At a ceremony today at the site of the former Stargel Stadium in the West End, FC Cincinnati and hundreds of fans officially turned over the first shovels of dirt for the team's coming Major League Soccer stadium, scheduled to be completed by March 2021. The team hopes to begin pouring the stadium's concrete foundation in March next year, but it has some loose ends to tie up first.
That didn't stop the festivities, however. Team officials, Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber, Mayor John Cranley and others offered remarks. Attendees got free Skyline coneys and orange shovels to help with the digging. A DJ spun jubilant pop music and a confetti cannon burst rainbow paper at the big moment when the first shovels of dirt — some dug up by children from the West End — flew.
Former Mayor Mark Mallory, the director of community development for the team, served as master of ceremonies. FC Cincinnati President and General Manager Jeff Berding gave opening remarks.
Berding thanked Cincinnati Public Schools, which approved a land swap that will allow FCC to build on the former site of Stargel, Cincinnati City Council, which approved roughly $34 million in infrastructure funding,the Hamilton County Commission, which has pledged to spend up to $22 million on a parking garage for the stadium, and the West End Community Council. The council's general body rejected the stadium in a vote last year, but its executive board approved it.
"We've talked extensively about Cincinnati being a city on the rise economically, socially, politically, commercially," Berding said. "It's all coming together to make this special city even more impressive and a growing power center. We believe FC Cincinnati has been a shining symbol of that movement, and we're so excited to show off to the rest of the world through the global currency of soccer. With our stadium, soccer fans world wide will see the growth, the excitement, the passion, the enthusiasm, the investment and the diversity."
Not everything is all wrapped up yet. Some plots of land that will be in the middle of the stadium's footprint or nearby don't yet belong to the team, including a parcel occupied by a historic former theater and two that are owned by the City of Cincinnati. That land — part of a parking lot for Cincinnati Police headquarters and another on Central Ave. — have appraised for $1.6 million. The team would like to pay about half that, but city council is split on whether to demand market value.
The team also has also locked horns with the county around the size and location of the parking garage the latter is set to build, and has yet to secure key zoning variances and other approval from the city's planning commission. That body is expected to vote on those approvals in January.
Despite those snags, the mood at the groundbreaking was celebratory. Councilmembers Jeff Pastor and P.G. Sittenfeld attended the ceremony, and Hamilton County Commissioner Denise Driehaus and Mayor John Cranley gave remarks.
"I feel like they must have felt when they broke ground on Crosley Field roughly a hundred years ago here in the West End, knowing that the future is bound up in growth and investment and investing in those things that bring us together like sports," Cranley said, referencing the former home of the Cincinnati Reds. "Soccer is the fastest growing sports in the world... this is going to be one of the major elements that is going to bring talent, people, immigrants, to Cincinnati. It's an amenity that will make us more inviting to people from around the world."
MLS Commissioner Don Garber recalled coming to FCC games before the team had secured its major league franchise and realizing there was "something special happening in Cincinnati." Garber called the stadium "a jewel of a building" that will "transform this region, transform this city and transform this neighborhood."
Not everyone has been happy about the coming stadium. At least three businesses and one resident have said they are being displaced by the construction, and many residents fear the stadium could bring land speculation or rent hikes that could lead to displacement in the low-income, predominantly black community. More than eight in 10 West End residents rent their homes, and more than 3,000 of its 6,100 residents are below the poverty line.
But others in the neighborhood say they welcome the facility and think it will bring opportunity. West End Community Council President Keith Blake, long a supporter of putting the stadium in the West End, gave remarks touting the stadium's presence there.
"I believe it is awesome that the world's most popular sport has a home in the West End," he said. "Our neighborhood will benefit from the stadium being here."
Among those who will try to make that promise a reality will be the Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority.
The Port will issue bonds to be paid by the team to finance the stadium's $200 million construction and will lease the stadium back to the team, making it exempt from property taxes.
But the Redevelopment Authority is also working with local nonprofit Seven Hills Neighborhood Houses to assess housing and other needs in the West End and to make sure a community benefits agreement between the team and the neighborhood benefits West End residents.
"Our responsibility is to make sure that the West End community is able to benefit from the transformative change that this project will create," Brunner said. "The West End is one of Cincinnati's oldest neighborhood and has been the historic heart of the African American community in Cincinnati. We're working with Seven Hills to make sure that equitable development happens here in this neighborhood."