Patrick Brennan

pbrennan@enquirer.com

FC Cincinnati is likely to be among the United Soccer League leaders in season tickets sold for the 2016 season, according to the team.

Jeff Berding, president and general manager of FC Cincinnati, told The Enquirer during a Monday interview the team recently surpassed its goal of 4,000 season tickets sold ahead of the start of its inaugural season.

Berding declined to confirm the exact number of season tickets sold to date, but said the amount is "north of 4,000."

At that number, Cincinnati is likely to be near the top of USL in season ticket sales, Berding said.

USL officials were unable to confirm current USL rankings for season tickets sold as clubs aren't required to report season ticket sales until after their respective home openers.

Still, Cincinnati's progress is on USL's radar.

"Obviously, we are very pleased that FC Cincinnati has reached its goal of 4,000 season tickets well ahead of its first game," said USL spokesman Nicholas Murrary.

Cincinnati will play its home games at the University of Cincinnati's Nippert Stadium. The seating capacity at Nippert expanded from 35,000 to 40,000 for the Bearcats' 2015 football season.

The stadium will be configured to utilize 10,000 seats for USL matches.

Cincinnati's first regular-season home game is April 9 against Charlotte independence. The team will play a friendly against the Dayton University men's soccer team at Nippert April 5.

Cincinnati's first-ever game will be played March 26 at Charleston Battery.

Preseason update

FC Cincinnati played Indy Eleven (second-division NASL) to a 1-1 Saturday in Indianapolis. Cincinnati (2-0-2) remains undefeated this postseason.

Xavier University graduate Luke Spencer netted his team-leading third goal of the preseason.

Cincinnati plays again Friday against Xavier University at the XU soccer complex.