Because Yankees Stadium was a "temporary" stadium solution. It obviously took longer than NYCFC and MLS planned to get the stadium approved, but there is a world of difference with what NASL was doing to get stadiums (nothing), compared to granting waivers for temporary situations.
The intent wasn't for it to take as long as it did. When Mansour was granted an MLS club, MLS thought that they had the parking garage location at the finish line. They just needed Mansour's money to seal the deal. That obviously didn't happen, but they continued to work for a stadium.
To me the stadium requirement is BS to push any small city out. What is so great about 25k stadium when MLS teams were only get okay sub 10K crowds throughout the 2010s.
The standard per the PLS for D1 men's league is 15k, I think it was 10k when the PLS in 2010. Mostly it is about financial viability. Game day revenue is a large portion of a US soccer team's total revenue and minimum seat requirements are intended they can get enough people into the stadium.
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If you want to cherry pick something, let's also discuss and acknowledge that.
Eventually the USSF had to stop propping the league up. They weren’t serious.