^big problem is that USL requires soccer specific stadiums by the end of the decade, so FCC isn't going to be at Nippert for long.

 

Well maybe this is all a back-door strategy for The Bengals to get the public to pay for upgrades to PBS.  In 2020 that stadium will be 20 years old.  If the upgrades are for "soccer", then it's an easier sell to the public. 

But for years national commentators have been complaining that soccer fails to cross over in the United States in part because of the "euro" branding.  And here again we see some attempt to allude to European team names.  Give American teams American names and American team colors and there would be greater acceptance.   

There are some really good heritage names in U.S. soccer, like NY Cosmos, Ft. Lauderdale Strikers, Seattle Sounders, Tampa Bay Rowdies etc.

 

The problem with finding new American team names is all the good ones have been taken. That's how you end up with awful names like the "Dallas Burn" and the "Kansas City Wiz"

 

I think "Sporting Kansas City" and "FC Dallas" are drastic improvements.

^big problem is that USL requires soccer specific stadiums by the end of the decade, so FCC isn't going to be at Nippert for long.

 

Well maybe this is all a back-door strategy for The Bengals to get the public to pay for upgrades to PBS.  In 2020 that stadium will be 20 years old.  If the upgrades are for "soccer", then it's an easier sell to the public.

 

The way the USL has it, they have to be the owners or primary tenants of a stadium, so PBS wouldn't work.

 

The MLS has allowed it with Seattle, but the Sounders and Seahawks have the same owner in Paul Allen.

 

I also don't think that FCC is going to be moving up in a couple years.

Many MLS clubs have USL affiliates. You'll probably see a minor/major league system with soccer like they have with MLB and NHL in a few years.

 

The good news is that if FC Cincy wants to move to MLS, they have an ownership group with the money to do so. Wrong Side of the Pond just tweeted today that Berhding (sp?) basically said they have MLS ambitions. FC Cincinnati is affiliated with Kings and Hammer FC so they already have an academy system in the works.

But for years national commentators have been complaining that soccer fails to cross over in the United States in part because of the "euro" branding.  And here again we see some attempt to allude to European team names.  Give American teams American names and American team colors and there would be greater acceptance.   

There are some really good heritage names in U.S. soccer, like NY Cosmos, Ft. Lauderdale Strikers, Seattle Sounders, Tampa Bay Rowdies etc.

 

The problem with finding new American team names is all the good ones have been taken. That's how you end up with awful names like the "Dallas Burn" and the "Kansas City Wiz"

 

I think "Sporting Kansas City" and "FC Dallas" are drastic improvements.

 

I love how non-American teams don't have to use all the cheesy names that American sports do. FC, or SC, is simple. Generally I'd prefer SC over FC over here since they it's called soccer, but it's simple it's the soccer club for that city. For the new team I'd prefer Cincinnati SC but it's still better than FC Cincinnati Blue Whales or whatever cheesy names that american teams have.

As much as I hate them, I think the Oakland Athletics have the best name in US sports.

The Kansas City Royals have a great name, too. The origin is really good.

The royals can burn in hell.

 

Sincerely,

An angry Tigers fan

The most preposterous current pro team is the Buffalo Bills.  The most preposterous defunct team is the Brooklyn Bridegrooms. 

 

A local team name that hasn't been used yet would be the Cincinnati Cicadas.  Great logo, they make a ridiculous sound, and they pop when you throw them at a brick wall. 

 

 

Ha, I'm a Tigers fan too. But I still respect their team name. Though I am a Reds fan first, so most of the Tigers rivalries aren't as bad to me as Reds rivalries.

 

Getting back to promotion and relegation, does anyone think that the lower tiers shouldn't use the system? I think it would at least bring more passion to those teams even if it doesn't lead to MLS joining in.

Promotion might work, but the leagues would have to be operating on the same set of rules. NPSL is extremely limited due to salary cap issues and a heavy reliance on college (amateur) players. If USL/PDL etc could agree on everything, it would make some sense.

 

Still, it isn't something that American sports fans are used to.

Ha, I'm a Tigers fan too. But I still respect their team name. Though I am a Reds fan first, so most of the Tigers rivalries aren't as bad to me as Reds rivalries.

