New York Cosmos (USL League One) @ Hinchliffe Stadium (Paterson, NJ)

*This trip occurred on March 14, 2026.

The New York Cosmos are quite possibly one of the most famous names in American soccer. The original team played in the North American Soccer League (the top division of soccer in the U.S. back in the 70s) from 1970 until 1984 (when the NASL folded), and was famous for having a DISCO THEME SONG its roster, which featured the likes of Franz Beckenbauer and, most notably, Pele (widely considered the best footballer of all time). However, supposedly, the Cosmos themselves never "folded" - they just went dormant¹.

In 2010, the New York Cosmos were "reestablished", but it wasn’t until 2013 that this version of the team played its first game. Between announcing their return and their first game, however, they did a WILD amount of marketing, believing that the "Cosmos" brand would be enough to turn heads.

It wasn’t.

Despite the branding and on-field success (the team won three championships in four years), "Cosmos 2.0" never really gained any foothold with the NYC market. Part of that was likely due to the fact that they weren’t in Major League Soccer (for a few reasons - both inside and outside of their control), but another factor: good ol’ fashioned mismanagement².

The team went dormant again in 2020 and lay dormant until 2025, when it was announced that a new team was planning on using the Cosmos name in USL League One. Whether or not they will be able to generate any level of success is yet to be seen (I should mention that there seemed to be a quite decent crowd for this match), but outside of being in the third tier of American soccer, there is one thing that may be a major factor:

Hinchliffe Stadium.

I won't go too deep into Hinchliffe as I've been here before, but long story short: it's a historic stadium best known for hosting Negro League baseball. It fell into disrepair over time (partially because, well...Paterson), but received an extensive renovation a few years ago - and then the New Jersey Jackals of the Frontier League shortly after that.

I’ve already talked about the modern baseball experience at Hinchliffe, but long story short: it’s not great. However, given that Hinchliffe seems better suited to sports on "rectangular" fields (it hosts high school football and has a running track), it should mean that unlike, say, Yankee Stadium or Maimonides Park, it should at least be a better soccer watching experience, right? Well...it might be for one simple reason: the pitchers mound is within the field of play (but is obviously lowered). Outside of that, it really doesn't feel super different from baseball - though that may be because my seat was near the baseball diamond.

In planning this trip, I immediately looked at their schedule, as I was NOT going to go to any games where the sun would disappear midway through (mainly due to my experience leaving the Jackals game in 2025 IN BROAD DAYLIGHT still being kinda uncomfortable³). It took quite a while for times to be announced after the dates were, but once they were, I landed on this game - the team's inaugural game against Portland Hearts of Pine.

The most striking thing about this game vs. just about every other soccer game I've been to in this country was atmosphere - thanks to the presence of a MASSIVE contingent of traveling Hearts fans (one of them mentioned it's actually easier to get into away games as they're a HOT ticket in Portland)⁴. The noise from them was unlike anything I've heard from visiting fans (and I've been to two other games in other sports where the visiting fans took over - both of them Boston teams). They got to go home happy too, as the Hearts outfoxed the Cosmos in a 3-1 victory.

MERCH

Sometime around the initial schedule reveal, the Cosmos unveiled their "inaugural" home jersey to...modest reception. It features one of the more common soccer jersey designs with vertical stripes, but doesn’t have much going for it outside of the Cosmos logo partially due to the stripes being two different shades of green which look almost identical, and also because it didn't feature a sponsor (though the team did get one before the season)⁵. Despite that, I ended up getting one from Pele Soccer in Times Square (where the jersey was first unveiled) because apparently I am a sucker for anything that is green.

Anyway, as opposed to the Jackals and their carnival trailer⁶, merch was sold in a physical "store" (an area I THINK the Jackals used purely as storage). They were quite busy throughout the day (even running out of scarves at one point), and I was able to get a USL1 patch pressed onto the jersey I bought months ago (but not the sponsor because I'm weird like that). Also, the team had something special for this game: limited edition jerseys with special "chrome" details⁷.

As an aside, I found out that the Hearts were doing a "special party" at Classic Football Shirts in New York City the night before the game featuring, of course, merch (they are known as "Merch FC" for a reason - similar to how their upcoming US Open Cup opponents are known as "Social Media FC"). I would've thought about going had I not made a prior commitment weeks before the game - but also the event was listed as "sold out" when I checked...

ON DECK

Back in October, I did a bunch of "catch up" posts based on hockey games I went to back in 2023-24. However, there's TWO other posts from that timespan that have yet to be posted on this blog...until now.