FC Cincinnati joined Major League Soccer (MLS) this year! Considering this team has only been in existence since 2016 (as a member of USL Championship), becoming the 24th team in MLS is pretty impressive!
Technically, this is not an official stop on the stadium tour, nor does it count for checking a team off of the list. FC Cincinnati will open their own soccer-specific stadium in 2021, so that is when we will officially be able to mark off FC Cincinnati and their stadium off the list. However, because they have officially replaced the Columbus Crew as my local team, I thought it only fair to give my thoughts on their current status so I can compare it to their new, hopefully spectacular stadium in a few years.
FC Cincinnati currently plays at Nippert Stadium, the football stadium for the University of Cincinnati. It’s a relatively small Division I college football stadium with a capacity of 40,000, but when FC Cincinnati plays, capacity is a little over 32,000. The stadium is on campus, next to the basketball arena and baseball stadiums, and connected to the campus recreation center. It was odd to see students with backpacks walking around while we walked to the game. I imagine some students get annoyed with the fans who invade their campus!
Before every game, FC Cincinnati has a family-friendly kids zone with games, sign making, and face painting. There’s usually a DJ or band, and it’s a fun place for kids to expend some energy before the game. What I like most about this area is that it is AFTER security, which means that the kids can play almost right up until game time without having to worry about getting through a security and ticket line. I love this feature – these fan zones are often outside of the stadium and outside of security, so either the fan zones shut down early so everyone can get into the game on time, or everyone ends up trying to get through security and ticket scanning last minute because they’re having fun playing in the fan zone.
FC Cincinnati supporters groups adopted a “March to the Match” in their inaugural season of the USL, starting at their respective supporters bars about 45 minutes before the game and joining forces to march to the stadium. We were in the kids zone and could hear them coming long before we could see them! The groups enter the stadium and march along the concourse, ultimately taking their place behind the goal in “The Bailey.”
Inside the stadium is very much a football stadium, though the set up works well for soccer. The stadium is a traditional bowl and the stands are fairly steep, so there are great views throughout the stadium. Unfortunately, with the exception of the skyboxes, the seats are all metal, backless benches. However, the stadium provides cushioned, stadium seats for most of the seating on the sidelines, which made watching the game much more comfortable.
Since its inception, FC Cincinnati has had great fan attendance, currently averaging over 27,000 fans per game in their first season, and over 25,000 fans in attendance at the game we attended. That makes them #3 in average fan attendance this year, behind Atlanta and Seattle who play in NFL stadiums! Though there were visibly empty seats (including in the Bailey!), the stadium felt full and there was a lot of excitement and noise at kick off.
The major downfall of attending an FC Cincinnati game is that the team is not good. Bottom of the table not good. Their opponent on Saturday, Toronto FC is fighting for a playoff spot, so they were very motivated. Less than ten minutes into the game, Toronto scored their first goal, and the score was 0-3 by halftime. After Michael Bradley scored the fourth goal, the stadium started emptying. We left at the 80th minute because the kiddo was melting down, and the score was 0-4, and by the time we left the parking garage, the game had ended at 1-5 with FC Cincinnati converting a penalty in the 90+2 mark.
Full disclosure: We have attended games when FC Cincinnati was in USL, and they were one of the best teams. As is often the case with sports, fans are much more engaged when the team wins than when the team is completely dominated.
In this case, because the game was so one-sided in the visiting team’s favor, the crowd lost interest fairly quickly and it became pretty quiet. We were sitting near The Bailey and could hear the chanting and singing throughout the game, but we could also see that even fans in The Bailey had stopped cheering and many were sitting. That’s just not allowed in the supporters section! The other thing I noticed is that while the fans in general were into the game, they didn’t join in with The Bailey’s cheers. We attended the US Men’s Soccer match against Venezuela at Nippert earlier in the summer, and observed that while attendees are soccer fans and are pretty knowledgeable about soccer, they haven’t engaged in soccer fan culture the way that Portland or Seattle or Kansas City have. Even with their awesome attendance, they still have a ways to go to create a consistent, electric atmosphere in the stadium. Still, even though the team is not playing well, the fans show up and that says something about the team and their fans.
There isn’t a tailgating culture at the games (parking is mostly in university parking garages), and there are plenty of restaurant and bar options around the university that are popular before games. We attended a corporate “tailgate” in a reserved area next to the kids zone before the game (catered by the university so it was delicious college cafeteria food), so aside from bribing the kiddo with Dippin Dots, we didn’t have any food at the stadium. The food selection is very basic college football stadium food- popcorn, soft pretzels, and sausages with a few local options, like Skyline Chili and LaRosa’s pizza. Several of the local craft breweries had tents in the concourse, and I’m guessing that they come specifically for FC Cincinnati games. The food was wholly underwhelming compared to so many MLS stadiums so I hope the new stadium will improve in this area.
There is definitely a dedicated fan base in Cincinnati, and I hope the excitement continues for this team because they are struggling to adapt to the level of play in MLS compared to USL. My fear is that after the new stadium is built, and the novelty of MLS and a new soccer-specific stadium wears off, fans will stop attending games unless they turn it around on the field. I really hope that doesn’t happen though, because FC Cincinnati really has built something special, and I want it to continue for the city and the fans.
