Expectations were high for a number of the USL’s expansion class of 2016, but none entered with the goals FC Cincinnati had set for itself entering its first season in the league.

Those expectations were smashed as the club scored big both on and off the field, with Head Coach John Harkes’ squad quickly finding its level in the USL’s Eastern Conference in front of record-breaking crowds at Nippert Stadium.

Cincinnati welcomed five-figure crowds to every home game in the regular-season and USL Cup Playoffs in its first year, breaking the USL regular-season attendance record on three separate occasions, and then the league’s overall attendance record three times as well. The club’s regular-season finale against Orlando City B drew a crowd of 24,376, while FCC’s first USL Cup Playoffs game against the Charleston Battery saw 30,187 in attendance.