For one, both FCC and the Riverhounds already have a serious rival on their hands in Louisville City FC and the Harrisburg City Islanders. Then, there’s the fact that this hasn’t been the most compelling series over the past two years. FCC is 3-0-1 all-time, with all three wins coming by a 1-0 final score. The other game ended in a 0-0 draw, leaving the two sets of supporters with little to grab hold of in the short history between the teams.

“We are of the mindset that a rivalry gets built on the field, in multiple games and different dramatic events,” said Riverhounds fan Jordan Allen of the Steel Army. “With Harrisburg, they’re our main rivals, we have the Miracle on the Mon, the time we spoiled them from getting into the playoffs, the time they took the Keystone Cup away from us. We just don’t feel like we have enough of a relationship with Cincinnati yet as a sports franchise to talk about a rivalry.”

“It doesn’t quite have the same excitement on gamedays,” added Lammi, “and there’s obviously controversies between players and coaches in Cincinnati and Louisville where we don’t really see that happening between us and the Riverhounds. I think it’s going to take something on the field, or some comments off the field, to really stir something up.”

That said, the similarities between the cities and the history in baseball and football shows that something could certainly develop. Allen points to the proud nature of sports fans in both Pittsburgh and Cincinnati as the root of the rivalries, and the on-field action in the postseason from the battles between the Reds and Pirates in the 1970s and 1980s to the more recent skirmishes between the Steelers and Bengals have only accelerated that passion.

“We like to think our sports teams are better than most peoples, and I think Cincinnati has that mindset as well,” said Allen. “You can look at football, especially, and the passion in the fan groups, how much they support their crew and their teams. Whenever someone’s against you they rally together, an ‘if you’re not with us, you’re against us,’ type of mindset.”