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TQL Stadium
TQL Stadium is a soccer-specific stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It is the home of Major League Soccer (MLS) team FC Cincinnati, who have played there since the stadium opened on May 16, 2021. The stadium holds approximately 26,000 spectators and is located in the West End neighborhood, at the former site of Stargel Stadium on Central Parkway at Wade Street. It has a Bermuda grass surface that was installed in 2024 to replace an earlier hybrid grass surface. During construction, the stadium was also known as the West End Stadium.
The stadium was proposed in 2016, as part of the team's bid for an MLS expansion franchise, to replace their temporary arrangement at Nippert Stadium. A list of sites was submitted with the bid in January 2017 and later narrowed to three candidates: in Oakley, the West End, and Newport, Kentucky. The West End site was chosen in early 2018 and approved in April through a land swap deal with Cincinnati Public Schools.
On May 29, 2018, MLS announced that Cincinnati had won an expansion team, to begin play in 2019 at Nippert Stadium. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on December 18, 2018, and the stadium officially opened for the 2021 season at a total cost of $250 million. Locally based Total Quality Logistics was named the naming rights sponsor in April 2021. TQL Stadium has hosted several matches for international teams, including in the 2023 CONCACAF Gold Cup, and part of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.
FC Cincinnati was founded in 2015 and played its first three seasons in the second-division United Soccer League (since renamed the USL Championship) at Nippert Stadium, a college football venue. After a successful first season in which the team's home games averaged 17,296 attendees, the club's ownership group began negotiations with Major League Soccer to bid for an expansion franchise. Cincinnati formally submitted its expansion bid in January 2017, including a shortlist of locations for a potential stadium to meet the bid's requirement for a soccer-specific venue.
FC Cincinnati's management first suggested the possibility of building a new stadium in late November 2016, when the club hosted MLS commissioner Don Garber for a day-long visit. During a town hall meeting held with club supporters that day, Garber suggested that Nippert was not a long-term solution for the team. Club president Jeff Berding said during the meeting that the club had recently begun to look for 15-to-20-acre (6.1 to 8.1 ha) sites in or near the "urban core" of Cincinnati.
FC Cincinnati narrowed the list of locations for a potential stadium to a shortlist of three sites in May 2017: the football stadium used by Taft High School in the West End neighborhood; the former Milacron factory in Oakley on Interstate 71; and a riverfront site in Newport, Kentucky. The club unveiled preliminary designs for a stadium in June 2017, outlining plans for a horseshoe-shaped stadium with a continuous roof and capacity for 25,000 to 30,000 people. It was designed by Dan Meis, who envisioned steep terraced seating and homages to Allianz Arena in Munich, including the use of LED lights and a translucent ETFE roof, for use at the three shortlist sites.
On November 29, 2017, the Cincinnati City Council passed legislation that would fund infrastructure improvements and a parking garage at the stadium, should a location within the city be chosen. The Oakley site was named as the leading candidate and formed the basis of the city council's infrastructure legislation. FC Cincinnati presented its bid to MLS in December, including a stadium at the Oakley site, but the Nashville bid was chosen instead for a 2020 expansion.
The club signed an option contract with the Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority to acquire land in the West End neighborhood in January 2018, signaling their intent to choose the site. The following month, FC Cincinnati revealed plans to perform a land swap with Cincinnati Public Schools to acquire Stargel Stadium on the campus of Taft High School, with a new high school stadium being built nearby. The land swap would require the approval of the Cincinnati Public School's board of directors, who declined to accept the club's offer because of tax abatement rules, which would require an additional $20 million in taxes to be paid by FC Cincinnati. In response, FC Cincinnati announced in March that it would remove the West End site from consideration and focus on the remaining two sites, which had the support of their respective county governments. By early April, however, the club had announced that the Oakley and Newport sites were out of contention, due to the remoteness of the Oakley site and a landowner dispute in Newport, and that FC Cincinnati would restart negotiations for the West End site.
