Cincinnati Soccer Stadium Deal Yielding $25M for Schools

Cincinnati’s soccer stadium deal includes the city spending $35M on infrastructure while the schools take in the same in payments and a new sports complex.

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FC Cincinnati (FCC) announced the principal development partners for its $200 million Major League Soccer stadium in the West End neighborhood at the site of Cincinnati Public School’s (CPS) Stargel Stadium, located at Taft Information Technology High School and used by numerous CPS teams.

A Cincinnati soccer stadium once appeared doomed as the school board rejected FCC’s offer of $750,000 in annual payments with the promise the club would build a new high school stadium with the same name nearby.

CPS asked for $2 million per year for 10 years for the land swap. FCC agreed to pay $25 million, $10 million up front for the first 10 years with annual payments the following 15 years, according to Cincinnati.com. The club will also spend $10 million on a new Stargel stadium for CPS.

Prior to the agreement, the Cincinnati City Council voted the city would spend $34.8 million in infrastructure costs supporting the 21,000-seat soccer stadium. The vote to use city funds for the stadium was 5-4.

While some in the West End neighborhood opposed the land swap, other supported it as an economic development opportunity. Resident John Walter said he circulated a petition in favor of the stadium and found more people supported it than opposed it.

I think it will really infuse a lot of money into the urban economy,” Walter said, according to the story.

Many in the city cheered the opportunity for their city to be named major league soccer’s next expansion team and welcome a major league sports franchise for the first time in more than 50 years:

Andrea Fox is Editor of Gov1.com and Senior Editor at Lexipol. She is based in Massachusetts.

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