Doc: Time will tell if FC Cincinnati endures

The United Soccer League on Wednesday announced its presence in Cincinnati with a phalanx of local notables, including Mayor John Cranley; University of Cincinnati Athletic Director Mike Bohn; team owner Carl Lindner III; his mother, Edith; and her white Rolls Royce, parked just outside, next to the statue of Oscar Robertson.

It might have been coincidence that the gleaming Rolls took center stage at the entrance to the event announcing that FC Cincinnati will begin play at Nippert Stadium next March.

Or maybe it wasn’t.

Regardless, the point was well taken: The Lindner family is bankrolling Cincinnati’s latest foray into pay-for-play soccer. If the Lindners can’t make it work, who can?

So many others have tried. Professional soccer teams – indoor and outdoor – have come and gone like streetcars. (Whoops, bad metaphor, Cincinnati. Sorry.) Did you know we once had a team here called the Excite? I had no idea.

Take a bow, Kids and Silverbacks and RiverHawks and Kings. Wherever you are.

We play as much youth futbol here as anywhere in the country, correct? Take a drive some Saturday morning across the suburban pastures. See kiddos playing soccer. I mean, everywhere. The job of Futbol Club Cincinnati is to get the parents of those strivers to open their wallets and let those credit cards breathe.

It’s never happened before, so excuse the skepticism.

I wanted to ask Gary De Jesus, FC Cincinnati’s senior vice president of marketing and communications, how he planned to convince the soccer disciples that the one true church had arrived. De Jesus politely said he was too busy to speak.

Well, OK.

The president of the USL was at the gathering. Jake Edwards played collegiate soccer at James Madison University in Virginia and professionally in England for a decade, before earning an MBA and moving to the business side. He said the USL would work here because the money backing the team is old and stable. (And quite possibly infinite).

Someone else important referred to the Lindners investment – along with smaller contributions from other locals, including Reds shareholder Jack Wyant – as “patient capital."

Edwards said the league only considered towns whose owners it judged to be long-haul types offering “a sensible economic model. "You’ve got a committed ownership group," he said. Edwards also argued this is the best time for pro soccer in Cincinnati.

The sensible owners are betting $2 million – the league franchise fee – that Edwards is right. Home games will be at a renovated Nippert, right next to 30,000 students. The city center is succeeding, soccer itself is popular among Millennials. And so on.

“It’s really perfect timing," Carl Lindner III – CL3 to some of us – suggested. “We see soccer as a sport of tremendous growth."

That’s undeniable. So is the reality that the soccer boom never has spread to the pro ranks, at least not here. Soccer moms, dads, Connors and Ashleys might stuff the minivan with coolers and gym bags on weekends, but they didn’t point it toward Silverbacks games.

Now is the time for local soccer passion-istas to let ‘er rip.

The USL has 26 teams for now, which sounds excessive. Some are located in mid-sized cities (Louisville, Austin, Cincinnati), some in the big-city ‘burbs (Fenton, Missouri, and Harrison, New Jersey) while others are in towns only mapmakers know about (Tukwila, Washington, Sandy, Utah).

The USL is a “third-tier" pro league in the U.S., considered a developmental outpost for its big brothers, MLS and NASL. As such, it is yet another minor-league foray into our town, which we like to see as major league. Its season runs from March to September, which could be problematic if the Reds are in town. Louisville draws well, apparently, partly because it has no Reds.

There is no draft in the USL. FC Cincinnati can pluck players from anywhere: Tryouts, former MLS and NASL players, current USL chaps whose contracts have expired. Teams can even buy a player currently under contract. Will the Lindners will become the Steinbrenners of the USL? We can only hope.

John Harkes will be the coach. Harkes is an American soccer icon, who was also the first Yank to play in the English Premier League. In 1994, Harkes was named one of “50 Most Beautiful People" by People magazine. So there is that.

Meantime, team general manager Jeff Berding urged the masses to put down deposits on season tickets. “We’ll only be successful together."

True enough. Maybe pro kicks will work this time.

It’s never wrong to be optimistic, when the subject is pro soccer here. Or harsh to be cynical.