minor league hockey team would call the arena home. Previously Major League Soccer was spearheading the search for a new soccer-specific stadium within city limits for use by the 20th MLS expansion team. After narrowing the locations down to six, amongst them being Pier 40 in Manhattan, Greenpoint in Brooklyn and the area near Citi Field in Queens, the league zeroed in on the dilapidated Fountain of Industry site in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens in June 2012. The site was also previously discussed as a possible location for the New York Jets to build a stadium after their West Side Stadium project fell through, but the Jets opted to remain in New Jersey instead. However, the Flushing site faced opposition from local communities regarding the usage of park space, as well as the New York Mets, who play nearby, and the project is possibly dead. The New York City FC expansion team has since taken over the stadium search, with the Bronx as a possible location for a stadium. The Islanders eventually returned to Nassau County in 2021 with the opening of UBS Arena adjacent to the Belmont Park horse racing track in Elmont. Minor league sports Current minor league teams The following New York metropolitan area sports teams play in a lower level professional sports leagues in the United States: Other sports Boxing The sport of boxing came to the United States from England in the late 1700s and took root in the 1800s mainly in large urban areas such as Boston, New York City, and New Orleans. Initially boxing was viewed as illegal and many fights and fighters operated in secrecy to avoid arrest. The New York state legislature passed “An act to prevent Prize Fighting” in 1859. With the law, the act of boxing was not illegal in itself, but fighting for prize money was against public decency. Most boxing matches of the early 1800s were conducted under the London Prize Ring Rules, which were based on a set of rules documented by English boxer Jack Broughton in 1743. A change in the rules occurred in the 1860s when Welsh sportsman John Graham Chambers wrote rules based on the use of padded gloves and got aristocrat and sportsman John Douglas, who held the title of the Marquess of Queensberry, to promote the Marquess of Queensberry Rules. The new rules came into use in the United States