.
Bradley returned as coach for the 1977 season in place of the dismissed Furphy, but was removed after half of the season to become the club's vice-president of player personnel.
On Pelé's farewell tour in 1977, the Cosmos made history by becoming the first Western professional sports team to play in China. They drew their opening match with the Chinese national team 1-1, and lost the second game 2-1 despite Pelé scoring a free kick.
Decline of the Cosmos and the NASL
After the retirement of Pelé in 1977, much of the progress that American soccer had made during his stay was lost; there was no star at the same level to replace him as the NASL's headline act. After enduring briefly during the late 1970s, attendances dropped after 1980. The sport's popularity fell and the media lost interest.
In the early 1980s, Warner was the target of a hostile takeover bid by Australian media magnate Rupert Murdoch; although this attempt did not succeed, Warner sold off several of its assets, among them Atari and Global Soccer, Inc., the subsidiary that operated the Cosmos. Chinaglia bought Global Soccer, and thus controlled the team. His group did not have the capital necessary to keep all of the players signed on expensive contracts by Warner, which resulted in many of the stars being sold. The club won its last title in 1982, and by the last season of the NASL, 1984, had missed the play-offs for the first time since 1975.
Major Indoor Soccer League, demise and youth soccer
Following the collapse of the NASL, the team competed in the Major Indoor Soccer League during the 1984–85 season, with Klivecka briefly returning as coach, but withdrew after 33 games due to low attendance. The organization tried to operate as an independent team in 1985, but could not finish a single season and the club finally folded.
Former club employee Peppe Pinton, who started with the Cosmos as Giorgio Chinaglia's personal assistant and was promoted to General Manager when Chinaglia assumed control, ended up with the club's assets largely because he was the only one at the time who felt they had any value.
Revival attempts
Since the original New York Cosmos club's demise in 1985, there had been attempts to revive it. With the rise of Major League Soccer (MLS), various New York area entities—including two different ownership groups from the Metrostars/New York Red Bulls—lobbied Pinton for the acquisition of the Cosmos name. Pinton refused to sell to an MLS team, believing that the league would not acknowledge the Cosmos' legacy. However, when old NASL names such as the San Jose Earthquakes, Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps were revived as MLS franchises, he reconsidered. He sold the Cosmos name and brand to English businessman Paul Kemsley in 2009, whose group announced a new team with the Cosmos' name in August 2010.
Kemsley put the original club's trophies on display in the new club's office in SoHo. He and the other owners initially intended to become an MLS expansion franchise, but ultimately turned down the invitation to apply. Kemsley's team instead joined the new second-tier incarnation of the North American Soccer League, starting play in its 2013 Fall season. It played for the next four seasons before the league folded. The Cosmos then joined the third-tier National Independent Soccer Association (NISA), but played only half a season before going on hiatus.
After the second club had been dormant for five years, the owner sold the name and logo to a new ownership group based in north New Jersey, which had already been announced as an expansion team in the third-tier USL League One. That expansion team was announced as the third incarnation of the Cosmos, with plans to begin play in 2026.