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TQL Stadium
TQL Stadium is a soccer-specific stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It is the home of Major League Soccer (MLS) team FC Cincinnati, who have played there since the stadium opened on May 16, 2021. The stadium holds approximately 26,000 spectators and is located in the West End neighborhood, at the former site of Stargel Stadium on Central Parkway at Wade Street. It has a Bermuda grass surface that was installed in 2024 to replace an earlier hybrid grass surface. During construction, the stadium was also known as the West End Stadium.
The stadium was proposed in 2016, as part of the team's bid for an MLS expansion franchise, to replace their temporary arrangement at Nippert Stadium. A list of sites was submitted with the bid in January 2017 and later narrowed to three candidates: in Oakley, the West End, and Newport, Kentucky. The West End site was chosen in early 2018 and approved in April through a land swap deal with Cincinnati Public Schools.
On May 29, 2018, MLS announced that Cincinnati had won an expansion team, to begin play in 2019 at Nippert Stadium. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on December 18, 2018, and the stadium officially opened for the 2021 season at a total cost of $250 million. Locally based Total Quality Logistics was named the naming rights sponsor in April 2021. TQL Stadium has hosted several matches for international teams, including in the 2023 CONCACAF Gold Cup, and part of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.
FC Cincinnati was founded in 2015 and played its first three seasons in the second-division United Soccer League (since renamed the USL Championship) at Nippert Stadium, a college football venue. After a successful first season in which the team's home games averaged 17,296 attendees, the club's ownership group began negotiations with Major League Soccer to bid for an expansion franchise. Cincinnati formally submitted its expansion bid in January 2017, including a shortlist of locations for a potential stadium to meet the bid's requirement for a soccer-specific venue.
FC Cincinnati's management first suggested the possibility of building a new stadium in late November 2016, when the club hosted MLS commissioner Don Garber for a day-long visit. During a town hall meeting held with club supporters that day, Garber suggested that Nippert was not a long-term solution for the team. Club president Jeff Berding said during the meeting that the club had recently begun to look for 15-to-20-acre (6.1 to 8.1 ha) sites in or near the "urban core" of Cincinnati.
FC Cincinnati narrowed the list of locations for a potential stadium to a shortlist of three sites in May 2017: the football stadium used by Taft High School in the West End neighborhood; the former Milacron factory in Oakley on Interstate 71; and a riverfront site in Newport, Kentucky. The club unveiled preliminary designs for a stadium in June 2017, outlining plans for a horseshoe-shaped stadium with a continuous roof and capacity for 25,000 to 30,000 people. It was designed by Dan Meis, who envisioned steep terraced seating and homages to Allianz Arena in Munich, including the use of LED lights and a translucent ETFE roof, for use at the three shortlist sites.
On November 29, 2017, the Cincinnati City Council passed legislation that would fund infrastructure improvements and a parking garage at the stadium, should a location within the city be chosen. The Oakley site was named as the leading candidate and formed the basis of the city council's infrastructure legislation. FC Cincinnati presented its bid to MLS in December, including a stadium at the Oakley site, but the Nashville bid was chosen instead for a 2020 expansion.
The club signed an option contract with the Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority to acquire land in the West End neighborhood in January 2018, signaling their intent to choose the site. The following month, FC Cincinnati revealed plans to perform a land swap with Cincinnati Public Schools to acquire Stargel Stadium on the campus of Taft High School, with a new high school stadium being built nearby. The land swap would require the approval of the Cincinnati Public School's board of directors, who declined to accept the club's offer because of tax abatement rules, which would require an additional $20 million in taxes to be paid by FC Cincinnati. In response, FC Cincinnati announced in March that it would remove the West End site from consideration and focus on the remaining two sites, which had the support of their respective county governments. By early April, however, the club had announced that the Oakley and Newport sites were out of contention, due to the remoteness of the Oakley site and a landowner dispute in Newport, and that FC Cincinnati would restart negotiations for the West End site.