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FC Cincinnati has joined MLS, will begin play in 2019

FC Cincinnati will be the league's 26th franchise.
Credit: Sam Greene/The Enquirer
Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber speaks in an exclusive interview with The Enquirer at Rhinegeist Brewery in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati on Tuesday, May 29, 2018.

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 begin play in 2019, as had been previously reported.

Lindner, 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 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."

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