No End in Sight

 I knew that waiting for an announcement from Major League Soccer would take some time, but I did not think it would be this excruciatingly long. What was supposed to be announced before Christmas spilled into January. MLS Commissioner Don Garber said an announcement would be made before the start of the 2018 MLS season, and FC Cincinnati general manager Jeff Berding said he expected an announcement by the end of February. The waiting game was seemingly almost finished. The end was in sight. Then FC Cincinnati as well as the other two expansion cities of Detroit and Sacramento were hit with some news in the form of a Sports Illustrated article by Brian Straus.

In the article, MLS president and deputy commissioner Mark Abbott said, “We don’t have, and don’t need to have, a fixed deadline, and we will wait until all of the necessary elements are in place before selecting the next club.” In other words, keep waiting. As a diehard FC Cincinnati fan who wants to see this team compete in MLS, this quote was like a dagger to the heart. After months of waiting and scouring the internet for any piece of MLS expansion news, I was told to sit tight. In my opinion, MLS has botched this entire expansion process. It makes the league look bad, and it is also making my beloved soccer team look bad as well.

FC Cincinnati is currently trying to finalize its stadium situation. The club continually says that Oakley, the West End, and Newport are all still in play. At the time that this post was written, Beridng is preparing to present the results of the Oakley site traffic, the West End is nearing Civil War status as heated arguments that pit anti stadium residents against club and stadium supporters has been a hot topic in the news, and the Newport site remains untouched and seemingly off the radar. The soccer stadium, which will only be built should the franchise get the bid, is a huge topic of debate and has cast the team in a negative light. Despite the stadium fiasco that surrounds FCC, there was a bit of good news to come from that Sports Illustrated article that gives me hope.

Abbott said, “Although we haven’t finalized any deals and all of the finalist markets remain under consideration, we’ve made the most progress in Cincinnati.”  That is obviously very good news if you’re an FCC fan. That statement makes it seem like FCC is the front-runner for MLS expansion. The ownership group is there, the passionate fan base is there, and the stadium is almost there but ultimately remains a work in progress. If the franchise can lock down a stadium site, hopefully their bid will be considered complete and warrant a visit to the Queen City from Don Garber. Until that day, there is seemingly no end in sight for the MLS expansion waiting game.