FC Cincinnati break ground on “ambitious,” “instantly recognizable” stadium

CINCINNATI – Around this time a year ago, FC Cincinnati were making their final presentation to Major League Soccer for consideration to join the league as an expansion club.

On Tuesday, the league’s 24th team celebrated the groundbreaking for their new soccer-specific stadium, which will be ready for play in 2021 in the city’s historic West End community – in time for the opening of FCC’s third MLS season.

Cincy were welcomed into MLS on May 29, a little more than a month after locking down the West End site, and stadium partners were announced four weeks later.

“You always have to have a real beginning for a professional sports team, so the launch six to eight months ago was the beginning of knowing FC Cincinnati would be playing in 2019, but when you actually create the bricks and mortar and dig a big hole in the ground and put a solid foundation, you know it’s real,” said MLS Commissioner Don Garber, attending his 20th MLS stadium groundbreaking event. “It’s exciting.”

FCC presented the stadium’s final designs to the league’s Board of Governors on Friday in New York City, and club president Jeff Berding called it a “beacon for the city and community.”

The stadium will hold 25,500 to 26,000 fans, up from the original plans to start at 21,000 with room to grow. The most noticeable feature will be the use of ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE), a translucent material that, through LED lighting, can make the building glow and change colors. The idea was inspired by Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena as a way to highlight Cincinnati as a city of innovation, according to architect Dan Meis.

“It will be instantly recognizable – representative of old, new and the future,” Berding said.

Meis said the most important features, though, will be “The Bailey” supporters section with seats coming right up to the pitch, and the fan plaza outside that allows the stadium to provide more than just a gameday experience.

“It’s going to be very FC Cincinnati,” Meis said. “We aren’t doing something that someone is going to say, ‘That’s Cincinnati architecture, but it’s really going to scream this club.’ We’re looking at ways … to evoke the color of the club, whether through the material – which is my preference, to make it really glow orange and come alive. I have always loved Madison Square Garden, where you look at the ceiling and know right away where you are. It has to be a building people identify with.”

Berding visited six MLS stadiums and more than a half-dozen soccer stadiums in Europe over the past few years, and the club “borrowed ideas from each one.” The club also sought input from the local community and supporters before finalizing plans.

Garber said the designs and size of the stadium are “very ambitious.” A 26,000-seat facility would be one of the largest soccer-specific stadiums in the league.

“We believe it will be one of the greatest soccer stadiums of its size, not just in our league but in the entire world,” Garber said.

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