On Tuesday, May 29th, the MLS announced that the league will see the addition of a new team in 2019: FC Cincinnati.
FC Cincinnati’s humble beginnings date back to 2015, when the club was built from scratch on the East Side of Cincinnati. The club first began playing in 2016 at Nippert Stadium at the University of Cincinnati.
In less than a year, the team that plays its home games on a college campus will play on the biggest stage of soccer in the United States.
The past couple of years have been very successful for the club and have hence warranted a promotion.
In 2017, FC Cincinnati played their first game against an MLS side--Columbus Crew--in which they won, 1-0. Two weeks later, they played their second MLS side--Chicago Fire--and again prevailed, this time winning 3-1 in penalty kicks.
In addition to success on the field, FC Cincinnati also has an incredibly large fan base relative to any soccer team in the USA, not to mention that the team only started playing two years ago.
The average attendance for an FC Cincinnati game in 2017 was 21,199 people, which is nearly 2,000 more people than the average attendance record for our dear New England Revolution, who averaged 19,367 fans per game in 2017. FC Cincinnati’s highest attendance of a home game is 35,061.
Additionally, in 2021, a new 21,000-seat stadium is set to open solely for FC Cincinnati in the West End of Cincinnati.
A fantastic fan base, a boatload of talent on the team, an excellent coaching staff... what is there not to feel good about for FC Cincinnati fans?
“This club and the city truly deserve this. We've all witnessed what's happening in the city, we've all witnessed the fans showing up for every single game – it's truly remarkable,” said FC Cincinnati coach Alan Koch. “Major League Soccer made a great decision today.” (via mlssoccer.com)
(Stats by soccerstadiumdigest.com and ESPN)
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