Major League Soccer is heading to Cincinnati next week, and league officials are likely bringing with them an invitation for Futbol Club Cincinnati to join their ranks.
Sources confirmed to The Enquirer, a Cincinnati newspaper, that a major club announcement is coming Tuesday and MLS commissioner Don Garber will be in attendance.
FC Cincinnati confirmed further details of the event in a Thursday afternoon press release.
"Major soccer announcement" was the phrasing used as a not-so-subtle heads up prior to the December expansion announcement in Nashville. The Sacramento Republic FC had hoped to land the final MLS expansion spot.
A representative for Sacramento's club released a statement after Cincinnati's announcement saying their bid for an MLS team is "alive and well."
"We are in late-stage discussions with investors and continue to work closely with Commissioner Garber and Mayor Steinberg," Omar Gonzalez, communications manager for Sacramento FC Republic, said. "We want to thank our indomitable fans for their passion and continued support of this club and this city as we work to bring this process to the finish line.”
The invitation for locals in Miami to attend the January expansion announcement there used different wording – "An important announcement on the future of soccer in Miami" – but essentially took the same form.
Based on the spirit of the statement regarding next week's FC Cincinnati announcement, it appears the Queen City club has received the call to the top soccer league in the United States and Canada.
It will likely remain unclear until Tuesday when FC Cincinnati would officially begin to play in MLS, but the club had strived to hit the field in 2019. That would allow it exclusive advantages in terms of building the club from a personnel standpoint.