 

Getting back to promotion and relegation, does anyone think that the lower tiers shouldn't use the system? I think it would at least bring more passion to those teams even if it doesn't lead to MLS joining in.

 

Some of it also depends on the disparity in quality. If the top league teams were head and shoulders above the lower leagues than it wouldn't be good. A team would get relegated and then crush all the bottom teams. I would hope there isn't that much of a talent disparity between the different leagues.

 

Though I highly doubt it would ever happen having a relegation system would be great. You also have to keep in mind that the major, big money teams would likely never get relegated just as you don't see a Man U or Chelsea ever getting relegated. It'd only be the smaller market teams and then they would likely (hopefully) go from losing many games to winning many games.

^big problem is that USL requires soccer specific stadiums by the end of the decade, so FCC isn't going to be at Nippert for long.

 

Well maybe this is all a back-door strategy for The Bengals to get the public to pay for upgrades to PBS.  In 2020 that stadium will be 20 years old.  If the upgrades are for "soccer", then it's an easier sell to the public. 

 

The lease agreement has the taxpayers paying all upgrades until 2030. They aren't worried about upgrades being funded.  Once half the teams have something, the taxpayers of HC must pay for it for the bengals.  The lease even says taxpayers would have to install a "hologram graphic system" if half the teams end up with one.

A local team name that hasn't been used yet would be the Cincinnati Cicadas.

 

I like that name.  Also, I've always thought it would be cool if the Brown family owned an MLS team and called it the Cincinnati Siberians.  In a similar vein as the Sounders and Seahawks sharing color schemes, they could use the same logos, fonts, etc. as the Bengals, swapping orange and black for white and black.

 

Imagine the difficulties for a county or city that financed a stadium for a team that was then relegated.

 

This will become less problematic over time, as fans of most sports are increasingly choosing to watch on HDTV in the comfortable of their living rooms instead of paying exorbitant ticket and concession prices.  Also, it's extremely unlikely that any team would be displaced for longer than a single season at a stretch, as they should be better than most of the teams in the league below them.  The trick is to have two or three teams moving up or down every year, and to have each tier being only marginally better than the tier below (as cincySAL stated) so that a single relegated team doesn't just dominate in the lower league.  This also puts a stop to nonsense like teams losing on purpose to get a better spot in the draft.  And, it keeps the fans interested even when their team is terrible, so attendance may actually increase for teams in danger of relegation.

 

Imagine the spike in popularity that would happen if a city like Toledo or Dayton got promoted to MLS for even one season.  There's nothing like it in American sports.

 

Maybe even using the average performance over 3 years or so could provide some comfort to the teams currently in the top. Promote/relegate every three years and you could find the teams that truly don't deserve to be in the top tier and the teams who truly deserve to be promoted. That way one bad season where your star goalkeeper suffers a huge injury can't relegate you to the lower level.

Relegation is the best idea in sports, but it is impossible to do. It only works in England because that's the way it has always been, and the real money wasn't in EPL until very recently.

 

Imagine the difficulties for a county or city that financed a stadium for a team that was then relegated.

 

Speaking of which, hopefully this City is smart enough to stay the hell away from another stadium deal, but if Cranley, Berding and Bedinghaus are named, who knows. Got any more hospitals to sell?

 

Relegation isn't limited to England.  It's used pretty much everywhere in soccer outside of the US.  And in addition to providing performance incentives, it's a very effective way to penalize clubs for wrongdoing (like the relegation of Rangers in Scotland, or when Juventus was related in Italy a few years ago). 

Berding said goal is MLS, mentioned Orlando. Lucky to secure renovated Nippert to get started.  He said being on a large university campus, where younger people are driving American soccer, is a big deal.

Relegation sounds like fun, but if it's not feasible for some reason, is there any way MLS can just be twice the size of a typical North American sports league? It seems there shouldn't be so many vested interests standing in the way of that for such a young league.

Relegation is the best idea in sports, but it is impossible to do. It only works in England because that's the way it has always been, and the real money wasn't in EPL until very recently.

 

Imagine the difficulties for a county or city that financed a stadium for a team that was then relegated.

 

Speaking of which, hopefully this City is smart enough to stay the hell away from another stadium deal, but if Cranley, Berding and Bedinghaus are named, who knows. Got any more hospitals to sell?

