TQL Stadium

Ask a Cincinnati supporter what the club built here and the answer has nothing to do with seat count. TQL Stadium sits in the West End, the neighbourhood that gave the ground its working name before the sponsors arrived, and the choice of site was itself a statement — FC Cincinnati built downtown, inside the city, rather than out where land is cheap.

The pitch has had its own history. For its first three seasons the surface was a hybrid system, natural grass reinforced with synthetic fibre, before the club switched to pure turf in 2024 and changed grass variety again the year after.

Populous designed the bowl, steep and close to the touchline in the way most modern soccer-specific stadiums in MLS have converged on, built by Turner Construction with Jostin Construction as local partner. The ground opened with a ribbon-cutting in May 2021, and the first competitive match followed a day later, Cincinnati against Inter Miami.

Twenty-six thousand seats is a modest number by American stadium standards, and it has stayed exactly that since the doors opened — no expansion, no reduction, just the capacity the club decided the West End could hold.