CINCINNATI — After more than two years of construction, FC Cincinnati’s new stadium is complete.
Total Quality Logistics Stadium opened Saturday with a ribbon cutting ceremony at 11:30 a.m. The new home of FC Cincinnati features 26,000 seats, a vintage beer hall-style club, a 360-degree roof and first-of-its-kind lighting technology on the stadium’s fins.
look around the inside of @TQLStadium. What do you think @fccincinnati fans? @WCPO pic.twitter.com/pxTCiGvHkR
— Tanya O'Rourke (@TanyaORourke) May 1, 2021
But Cincinnati's Major League Soccer franchise won't be the first team to take the pitch at TQL; the West End Pride youth soccer teams will officially open the stadium with games starting at 1 p.m.
The stadium's West End neighbors are invited to an open house from 1:30 to 6 p.m. Season ticket holders can see their seat and tour the stadium Sunday.
Officially open! @TQLStadium @fccincinnati @WCPO pic.twitter.com/cD8fkbIeKQ
— Tanya O'Rourke (@TanyaORourke) May 1, 2021
MLS Commissioner Don Garber is also in Cincinnati to celebrate TQL Stadium’s opening. Touring the facility Friday, Garber remarked everything in the stadium “feels perfect."
“There's something very very special here,” Garber said. “For me, it's an emotional sort of reckoning to think we have owners that will make the commitments that they've made, cities that see the value of a great stadium in an environment like this that is right downtown connected to the heartbeat of the city.”
Club President Jeff Berding, speaking at a roundtable Friday, said ownership made the conscious decision not to cut corners while developing FC Cincinnati's new home. He said the team invested in everything from the number of seats to club amenities to make the stadium what it is today.
“There was a determination in ownership, we’re going to do this right,” Berding said. “We want the best stadium in Cincinnati. We’re going to shock people to show this is what we’ve done in Cincinnati.”
Garber and Berding will be joined by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, Senator Rob Portman, Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley, FC Cincinnati CEO and Controlling Owner Carl Lindner III and Managing Owner Meg Whitman at Saturday's celebration.
FC Cincinnati's home opener is scheduled for May 16 at 4 p.m. against Inter Miami CF.
