NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman confirmed that FC Cincinnati remains in the expansion pipeline, though the bid has generated no reportable developments in recent months. The league is preparing to announce timing for its next franchise awards, creating a window for Cincinnati and other markets to formalize proposals.
FC Cincinnati's ownership group submitted initial materials in 2023 but has not advanced to final-stage negotiations. The club operates Major League Soccer's seventh-highest attendance franchise at TQL Stadium (capacity 26,000), a venue built for $250 million and opened in 2021. The stadium's design accommodates NWSL dimensions without modification, removing a capital hurdle that slowed other dual-tenant bids. Berman's remarks, delivered at a Front Office Sports forum, did not specify whether Cincinnati would compete in the league's next tranche or a subsequent round.
The timing matters for sponsor strategy. Cincinnati's current MLS kit deal with Mercy Health runs through 2025, and the insurer has explored NWSL title sponsorship in other markets. A franchise award before that renewal deadline would allow bundled negotiations, potentially lifting the MLS deal's $4 million annual value by 30-40% if paired with NWSL assets. The league's last expansion cohort—Bay FC and Utah Royals—each paid $53 million in franchise fees, up from $2 million in 2019. Cincinnati's ownership group, led by Carl Lindner III, has not publicly committed to that valuation.
Berman's update follows the league's broadcast extension with CBS Sports and Amazon, which runs through 2027 and increases per-team distributions to roughly $1.8 million annually. That revenue floor makes NWSL franchises viable in MLS markets where women's soccer previously required cross-subsidy. Cincinnati's MSA ranks 29th nationally at 2.3 million people, but the club's MLS season-ticket base exceeds 17,000, suggesting demand depth. The question is whether ownership views NWSL as an asset that enhances the MLS franchise's valuation—similar to Atlanta United's approach—or as a standalone investment requiring separate capital allocation.
Other cities in the expansion conversation include Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Nashville. Cleveland's ownership group, backed by the Haslam family (Browns, Crew), submitted materials in Q4 2024 and has met with league officials twice. Nashville's bid is linked to Huntington Bank Stadium (capacity 30,000), though scheduling conflicts with the MLS franchise have delayed infrastructure conversations. Milwaukee has no MLS anchor but benefits from a $75 million lakefront stadium proposal that secured $15 million in public funds last November.
The league office will likely announce expansion timelines in Q2 2025, with franchise awards following 12-18 months later. Berman's phrasing—"few to no reportable developments"—suggests Cincinnati's ownership has not submitted updated financials or stadium-use agreements since initial materials. That silence could reflect strategic patience, waiting for the next cohort's franchise fees to establish a ceiling, or stalled internal discussions about capital deployment.
Cincinnati's MLS franchise is valued at $680 million by Sportico's 2024 estimates, placing it 18th among 29 MLS clubs. An NWSL franchise would add $50-70 million in enterprise value at current comps, but also introduce $12-15 million in annual operating costs before revenue stabilization. Ownership's calculus hinges on whether shared infrastructure and sponsor assets reduce that burn rate below league averages.
Watch for FC Cincinnati's 2025 MLS season-ticket renewal numbers, which close in March. Strong renewals would signal confidence in expanding the club's footprint. Also watch for Mercy Health's public comments ahead of its 2025 kit renewal deadline, and whether the insurer references NWSL in any renewal announcement. The league's Q2 expansion briefing will clarify whether Cincinnati competes in the next round or waits for cohort three.
The takeaway
Cincinnati's NWSL bid is active but dormant; ownership has submitted no material updates since 2023, and the league will announce next-round timelines in Q2 2025.
Editorial & Disclosure Notice: This article was written with artificial intelligence from public sources and is published without individual human review. Artificial intelligence and other digital tools are also used for research, analysis, editing, formatting, and production. Errors, omissions, outdated information, or inaccuracies may occur. References to companies, brands, products, services, organizations, or individuals are for informational and editorial purposes and do not imply endorsement, sponsorship, affiliation, partnership, or approval unless expressly stated. All trademarks and other intellectual property remain the property of their respective owners. Opinions, analysis, estimates, and commentary are informational only and should not be construed as financial, investment, legal, tax, medical, procurement, or other professional advice. Information may be corrected, clarified, or updated after publication. Corrections or removal requests: jenny@pops4.com.
Want the 60-second program for your specific event?
Enter your event and email — we build it and send the branded proposal before lunch. No obligation.
The branded-identity layer Chiefs of Staff and heritage CMOs route through — your name imprinted on real authorized stock, your pick of 200+ brands and 70,000 products, shipped from one accountable house. Nine editorial desks publish the intelligence those operators read before they sign.
200+authorized brands
70,000products · virtual proof on each
9 deskspublishing daily
1997one house, since
70,000 SKUs · virtual proof in 60 seconds · no platform fee · blind-shipped · ASI #217876
Your next customer won't visit your website. Their AI will.
AI assistants have quietly taken over the first step of buying — they answer from catalogs they can read and shortlist whoever can actually ship. Two questions now decide whether you exist to that buyer: can a machine read your catalog, and can you fulfill the order. Most brands fail one or both and never find out why the orders went elsewhere. The winners of this shift aren't the loudest. They're the most readable. Build for the machine that's about to do the shopping.
Built by the craft floor — apparel, media, packaging, and secure print.
This trade runs on hands, not desks. Imprint manufacturing & Komori heritage press through approved vendors · Canon high-speed secure-media operations is a craft floor — genuine Six Sigma discipline applied to ink, thread, foil, and registration, where a hundredth of an inch is the difference between a brand that reads serious and one that reads cheap. POPS4 is built by exactly those operators: independent, boots-on-the-ground engineers who carry their own book, read a client in microseconds, and put their name on every run. Beyond our own Virginia Beach floor, we work with a vetted network of craft manufacturers across the US — each meeting the highest excellence in QC standards in the industry, each a specialist in its own discipline — so apparel, hard-goods imprinting, media manufacturing, packaging, and secure printing all go to the bench built for them, coordinated from one accountable hub. Short-run from twenty-five units, volume to five hundred thousand. Two hundred authorized national brands, seventy thousand SKUs with virtual proofing on every one. Art archived for instant reorders. Net-thirty corporate terms, NDA-standard white-label — your name on the work, or none at all.
Strategy, positioning, identity, creative, and messaging — wired into an AI system that publishes and distributes on its own. Nine editorial desks generate the authority, the production house ships the physical proof, and the attribution layer tells you which post sold which SKU. What you get is an operating layer — content, catalog, and order path under one roof — that keeps working whether or not you are in the room. Built for principals who would rather own the machine than rent the agency.
Named-account programs — one desk, quiet delivery, NDA-standard.
One point of contact who already knows the file, so nothing restarts from zero between engagements. The work ships blind, under NDA, with your name on it or none at all. Built for single-family offices, heritage-house CMOs, sports-ownership groups, and the agencies that white-label our production. The relationship is the product; the merch is the proof of it.
SFO · Chief of Staff desk. Principal household, properties, aircraft, yacht, calendar, philanthropy — one file.
Shop seventy thousand products. Virtual proof on every one. 24/7.
Drop your logo on any product and see the virtual proof before asking. Quote routes direct to the desk. MCP catalog for AI agents. Celeste for the fast conversation. Full self-service checkout in development.