FC Cincinnati's stop-and-go roller coaster of spin and parsed words needs to be parked for good.

Will we ever get the actual truth from the soccer club about its West End stadium site plans and what the team wants to do near it?

In January 2018, team president Jeff Berding told WCPO-TV: “Let me stress this: We’re not taking anyone’s homes. We’re going to increase home ownership. We’re going to increase the number of people living in a neighborhood. The notion that we’re somehow going to try to buy people’s homes out, move people out of the neighborhood, that’s just false. That's just made up.”

Today, at least 17 residents have been or are being told to get out of their homes.

Oh, FC Cincinnati would say the people being displaced are renters – not homeowners – and none of them live on the actual stadium site. Those folks live in buildings adjacent to the approved stadium site, properties bought by none other than FC Cincinnati.

Excuse me while I regain my balance from all the spin.

Fact: Whether it's the actual stadium site or adjacent land, if FC Cincinnati owns it, then it's all related to the new 26,500-seat venue. The adjacent land might be used for parking or fan plazas or even new condos, but it's all owned by FC Cincinnati and centers on the club making its new home in the West End.

Why can't the team just be upfront about that?

Maybe the team is worried about another public relations hit. Too late.

FC Cincinnati stepped into another mess of its own doing when news broke earlier this month that the team is buying three buildings on Wade Street, a stone's throw from where the north end of the new grass field, er, pitch, will be.

A 99-year-old, bedridden woman has been told to move from one of those buildings, feeding a narrative pushed by stadium opponents that the big, bad, billionaire team owners don't care.

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I believe Carl Lindner III and his ownership group actually care a lot, and this $250 million private investment in a struggling neighborhood is a good thing for the city. But the lack of transparency, the spin and parsing of words coming from FC Cincinnati's front office is overshadowing the good right now.

Had the team been upfront about actually having to displace residents, most fair-minded and objective people would've understood. It's hard to do any massive development project in an urban-core neighborhood without displacing residents.

FC Cincinnati is a private organization and it's free to make deals with other private businesses, as was the case with FC Cincinnati and the Wade Street building owners. But when you originally tell the public no one will lose their homes to make way for the stadium and then pull a fast one, it can erode credibility. And in this neighborhood, the team needs to build credibility along with its stadium.

Unfortunately, this isn't the first time the club hasn't been fully forthcoming about its stadium site.

Last year, after the team bought the ballet property adjacent to the stadium site, FC Cincinnati promised everything would stay the same for the arts organization. Soon after, however, FC Cincinnati released stadium renderings showing that it was taking the ballet's parking lot.

Public backlash helped restore the ballet's parking lot. But does anyone honestly think that issue is fully dead?

That's not the only reason to be highly skeptical of FC Cincinnati's West End dealings moving forward. Cincinnati's District 1 police station sits adjacent to the stadium site. It's perfectly fine where it is. But given that FC Cincinnati is trying to acquire other properties directly next to the stadium site, does the club also want to take control of that taxpayer-owned property?

Geez, I'd sure like to know.

FC Cincinnati would help itself by giving the public a full overview of why it is buying the Wade Street properties and whether it wants any other sites around the stadium. Go ahead and be upfront about the rest of the plans.

The club is building mistrust as it builds the new stadium. It's so unfortunate, because we all wanted to believe the hometown team would be honest with its hometown people.

As FC Cincinnati goes about business in this manner, however, I worry the team could be fueling skepticism about the broader problem of how redevelopment is being done in the city.

Residents in struggling neighborhoods have a real fear of being displaced by the next sexy development project. And this is giving them every reason not to believe a word from any developer.

Subscribe and listen to Jason's That's So Cincinnati podcast on Apple Podcasts. Email: jwilliams@enquirer.com