Detroit's proposal had the MLS team playing its home matches in Ford Field.(Photo: Getty Images)
The Cincinnati City Council Monday approved $33.8 million in infrastructure financing for a soccer stadium, clearing the way for Major League Soccer to award an expansion franchise to the Ohio city, instead of Detroit.
The vote came one day before the MLS board of governors meeting in New York City Tuesday to discuss expansion.
MLS has twice delayed awarding the second franchise in a new round of expansion, after making the first award to Nashville.
FC Cincinnati intends to privately finance at 21,000-seat stadium.
In addition to Nashville and Cincinnati, Detroit is competing with Sacramento for an expansion club.
The Detroit bidders, including the billionaire financers and NBA owners Dan Gilbert and Tom Gores, and Detroit Lions owner Martha Firestone Ford, propose playing soccer in Ford Field.
A previous proposal called for a new soccer-specific stadium, the preference of MLS, at the site of the incomplete Wayne County jail, near Greektown.
While MLS commissioner Don Garber said he is impressed with the proposal for putting a soccer pitch in Ford Field, he and other MLS officials have made their preference for smaller, outdoor, soccer stadiums in urban cores.
Ford Field satisfied only the latter priority.
The Detroit proposal sat, fully informed, for five months while MLS waited for Cincinnati to find a site for the stadium.
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