Club de Money

Owning an MLS team is like having a diamond lode in your backyard

TQL STadium (Rooted Creative)

Major League Soccer awarded San Diego an expansion franchise this week, which to most of youse is about as interesting as watching pitchers take fielding practice. But read on, Mobsters. The franchise fee is a reported $500 million, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Still in So What? mode?

In 2019, FC Cincinnati paid $150 mil to join the soccer party.

Rough translation: Owning an MLS team is now the sporting equivalent of discovering a diamond lode in your backyard.

In case you were wondering

I don’t write much about soccer. Check that. I don’t write anything about soccer, at least not from a strategic, gameday standpoint, because what I know about soccer you could fit inside the World Cup trophy and still have room for Liechtenstein.

The local lads have a huge home game Saturday against Columbus. FC Cincy is 7-0 in TQL Stadium this year, including a 3-0 W earlier this week over the too-precious sounding Club de Foot Montreal.

Club de Foot? Is that like Club de Med or Club de Sandwich? Sounds more like a physical impairment than a team nickname. But whatever.

The game itself is what it is. The world is divided into two parts: Those who love soccer and those who’d rather binge Masterpiece Theatre. To each his own. Or, as all Club de Foot fans in Montreal might put it, a chaque son gout.

The FC phenomenon has always fascinated me, though. The business genius or luck or instincts. Whatever you want to call it. On Aug. 15, 2015, the day FC Cincy was announced as a member of the minor-league USL and Carl Lindner III — CL3 to us soccer mavens — appeared as majority owner, I looked up from my Reds box scores and said, “Hmmm.’’

CL3 didn’t get to drive a Bentley around the 275 loop by picking lots of scratch-off ticket winners.

Ever since, FC Cincinnati has been one sprint of a success story, stalled only briefly upon entering the MLS in 2019. Habitual attendance records while in the USL — 35,061 fans for an exhibition game v. Crystal Palace, remember? — international praise for TQL Stadium, a swift rise to the top end of MLS. Oh, and a little concert featuring some old British blokes. Call themselves The Who. They should rename the football club Midas. Club de Midas Cincinnati.

And now, the San Diego thing. In four years, the MLS expansion fee has more than tripled. Can you imagine? In terms of business growth, MLS makes the NFL look like an 8-track tape. (Well, not exactly. But not even the NFL could triple a franchise fee in four years.)

Last February, Forbes magazine estimated FC Cincy’s worth at $560 mil. That’s almost a 100 percent increase in value since ‘19, when Forbes said FC was worth $285 million. Forbes says the average growth of an MLS franchise in that four-year period is 85 percent.

Did we mention the local club de foot is outdrawing the club de base on a regular basis?

Go ahead and tell me you saw this happening, oh, a decade ago.

Jump on the bandwagon now, if you like. It’ll be easier than jumping on the ticketwagon. At least in time for Saturday night.

Now, then. . .

Here come da. . . (SI.com)

WILL YOU GO SEE AARON JUDGE? The Yankees are here for three beginning tonight. That prompts an old, not-good memory:

I loved watching Monday Night Football in the 90s. The Steve Young 49ers in particular. The mushrooming of televised NFL games hadn’t begun. If you wanted to watch the league, you did it almost exclusively on Sundays and Thanksgiving. And Monday night.

I watched MNF during the Lost Decade@ to experience what great football looked like, and how different it was from the football I watched on Sunday afternoons.

The Reds aren’t those Bengals. But the notion of going to your home park to watch the other team is real enough. It’s always been thus when the Cubs are in town. But an American League team? If I were a fan, I’d pay to watch Judge. (Locals won’t get Gerrit Cole. He pitched Wednesday.)

Which prompts a getoffamylawn mini-rant:

Ball was better several generations ago, when the leagues were distinctly different. As a kid in the early 70s, you were an NL Guy or you weren’t. The NL had speed and defense and guys who could bunt. It was real baseball. Starting in ‘73, the AL had the DH, haven for softball players.

You could build up a real animosity toward the AL and you looked forward to the annual thrashing the NLers laid on their younger brethren, who had nobody like Bob Gibson. The game mattered to its participants. Really mattered. Yeah, Ray Fosse?

Between 1963 and 1987, the NL won 22 of 25 times.

As with everything we love, exposure dims the mystery. The thrill of 1961 is not the thrill of 2023.

But I’d still go see Judge hit. In the Small Park. In the thin, humid air. I might even stand in the street beyond the RF wall, even though Judge bats right-handed and mostly hits homers to left. Ya never know. . .

AND NOW. . .

Hey Michelle makes Cincinnati a better place to weekend. . .

Margarita Madness ~ Ticketed event on the Purple People Bridge Friday 5:30-8:30. Live music, small bites and lot’s of Margs ! 

Alchemy Fest ~ Fifteen of the best bartenders compete for the top three cash prizes and bragging rights! Join in and cheer them on at Smoke Justice Sunday 2-8. Grab tickets to this fun showdown. 

Free Carousel rides ~ Celebrate our beloved Cincy icon Carol Ann Haile’s Birthday! Saturday & Sunday from noon-3 you can grab a free ride, have a popsicle from Honey Child, face painters, jugglers and more! 

Hell is Real.. FC Cincy Soccer Game ~ Against the Columbus Crew Saturday 7:30 pre game party is at Washington Park starting at 4:30

Moulin Rouge the Musical ~ Aronoff Now thru June 4th. Yes Yes Yes! it’s soooo good.. a total sing along with so many great current songs and the voices are amazing 

Five Iron Golf~ The new cool simulated indoor golf venue is now open downtown! Virtually play golf courses all over the world or just play games. They have a great bar, pool table, foosball and more. 

Laugh the night away ~ Ariel Elias is performing Saturday at 7:00 at Northern Hills Synagogue on Fields Ertel Rd. She was recently on Jimmy Kimmel! 

Strawberry Picking~ Head out to Blooms & Berries in Loveland and pick some berry delights. Ready for picking May 20th  thru mid June. Tickets can be purchased online. 

Hey Michelle,

Do you want to know where to eat, drink and have fun in Cincinnati? Follow me @HeyMichelle1 on IG 
https://heymichelle-help.com

Imbiber Dave is over the moon for Over The Rhine. . .

My lovely wife took me to another concert at Memorial Hall, which is next to Music Hall in OTR last week. Seeing one of our favorite Indie bands from 2000, The New Pornographers, was awesome, but I learned some other things on this particular adventure.

Shamefully, I had never been to The Porch during the week, which is the outdoor bar located in the center of Washington Park. On Mondays a band plays jazz, and this group was amazing. We quickly realized if we didn’t have tickets to a show, we would have sat near The Porch bar all night and enjoy this live music.

We had dinner at Lalo, a Chino-Latino experience. You can get bibimbap or pad Thai with Latin influenced flavors added, or get delightful tacos with various Asian influences, which we opted for during our first visit. Now I would say you could put almost anything on a taco, but the coconut curry chicken and pork belly options did not disappoint.

We saw a wall of Jarritos when we walked in, so of course we had their delicious Paloma. Walking around OTR on a weekend definitely kept me entertained. Several vacant spots like Zula and Pearlstar are reopening soon under new management.

Scouts honor, I will check them out once declared safe for imbibing.

Cheers!
cincybeerguydave@gmail.com

TUNE O’ THE DAY. . . This guy sounded maybe a little too much like Hendrix, but I didn’t hold it against him.