 

Relegation isn't limited to England.  It's used pretty much everywhere in soccer outside of the US.  And in addition to providing performance incentives, it's a very effective way to penalize clubs for wrongdoing (like the relegation of Rangers in Scotland, or when Juventus was related in Italy a few years ago). 

Yeah, I know, but no matter where it is, it has always been part of the game. You couldn't introduce relegation to England (or Scotland, or Spain) now if it had never been in place before.

 

Large teams would never accept a system where they can be penalized. The owners run the leagues, not the other way around.

Interesting point from news courier article today. It implied that the dayton dutch lions which used to be in the usl and dropped out got bought by lindner, bringing us this new team. The saints had a preseason game against the dayton dutch team this year and crushed them if i remember right. I wonder if this could lead to a great rivalry between both teams if they ever are in the same league like the rivalry with manchester united and manchester city,  or real madrid and madrid atletico.

The most preposterous current pro team is the Buffalo Bills.  The most preposterous defunct team is the Brooklyn Bridegrooms. 

 

A local team name that hasn't been used yet would be the Cincinnati Cicadas.  Great logo, they make a ridiculous sound, and they pop when you throw them at a brick wall. 

 

 

 

^A girl who works at NYPD Pizza has a big cicada tattooed on her left calf.  I'm a bit surprised that our little hissing friends haven't become more of a campy local logo. 

A few updates:

 

Cincinnati Saints have officially moved to Dayton and will be rebranded (looked like they are keeping the blue and white color scheme, but nothing concrete beyond that).

 

Most recent estimates are that FCC has about 4,000 season tickets sold. That's pretty good in my opinion for a team that hasn't played a game yet and won't until March. Also, I expect holiday sales to be strong (if they are good at marketing the team). Those promotions should be all over starting just after Thanksgiving if they know what's good for them. Louisville average 6,500 guests/game. FCC should beat this at this rate. Sacramento averages something like 11,000/game. That seems to be FCC's goal is to compete in attendance with Sacramento. We'll see if they can do it.

 

They just hosted tryouts this past Saturday. All things from blogs of people who know things seemed to be fairly impressed with the level of players trying out. I'm no expert at all, so I will leave this up to people who know things.

 

Overall their branding seems a little weak. Hopefully that can be updated before the season or revamped in a year or two.

A few updates:

 

Cincinnati Saints have officially moved to Dayton and will be rebranded (looked like they are keeping the blue and white color scheme, but nothing concrete beyond that).

 

Most recent estimates are that FCC has about 4,000 season tickets sold. That's pretty good in my opinion for a team that hasn't played a game yet and won't until March. Also, I expect holiday sales to be strong (if they are good at marketing the team). Those promotions should be all over starting just after Thanksgiving if they know what's good for them. Louisville average 6,500 guests/game. FCC should beat this at this rate. Sacramento averages something like 11,000/game. That seems to be FCC's goal is to compete in attendance with Sacramento. We'll see if they can do it.

 

They just hosted tryouts this past Saturday. All things from blogs of people who know things seemed to be fairly impressed with the level of players trying out. I'm no expert at all, so I will leave this up to people who know things.

 

Overall their branding seems a little weak. Hopefully that can be updated before the season or revamped in a year or two.

 

Hope they have plans to hand the reigns of the primary fan sections over to the public too. IMO the best soccer clubs allow ticket holders / official fan groups to be drive the process of fan chants, traditions, etc.

I believe that is the plan. There is a fairly active subreddit at r/fccincinnati that has been in talks of chants and things. Hopefully the supporters group(s) work early to prepare. It's really on them.

I believe that is the plan. There is a fairly active subreddit at r/fccincinnati that has been in talks of chants and things. Hopefully the supporters group(s) work early to prepare. It's really on them.

 

Thanks for mentioning that. Subbed!

 

Found a great article posted on there that I thought I'd share. Very insightful read: http://www.sixthdaysoccer.com/does-fc-cincy-understand-cincinnati-its-soccer-fans/

For anyone interested, I am hosting a meeting at Rhinegeist tonight for an "Urban Basin" supporters group (basically downtown, OTR, Pendleton, West End, Queensgate, and part of Mt. Auburn). If you're interested in joining, feel free. It'll be an open discussion where we go through logistics, future plans, name ideas, etc. You don't have to live in the urban basin to participate, but all events will take place there and designs will reflect that focus. This is meant to be a more focused group than the other supporters groups and create a more personal experience where you can meet other soccer/FCC fans.

