Second Club Announced To Join USL For 2016 Season
Soccer News: FC Cincinnati was welcomed as the USL’s 26th club at the Richard E. Lindner Athletic Center Auditorium on the Campus of the University of Cincinnati. The club joins RGVFC as the second club announced to join the league for the 2016 season.
Led by the former owner of the Cincinnati Reds, Carl Lindner III, FC Cincinnati will call Nippert Stadium home in the 2016 season. Lindner – who is currently the Co-President and a director of American Financial Group, a Fortune 500 company with more than 100 locations throughout North America and Europe, and Chairman of Great American Insurance Company – will lead an ownership group that brings experience from across the business community in Cincinnati.
The club also announced that former U.S. Men’s National Team standout John Harkes will be the club’s first head coach. Harkes will be joined by longtime Cincinnati Bengals executive Jeff Berding, who will be the club’s President and General Manager as FC Cincinnati begins the process of building a squad for the 2016 season.
“It’s a truly exciting and historic day for the USL and for our sport as we bring professional soccer here to Cincinnati,” USL President Jake Edwards said. “This is a sports town. You have a huge fan-base already playing and watching the sport, we have a world-class stadium outside that you’re going to be playing in next year. We have [here] a passionate, committed and formidable ownership group and executive team, and in [John Harkes] you have a true icon and legend of American soccer as your inaugural head coach.”
Lindner said he was delighted to have brought professional soccer to Cincinnati, and also paid tribute to those who helped paved the way for the club, including University of Cincinnati President Santa J. Ono, Mayor John Cranley.
“I’m proud that our family has a long history of supporting the local community, as well as many of its sports teams, and as a soccer family, we’re really excited to bring a professional soccer team to our home town,” Lindner said. “It’s really a perfect time for FC Cincinnati, with the renovation of Nippert Stadium, the new leadership of USL, as well as our own great leadership team that we’ve put together. For me, the opportunity to bring professional soccer to our city was too good to pass up.”
Lindner added the addition of FC Cincinnati would continue the positive momentum within the city.
“Cincinnati is on the rise, with a great business community, strong civic and arts organizations, and a mayor who is doing an outstanding job,” Lindner said. “Cincinnati is on the upswing, and soccer gives us another platform to share our story worldwide, and to bring another level of energy and excitement to our core.”
