FC Cincinnati: MLS deadline on soccer stadium passed Saturday without a site selection

A Saturday deadline that should have settled speculation about where a soccer stadium might go in Cincinnati will pass without comment from FC Cincinnati.

The team's general manager, Jeff Berding, said this month he was facing a March 31 deadline set by Major League Soccer to finalize a soccer stadium plan. The team has been considering sites in Oakley and West End in Cincinnati and Newport in Northern Kentucky.

Team officials said Friday that no announcements or updates about the stadium selection will be made until early next week. The team has not said if a plan has been delivered to the league.

It appears all three sites remain in play, although the team issued a statement two weeks ago saying it was shutting down plans in West End. Work to land a West End site has continued, despite the statement.

The growing movement toward a West End site could continue Wednesday. Cincinnati Public Schools board has issued a notice it will meet in executive session Wednesday about the potential land swap.

Previously, the school board had demanded the club pay its fair share of taxes before giving the team Stargel Stadium.

Other developments during the week underscored the momentum for the West End site. They included:

West End Community Council President Keith Blake confirmed the council on Monday delivered a framework of a community benefits agreement to the club.

The Greater Cincinnati Redevelopment Authority was scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss financing options in Oakley only to have the authority chairman, Charlie Luken, cancel the meeting. Luken said he refused to the authority to be used as leverage by the team while talks were ongoing about the West End site.

Mayor John Cranley, in the midst of trying to remove City Manager Harry Black, said he planned to introduce legislation supporting a stadium in West End. The mayor didn't specify what might be in the proposal. Cranley had said earlier in March that it would be "tragic" if the stadium wasn't built in the West End.

FC Cincinnati's efforts to pick a potential MLS stadium site have meandered over 17 months, beginning 15 months after the team began to play at Nippert Stadium.

The site search started in November 2016, as the team hunted for a 20-acre site to host a stadium. One challenge has been finding a piece of land that size in a city with a lot of historic structures. Action to finally pick a site has been compressed in the last five months, after a city election.

Team officials have said the new stadium could open either midway through the 2020 season or at the start of the 2021 season.

A soccer-specific stadium is a prerequisite for FC Cincinnati's bid for a Major League Soccer franchise. Each time local officials have suggested the use of Nippert or Paul Brown stadiums, MLS has reasserted this requirement.

If Saturday's deadline passes, it wouldn't be the first time. MLS was set to make its decision about whether Cincinnati would be allowed to join the league in December. The league instead only awarded a franchise to Nashville, leaving Detroit, Sacramento and Cincinnati in limbo.

Once a stadium site is picked, observers believe Cincinnati is the frontrunner to land an MLS franchise. In late February, the league mentioned the team was ahead of Detroit and Sacramento, but a stadium deal remained the last box the team needed to check. The only thing left to do apparently would be MLS Commissioner Don Garber coming to the city and holding up an orange and blue scarf.

Berding has said he doesn't expect MLS to make a decision about his team's admission to the league until after the team's home opener on April 7.

More: Longtime Berding critic calls FC Cincinnati stadium situation 'madness'

More: It's 6 days until the deadline to pick an FC Cincinnati stadium site. Will it get done?

More: After everything, Cranley pushing soccer stadium in the West End

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Sports reporter Charlie Hatch contributed.