WEST END — Limited capacity seating for the first FC Cincinnati home match in TQL Stadium didn't stop thousands of people from pouring into Over-the-Rhine and West End bars.
Then they marched.
And chanted.
And drummed their way through city streets.
People hung out of windows and bar rooftops watching, cheering marchers on.
The march was reminiscent of the Nippert Stadium days, but this one though ended at the team's new $250 million stadium, stopping at Findlay Market and Washington Park.
"This is our city," shouted Chris Marshall, president of Norden Supporter Group and a knight of The Bailey, FC Cincinnati's supporter section, into a megaphone as he helped lead the march.
"I'm continually flooded with pride and gratitude for what has been accomplished for our city," Marshall told The Enquirer. "I've been part of leading this movement for five years and was at City Hall when the vote to approve the stadium passed. I can't believe our rag-tag group of misfits and try-hards did this. I've always been in this to better my city, soccer is second."
Fans were celebrating the first home game at TQL Stadium in the West End, a stadium Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber described as "the best stadium in Major League Soccer," during the ribbon-cutting ceremony on May 1.
There was disappointment among the team's season ticket holders that Ohio coronavirus regulations meant only roughly 6,000 fans were admitted into the 26,000-seat stadium, but the celebration spilled into the streets anyway.
The Pitch, a new bar across the street from the stadium, was packed with revelers.
FC Cincinnati President Jeff Berding addressed fans at the top of the stadium's grand staircase, saying, "You built this. We built this."
Matt Dillhoff, 43, of Wyoming, who brought his daughter Charlotte, to the game, was nearby and gave Berding a fist bump.
"Thank you for everything, Jeff," Dillhoff said. "Your heart is in it."
FC Cincinnati controlling owner Carl Lindner III got right down to it, asking fans, "Does anybody want to win a game?" Cheers erupted.
Matthew Long, FC Cincinnati's first season ticket holder, said sitting in the new stadium was the fulfillment of a childhood fantasy.
Raised in Brooklyn, NY he heard the stories of when his mom and uncles would jump onto the trollies to Ebbets Field for Dodgers games. On Sunday he met friend, Matt Booher, at the Banks for lunch, and then rode the Cincinnati Bell Connector through downtown and Over-the-Rhine, to get to the West End stadium.
"I've been to a bunch of stadiums," Long said, as he looked around the stadium, fans spread out top to bottom. "This is just Heaven. Now, we just have to build the moments."
More:From Crosley Field to TQL Stadium: 'It's a new day' in the West End
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