MLS wants to get to 28 teams, and Nashville and Miami were awarded expansion franchises to get the league to 25. On Tuesday, MLS commissioner Don Garber announced FC Cincinnati will join the league as an expansion team in 2019.
FC Cincinnati have been playing in the lower-level USL since 2016. Since they can continue to play at the University of Cincinnati’s Nippert Stadium while their own venue is being built, they’ll leapfrog Nashville and Miami to start play in MLS a year earlier.
MLS added teams in Atlanta and Minnesota in 2017, and two more expansion teams seem likely to come from the other nine cities that submitted bids for a franchise.