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Report: Don Garber to visit, hold public event in Cincinnati

Photo by Kelley L Cox/USA Today Sports
Photo by Kelley L Cox/USA Today Sports

After what has already been a successful season for new USL club FC Cincinnati, MLS commissioner Don Garber seems to be showing some interest in the city as an MLS market.

Garber will visit Cincinnati Nov. 29 to speak at a public event, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported Monday afternoon.

Garber’s visit will include a driving tour of the the city with Mayor John Cranley and a speech at a public event where Garber will “talk about his vision for the MLS.”

“Cincinnati is a city on the rise and so is soccer,” FC Cincinnati General Manager Jeff Berding told the Enquirer. “We’ve created an environment for a professional soccer team to be successful.”

“FC Cincinnati has done a fantastic job of putting a high-quality product on the field, filling Nippert Stadium with record-setting crowds, and adding to the vibrancy of our city,” Cranley added. “We are lucky to have FC Cincinnati and MLS would be lucky to have them too.”

FC Cincinnati looks to be a candidate for MLS expansion in the near future, and we will hear a lot more about that possibility when Garber speaks in Cincinnati. With Los Angeles FC, Minnesota United and Atlanta United FC joining next season, MLS will be up to 23 teams, while David Beckham’s Miami project remains a target for the 24th spot.

FC Cincinnati, which has recorded record-breaking attendance this season, is entering the United Soccer League playoffs. The team finished third in the USL’s Eastern Conference and will face the Charleston Battery in the first round of the playoffs this weekend.

Comments

  1. 27th largest area in the country and the league is destined to go to 30…and they are supporting soccer.

    Makes sense.

    Only thing one missing. They will be in the East, they will need to be an inferior team. It is written in the franchise agreements.

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    • For sure the former. I’d still wait for Cincinnati to play a full year or two before breaking out “should” unless you’re implying “in 5 years or so”

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      • Not surprising a New England fan wants to “wait”.

        Cincinnati FC will likely have a stadium before New England “should” and that’s embarrassing. Then again, they have fans that actually attend their matches.

      • Be more of a troll OS. Both teams play in football stadiums, and per capita, the Revs do a better job filling theirs

      • yeah because that is a criteria in The Don’s “Expansion Criteria Manual”…5 years is way too long, but i do get your overall point and it’s fair.

      • Yeah Bryan, I’m using my own criteria, not the Don’s. FWIW, I do think Cincinnati is most derseving of any city/team not already in MLS, where in includes Minny/Atlanta/LAFC and excludes Miami

  2. The Don has proven that sweet nectar of buy-in fees to the league as a source of revenue will continue to bloat the league until they’re forced to create two divisions: MLS 1/East & MLS 2/West.

    Not saying it’s a bad thing because an expanded field will eventually set up the framework for promotion/relegation once the next guy takes over.

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    • I don’t know this for a fact, but I’m guessing it’s more the owners who are opposed to a promo/releg set up as to not dilute their investment. After all, Don’s job is more or less to carry out the owners’ wishes, no?. You have to wonder what assurances new owners ask/get when they’re about to drop $100M for a new franchise…

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      • Completely get that as it’s brought up every single time (with validity).

        No one is confused that MLS is a business but that side of things aren’t at the forefront of fans concerns. To be blunt, you can appreciate our league while still noting it’s just flat out boring and manufactured. Even when you consider counter-argument that other prominent soccer leagues have the usual suspects of top tier teams there’s still battles within the mid-table and within the lower-table that are incredibly exciting. That’s created by a Pro/Rel system.

        It’s a punishing system to those relegated but it’s a rewarding system to the fans. The same fans that are responsible for billion dollar TV packages and ad revenue coming in for these same prominent soccer leagues with the usual suspects of the top tier teams.

        In order to make money you have to spend money and MLS has openly admitted it doesn’t make much (and referenced most clubs are in the negative). Hence, we see The Don going back to the well over and over again for these buy-in fees.

      • Old School if you completely get it, you wouldn’t bring it up every time to have someone counter it every time.

        It ain’t happening. Ever. The Don is playing games with your head. Maybe the next guy does it!
        No. The owners don’t want it. He does what they want, obviously. They want a set number of teams that maximize profits for the larger and larger TV contracts. They don’t want a second league that is in competition with the first league for money and eyeballs and doesn’t really make any money, but takes away from the first league TV contracts. Pretty simple.

        It ain’t happening. Ever.

      • The Don is playing games with your head.

        …what? If we’re talking absolutes, and playing games with ones head let’s reflect on another pipe dream that will never come to fruition: MLS being a top league by 2022 (or ever) in it’s current system.

        It ain’t happening. Ever.

    • And as we all know, poll after poll after poll shows the clamoring for promotion / relegation among U.S. soccer fans. In fact, even Ives conducted a poll in 2014 on this very website but, sadly, the results can no longer be accessed to prove the point. You have to put in the hard work, research, and do your homework in order to express your thoughts here on the topic. I think it’s time for The Don to retire down south and for a proper football system to finally be implemented here in the New World.

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      • Only the second time now I’ve seen your name and you still haven’t earned a seat at the dictating table, but you’re fast earning a seat a the dick riding table.

      • Old School old pal, what gives you the right to dictate who can express his/her thoughts and opinions in the comments section of a soccer website? The sheer volume of your mostly nonsense comments? It’s a free country…and a free website. You are a massive tool and I just couldn’t resist when I saw your comments here. Go back and read your many posts on sbisoccer.com aloud in the mirror to yourself. If you can do that and come away thinking that you don’t sound like an arrogant prick, well then there’s no hope for you. See I don’t comment here looking to dictate a discussion or anything else. I just comment because I have something to say. Ride on that.

      • Haha. Of course you back the troll, NE Revs. I would expect nothing less from someone routinely upset about my commentary on that horrible franchise you call a club.

  3. OT: Can we just swap Sacramento for Miami and get that city going already? And this is coming from someone who lives only 2 hours from Miami and who would love to see a good Florida rivalry, but the whole thing is becoming a farce…

    Reply

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