 

7:30 tonight at Rhinegeist.

 

If you are interested, but can't make it to the meeting send me a PM with your email and I'll be sure to add you to future conversations. Also, check out the subreddit for general updates on things. r/fccincinnati

With some help from some friends we created a new supporters group for FC Cincinnati called Die Innenstadt.

 

"Die Innenstadt" translates literally from German to mean "The Inner City". The core neighborhoods included in this is Downtown, Pendletown, West End, Queensgate, Lower Price Hill, and Over-the-Rhine with parts of Fairview, Clifton Heights, and Mt. Auburn. This group is meant to build on the energy and history of the inner city neighborhoods to boost the city and the club. There's no requirement to live within these geographic boundaries, but that is where all events and meetings will take place.

 

We have our first meeting this Friday at 6pm at Rhinegeist. It will be an open meeting where you can ask questions, socialize, and provide feedback. You can also become a member of Die Innenstadt for $20 which will include a unique scarf each year as well as other benefits. Anyone can attend match day activities whether you are a member or not.

 

If you have any questions now, you can ask me here and I'd be happy to answer them.

 

You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

 

Cheers!

I don't know why these guys chose those colors, or what the lion/griffon has to do with anything.  While they don't look bad, I think they should have gone with a red & white scheme.  Classic Cincinnati colors.  Or if they wanted to get away from that, they could have done a socceresque modification of Cincinnati colors, such as claret (instead of red) and white.  One thing I do respect about Pittsburgh sports is that all their sports teams wear the city's colors (which originate in the Pitt family arms: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_of_Chatham).

 

If these guys are looking for a soccer specific stadium, they should try to do something at the old Spinney Field site.  If there was a way to co-ordinate redeveloped housing in the LPH area, it could be a really cool project.

^Yeah. They partly chose those colors because their ultimate goal is to join MLS, and that color scheme doesn't exist yet in MLS. I think red white and blue would have worked, though. They should have used the exact colors in the Cincinnati flag.

 

I agree that LPH would be a good location. It would have to be coordinated with other developments, though. It would be close to downtown, have views of the skyline, and provide additional development opportunities for LPH. A stadium couldn't go to the suburbs or it wouldn't draw IMO.

Well, those colors are still lame.  I also hate how U.S. teams are using FC, as if we call it football and not soccer.

Well, those colors are still lame.  I also hate how U.S. teams are using FC, as if we call it football and not soccer.

 

Exactly.  We don't expect U.S. hockey teams to use Canadian lingo, spellings, etc.  It's a ridiculous, clumsy stab at "authenticity" with the U.S. soccer stuff that turns tons of people off.  When I played soccer as a kid it was a "field".  Then suddenly it became a "pitch".  WTF is that?  The same thing dogs cycling.  Americans don't like using French and English terms for things (it's a pack, not a "peloton"...they're saddle bags, not "panniers"...a bike has gars and a shifter, not a "deraillur").  Maybe some of the popularity of mountain biking in the U.S. versus road biking is that we invited the bikes and the sport, and so we use our terminology and wear clothes with colors and of a character that is normal here.  Road biking clothes look absolutely ridiculous in the United States, and then they make it even worse when people insist on calling cycling clothes "kit". 

 

 

 

Well, those colors are still lame.  I also hate how U.S. teams are using FC, as if we call it football and not soccer.

 

It's lamer that the Bengals copied the Browns. And Pittsburgh is the only city that uses the same color scheme for all sports.

 

These colors look great imho. Let this franchise build its own identity.

I think it's kind of cool that the Bengals copied the Browns given the situation around Paul Brown at the time.  Imho, between the name, the lion/griffon and the colors, this franchise is pretty generic.

The Bengals did not copy The Browns.  The orange is not the same shade of orange and there is no brown in The Bengals' color scheme.  Besides, The Bengals were named for an old Cincinnati team called The Bengals, who in turn named themselves after the zoo's tiger from Bangladesh. 

