Patrick Brennan

pbrennan@enquirer.com

Cincinnati's upstart professional soccer franchise kicked off its inaugural USL season March 26 with a big goal in mind – make it to the big leagues.

FC Cincinnati has the backing of high-profile names and big money, but none of it guarantees the franchise will someday join Major League Soccer. It will take sustained success on and off-the-field – enough for Cincinnati to someday be able to build a soccer-specific stadium.

Even then, the MLS may not call.

FC Cincinnati President and General Manager Jeff Berding says while his organization aspires to eventually be considered for MLS expansion, there are no plans to build a stadium or any other team facilities.

FC Cincinnati announced last summer the University of Cincinnati's Nippert Stadium would serve as its home venue in 2016. The deal with UC is in its initial, three-year term and could keep FC Cincinnati at Nippert for up to 15 years, Berding said, because it provides for automatic renewal for four additional three-year terms.

But not having a stadium in the works could be damaging to FC Cincinnati's cause, said Fox Sports soccer analyst and former U.S. men's national team veteran Alexi Lalas.

"This is a gold rush, and you’ve got to get there and stake your claim because they’re going to continue to expand, but eventually it will be capped," Lalas told The Enquirer. "This is not for the faint of heart. There are going to be plenty of casualties along the way. People are going to get hurt, and not everybody is going to get rich. And it’s going to require deep pockets, not just fortitude of body and mind."

Berding said his rationale for standing pat with the current Nippert Stadium arrangement is two-pronged. The organization's financial structure is built around playing its games at Nippert, and Berding also said he thinks UC's historic football stadium would be suitable for the MLS.

Berding noted Orlando City SC plays in the Citrus Bowl (capacity of more than 60,000). But Orlando City also has a soccer-specific stadium in the works, and won't play in the Citrus Bowl beyond 2016, according to the Orlando City website.

"You have Orlando City drawing over 30,000 people per game their first year in MLS. You have New York City FC drawing over 30,000 their first year, so why would you want to go build a 20 to 25,000 seat stadium when you have a 40,000-seat stadium," said Berding. "We understand that one of the requirements (for MLS) will be a winning venue, and we're making improvements at Nippert to have a winning venue.

"We think Nippert works quite well, and we believe it would work quite well for MLS if we were ever to get that opportunity," Berding said. "And are we aware that there's an effort to build soccer-only stadiums? Of course we are."

FC Cincinnati invested in a new playing surface at Nippert, as well as locker room renovations.

Even with upgrades to suit a professional soccer team, Nippert remains a college football venue, and a storied one at that. It doesn't qualify as a long term, "major league" stadium solution, Lalas said.

"In this day and age, ‘major league’ means having your own soccer-specific stadium and having your own facility, and being able to show how it’s going to get done," Lalas said, "and in the current climate, a lot of times it can't be done with public funding."

Hamilton County officials have struggled for years to cope with taxpayers’ obligations under the leases for the city’s two pro sports stadiums – Great American Ball Park and Paul Brown Stadium. Those leases require county taxpayers to cover a wide range of maintenance and upgrades, from scoreboard replacements to concrete repairs.

A third municipal stadium project is unlikely, and stadium funding likely would have to come from the team's investments group, which is headed by Carl Lindner III.

The team has scored dozens of corporate sponsorship deals that could also help build momentum and interest in constructing a soccer stadium. Toyota, UC Health, U.S. Bank and United Dairy Farmers are among the team's sponsors.

FC Cincinnati isn't looking into constructing its own practice facility either. The team bounced back and forth between Wall2Wall Soccer, an indoor facility in Mason, and the Xavier University and UC campuses for preseason practice. With the USL season now two games old, Cincinnati continues to juggle practice time between Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy in Sycamore Township and UC.

"Our capital investments are focused on Nippert Stadium and our budget is focused on investments in Nippert Stadium," Berding said. "Certainly, one of the things Nippert does not provide for us is the grass practice field. There have been some discussions, including with the University of Cincinnati, about a potential longer-term solution for a grass practice field. To the extent that we were talking about an off-site training facility – we’re not talking about locker rooms and offices. We might be talking about a grass field. We obviously have a solution this year at CHCA."

The race to expansion

MLS opened the 2016 season with 20 teams, but four additional franchises are already on the horizon. Atlanta, Minneapolis-St. Paul, the rebirth of Los Angeles' second franchise, are expected to be operational by 2020. Former international soccer star David Beckham's project to bring an MLS team to Miami could also be off the ground by then.

So, while MLS Commissioner Don Garber announced in February MLS would eventually expand to 28 teams, the reality is as few as four open slots might be available to FC Cincinnati.

Lalas said Cincinnati's main competition for an expansion slot would be fellow USL franchises Sacramento Republic FC and San Antonio FC, which is owned by the same ownership group as the NBA's San Antonio Spurs.

An expansion bid in St. Louis has been rapidly gaining momentum, and Lalas said other potential MLS destinations include Las Vegas, San Diego and Detroit.

Lalas said FC Cincinnati can become vital to MLS by first becoming vital in its own marketplace. For now, it will have to work to shake the "small market" moniker, Lalas added.

“Does MLS need Cincy as an MLS team? Probably not," Lalas said. "So, what you’re going to have to do is prove to MLS that this is going to go great here ... We have seen that if you can be relevant in your market, and you can be authentic and, to a certain extent, organic, and come to represent the unique aspects of the people that live there, you can do some really, really good things.”