The Cosmos return, humbler
The New York Cosmos return to the field in 2026, for the first time since a half season in NISA way back in 2020. The club is under new ownership, but a key piece of management connects this third edition of the New York Cosmos with the second. Commercial real estate developer Baye Adofo-Wilson had recently led the revitalization of Hinchliffe Stadium, a historic Negro League ballpark located next to Paterson’s Great Falls landmark. An advisor on that project was former New York Cosmos COO Erik Stover, who had led the New York Red Bulls’ Red Bull Arena project while with that organization. Hinchliffe was redeveloped as a multisport stadium with a capacity of 7500 seats. With the stadium ready to go, a pro soccer team was a natural fit.
In February 2025, Adofo-Wilson and Stover announced that they secured a USL League One franchise under the organization name New Jersey Pro Soccer. Sometime in between that announcement and when it became official in July 2025 that the team would be the Cosmos, the late owner of the second edition of the New York Cosmos, Rocco Commisso approached Stover to facilitate the transfer of the historic name and history. It was not known at the time that Commisso was ill, and unfortunately he would not live to see the Cosmos take the field again, but his gesture allowed one of the greatest legacies in US pro soccer to carry forward to a new generation.
Giuseppe Rossi, a native of nearby Clifton, New Jersey and childhood friend of former Cosmos captain Danny Szetela, was announced as a co-owner and the Sporting Director for the new Cosmos. Rossi’s vision is humbler than that of Commisso, or Seamus O’Brien and Sela Sport before him, and certainly much humbler than the original global phenomenon of the 1970s and 1980s. This edition of the Cosmos will aim to be a community oriented club, focused on developing talent in Northern New Jersey and acting as a stepping stone in the careers of local players. While the initial roster of the 2026 Cosmos features established USL Championship star Sebastian Guenzatti, a former second Cosmos edition player and other third division standouts like Christian Koffi and Ajmeer Spengler, many of the players are new to pro soccer. You will not find a Marcos Senna or Raul here, let alone a Pele or Giogorio Changalia.
But for a fan base that just went half a decade the team shelved as the NASL v USSF lawsuit played out, a sustainable model is not the worst thing that could happen. Besides, with the USL recently announcing USL Premier and promotion and relegation starting in 2028, who is to say the new Cosmos can’t grow into something special like the Cosmos of the early 1970s did by the mid-seventies. What matters more is a team that has been nomadic across the New York metropolitan area for much of its existence including all eras – the most stable stretch was the Giants Stadium run from 1977-1984 – a secure home stadium in Paterson, NJ gives the club a much more stable base to build from than anything it had in NASL 2.0.
