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Reports: Cincinnati to land MLS team, begin play in 2019

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Cincinnati has been the front runner for the next spot in MLS for quite some time, but it appears a formal announcement could come at any time.

According to The Cincinnati Enquirer, the Queen City could be awarded an MLS franchise as early as next week. Their report indicates that a “major soccer announcement” is slated for Tuesday at Fountain Square and that Don Garber will be in attendance.

(UPDATE: Sports Illustrated is reporting that Cincinnati will join MLS for the 2019 season and will play at the University of Cincinnati’s Nippert Stadium until a new stadium in the city’s West End neighborhood is finished in 2021.)

Cincinnati has been the favorite to land the second of two available expansion slots for quite some time. They recently got their stadium situation figured out in the form of a plot of land in the West End, just a short walk away from downtown.

The city has the recent history of supporting soccer. FC Cincinnati set a USL record for highest attendance last season when 477,000 fans watched their games throughout the year.

Comments

  1. also not sure what this means for columbus, but this is the good expansion news i’ve been waiting to hear. waiting for the announcement.

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  2. Excellent decision. Cincy is perfect for MLS. Not sure what this decision means for the future of the Columbus Crew but it will be interesting to see how that’s situation develops going forward. And it has to be assumed that Sacramento is the front runner for the next expansion franchise that’s expected to be awarded later this year.

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  3. Sacramento- where the love? Why not a place that would have a great fanbase. A great pool of local talent and leagues to draw players in for Development. Makes too much sense.

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    • There’s a difference between regularly pulling 21k fans, more than many MLS teams pull, and pulling 12k and speculating that if I opened a stadium and you gave me a team, of course it would become __________.

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  4. Seems like a no-brainer to let them start in 2019 and play at Nippert temporarily to get to an even 24 teams, if ownership is willing

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    • The numbers obsession is silly. We need “good teams” not “a nice even number” or some impressive amount people have in their heads from NFL or something. It’s weird because people obsess about EPL or B.1 and we’re long since past 18-20.

      Reply

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