FC Cincinnati will play its inaugural MLS season in 2019

Welcome to Major League Soccer, Cincinnati.

On Tuesday, Futbol Club Cincinnati turned the page on its years-long MLS expansion push and celebrated across the city as the club was welcomed to the top soccer league in America and Canada by team and league officials.

The formal confirmation of FC Cincinnati's jump to MLS had been anticipated for weeks, but the development was made official during an event attended by local and national soccer dignitaries Tuesday at Rhinegeist Brewery in Over the Rhine.

There, amid scenes of pageantry and the same kind of fanfare that's become synonymous with the FC Cincinnati movement, MLS Commissioner Don Garber officially welcomed the Queen City club to the league as its 26th franchise, and the last of two organizations to be accepted in the first of two expected rounds of expansion.

By Tuesday, with all the MLS expansion deadlines, civic debates about stadiums and infrastructure, and general fatigue around the process in the rearview mirror, celebrations were sparked across the city.

With beers in the hands of many, at least 900 patrons celebrated the announcement at Rhingeist.

Hundreds more gathered on Fountain Square in Downtown and watched the simulcast of the Rhinegeist event on a large-format screen.

Garber confirmed to The Enquirer FC Cincinnati is now an MLS member, with majority owner Carl Lindner III now a member of the league's board.

"Jeff (Berding is) the CEO of FC Cincinnati, an MLS team, and I now report to him," Garber joked during an exclusive interview with The Enquirer prior to the official announcement.

FC Cincinnati will play in MLS in 2019, as had been previously reported.

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Lindner III, during the exclusive Enquirer interview with Garber and Berding, said the team first learned of its confirmation for MLS about a month ago while attending the opening match at Los Angeles FC's Banc of California Stadium.

"That was probably the first time I heard Don congratulate me and Jeff congratulate me," Lindner III said of the trip to see the newest MLS venue.

"This was a long time coming, so I think it’s fair to say – and you’ll hear this a bit in my remarks – Carl had an enormous passion for this city and for the community, for FC Cincinnati and for trying to take a step forward in building the sport in this country," Garber told The Enquirer. "We and our expansion committee felt that when he and (Berding) and John Cranley came in, like all deals, it takes time to get them finalized. Fair to say that several weeks ago we knew we were shaking hands and crossing the ‘T’s’ and dotting the “I’s.”

"I think almost from the very first time we saw what was happening here, we had a sense that Cincinnati belonged in Major League Soccer."

The Rhinegeist ceremony was broadcast around the world, an MLS spokesman confirmed.

That allowed Berding, Lindner, Garber and Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley an international audience for their remarks at the brewery.

As most MLS expansion announcements go, FC Cincinnati was officially christened for MLS with the donning of MLS-branded knit soccer scarfs with "CINCINNATI" emblazoned all the way across them.

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With ESPN soccer broadcasters Taylor Twellman and Adrian Healey emceeing the proceedings, the throng at Rhinegeist applauded uproariously for the stage filled to the brim with MLS and FC Cincinnati brass.

FC Cincinnati won't suddenly turn to the onboarding process for MLS – it started long ago for Berding, he said during remarks prior to Tuesday's event at the brewery.

The team is in the process of designing its training facility and building out other infrastructure needs for the immediate future of the organization.

All of that can wait for Wednesday, though, Berding said.

"It's a proud moment, for sure. It's a celebration of our city. It's a celebration of the world's sport coming to our hometown in a way that allows us to promote Cincinnati on a global scale at a time when that's probably more important than ever," Berding said. "It's certainly the culmination of a lot of hard work. There were certainly some times where it tests the soul but I will say that the new friends we've made in the West End encouraged me. They sent me emails and text messages. They were praying in biblical verse to me and I'd go to supporter events and just feel the passion of our supporters... It really moved me to really keep my head down and just keep moving the ball up the field."