Cincinnati, Ohio has been awarded a Major League Soccer expansion team, Commissioner Don Garber announced on Tuesday. The club will begin MLS play in the 2019 season.
The expansion side, which will continue as FC Cincinnati when it joins MLS, plans to play at Nippert Stadium until 2021, when a new 21,000-seat soccer stadium in Cincinnati’s West End neighborhood is expected to be completed.
FC Cincinnati’s managing owner is Carl H. Lindner III, the co-CEO of Cincinnati-based American Financial Group, which owns Great American Insurance. Among Lindner’s partners are Scott Farmer, Chairman and CEO of Cintas Corp.