Getting Closer...

 A few weeks ago, FC Cincinnati’s last piece in its Major League Soccer expansion bid seemingly fell into place when both Cincinnati Public Schools and Cincinnati City Council approved a deal that made the West End the future site of an FCC soccer specific stadium. FCC appeared to have all the boxes checked. Fan support and a strong ownership group were there from the beginning. However, the stadium situation was a total mess. It rotated form Oakley to the West End to Newport to no sites are in play back to the West End. Despite all the drama, a stadium deal was secured and speculation that MLS would vote on FCC’s bid at the next board of governor’s meeting ran rampant. Ultimately no vote took place although MLS did issue a statement that appeared to have singled out FCC as the frontrunner.

Fast forward to April 29 when FCC general manager Jeff Berding and team owner Carl Linder III were spotted in Los Angeles at LAFC’s stadium opener. Taylor Twellman of ESPN said he believed Berding and Linder were there to meet with MLS and that he would be “shocked” if FC Cincinnati was not announced as the next MLS expansion team in 10-14 days. FC Cincinnati then released a statement on May 2 that sounded as if it contradicted Twellman.

The club acknowledged that they met with MLS but also noted that they still had to finalize various legal agreements with CPS, the city of Cincinnati, Hamilton County, the Port Authority, and Nippert Stadium. Apparently once everything is signed and finalized, the bid will be complete and ready for review by MLS. The franchise also stated that they are scheduling a visit to Cincinnati by MLS commissioner Don Garber and other MLS officials. While this visit may be to inspect the stadium site, the statement also noted that Garber and company will meet with club ownership.

While the statement that FCC issued is not great, it is good. Trying to read between the lines, it appears that FCC needs a few signatures on its agreements with the city and CPS among others in order to fully cement them as finished. MLS has been burned by stadium situations in the past so it makes sense that the league would want everything in place before an expansion bid is granted. The statement about Nippert Stadium seems to suggest that FCC could begin MLS play in 2019 should it receive the bid and if Nippert is approved as a temporary venue until the stadium is built. The other statement that popped out at me was that Garber and league officials will meet with club ownership. If the visit were to just inspect the site, I think that would have been mentioned. In fact, the West End site is not mentioned at all in the statement. Could the visit be to iron the out last details of the bid and schedule an MLS announcement? Only time will tell.