Well, those colors are still lame.  I also hate how U.S. teams are using FC, as if we call it football and not soccer.

 

It's lamer that the Bengals copied the Browns. And Pittsburgh is the only city that uses the same color scheme for all sports.

 

These colors look great imho. Let this franchise build its own identity.

 

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with the colors. I think they look fine. But I would appreciate something that had ties to the city itself (hence my suggestion of using the city's flag as the color scheme).

 

We are too far out to actually coordinate all of our sports teams IMO. Also, can you imagine if The Crew used scarlet and gray as their color scheme? No one would have bought Crew gear and everyone would be wearing OSU gear. It would be a little embarrassing. They might have thought the same thing about using red and white to coordinate with the Reds or black and orange to coordinate with the Bengals.

The Bengals did not copy The Browns.  The orange is not the same shade of orange and there is no brown in The Bengals' color scheme.  Besides, The Bengals were named for an old Cincinnati team called The Bengals, who in turn named themselves after the zoo's tiger from Bangladesh. 

 

umm, the Bengals did copy the Browns. When  Paul Brown got fired He owned the Equipment, so when he created the Bengals it was the same uniforms and helmets, but he added the word Bengals on the helmets.   

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cincinnati_Bengals

From Wiki

 

When the team debuted in 1968, the Bengals' uniforms were modeled after the Cleveland Browns. When Paul Brown was fired by Art Modell, Brown still owned the equipment used by Cleveland. So after the firing, Paul Brown packed up all his equipment, which he then used for his new team in Cincinnati. The Cleveland Browns' team colors were brown, orange, and white, then they changed to white, black, and orange, and their helmets were solid orange with a white dorsal stripe over the crest.

A team called the "Bengals" after the tiger that shares the same name has every logical reason to use orange, though. It's not so much a copy as it is something that made perfect sense. What's weird is that a team called the "Browns" uses the color orange as their primary color, instead of brown.

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with the colors. I think they look fine. But I would appreciate something that had ties to the city itself (hence my suggestion of using the city's flag as the color scheme).

 

We are too far out to actually coordinate all of our sports teams IMO. Also, can you imagine if The Crew used scarlet and gray as their color scheme? No one would have bought Crew gear and everyone would be wearing OSU gear. It would be a little embarrassing. They might have thought the same thing about using red and white to coordinate with the Reds or black and orange to coordinate with the Bengals.

 

I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with the colors either.  We are saying the same thing, that we would have preferred that the new team used something that had ties to the city itself, which is why I suggested red and white, or, to change it a bit, claret and white.  It's not a weird desire to have a team that builds its brand on the name "Cincinnati" should have some brand similarity, right?  That's why I brought up the colors; maybe a crown instead of a lion/griffon?

 

Columbus' city colors are red and yellow (as far as I can tell from their flag.  They have some sky blue as well on their city crest).  The Columbus Crew aren't putting OSU as part of their branding, whereas they do use the name of the City of Columbus.

I think that "Die Innenstadt" logo you guys designed looks awesome and should be the logo of the entire club. Maybe even the name of it too!

Yea i like that logo, makes me think of the old patches on fighter pilot jackets.

Thanks! Ronny Salerno of Queen City Discovery designed the logo.

Awesome work!

First home FCC match is Saturday, April 9th at 7pm.

 

Second home match is Saturday, April 16th.

I had some time to kill so I did a logo too (just a rough mock up, there are lots of little things to fix)-

 

 

 

The fountain lady is either walking like an Egyptian or about to do the limbo. 

More like a drunk woman stumbling out of Neon's.

More like a drunk woman stumbling out of Neon's.

 

Yeah, reaching for a parking meter to catch her balance. 

A lot has happened for the Supporter's Group I started as well as for the club itself. Among those things: membership for Die Innenstadt can now be accepted online and the full FCC Schedule has been released!

 

You can check out the latest here!

We just unveiled the scarf design for Die Innenstadt! The only way to get it is by becoming a member ($20).

 

 

You can read about it here: http://www.dieinnenstadt.com/news/2016/2/5/the-inaugural-season-scarf

 

You can purchase a membership online here: https://squareup.com/store/die-innenstadt

 

You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

 

The FC Cincinnati subreddit is here: www.reddit.com/r/fccincinnati