From their new stadium project to a new training facility to construction of their roster, FC Cincinnati have been hard at work preparing for life in MLS. Now they’re initiating another phase of their plan by seeking out new minority investors.
Having cultivated an already-large fan base in their USL days, Cincy have experienced higher-than-expected demand for tickets ahead of their 2019 expansion debut, so much so that they scaled up the capacity of their soccer-specific stadium project in the city’s West End from an initial plan of 21,000 to something closer to 26,000. That ambition has upped the cost of the privately-funded venue to a reported $250 million.
Add in expansion fees, their under-construction $30 million training facility in suburban Milford and the costs of an aggressive roster-building process marked by player acquisitions like Fanendo Adi, Kendall Waston and Greg Garza, and Cincinnati’s hefty investment in the MLS dream becomes clear.
The club set aside “ownership units” for the purpose of welcoming additional stakeholders down the line, and now that time has arrived.
“Since day one, we've been preparing for entry to [MLS],” FCC president and GM Jeff Berding told Forbes.com, which estimated the club’s equity value at around $430 million and predicted strong demand for Cincy’s new investment opportunity.
FCC have signed on Wall Street merchant bank The Raine Group, which previously played a role in similar deals for D.C. United, New York City FC and Inter Miami, to assist in identifying new investors, and expect to complete the process within a year.
