Major League Soccer awarded Cincinnati an expansion franchise that will begin play in the 2019 season, marking the league's 24th team. Las Vegas, with a bid backed by Aston Villa co-owners Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens, is closing in on approval for the 25th slot. The pace suggests MLS is compressing its expansion calendar, aiming to hit 30 teams by the early 2020s rather than the mid-decade target floated two years ago.
Cincinnati's entry fee is understood to be $150 million, matching the Miami and Nashville figures. The franchise will inherit FC Cincinnati's USL fanbase, which averaged over 21,000 per game in 2017, making it the largest non-MLS soccer attendance in North America. The ownership group, led by Carl Lindner III, already holds stadium site options in Oakley and Newport, with ground broken expected within six months. Las Vegas represents a different model: no existing lower-league club, but stadium land secured near the Strip and ownership with Premier League operating experience. Sawiris and Edens took control of Aston Villa in 2018; their Vegas vehicle includes Brett Lashbrook, a former MLS executive who understands the league's governance quirks.
The two-award sequence matters because it shows MLS willing to batch expansion decisions rather than drip-feed announcements. The league collected 12 bids for four slots in this cycle; Cincinnati and Nashville were awarded in December 2017, and the Vegas timeline suggests a third decision within nine months of the second. That cadence allows the league to lock broadcasting and sponsorship deals with a clearer team count, and it lets kit suppliers and merchandise partners plan inventory three seasons out instead of one. It also creates urgency among remaining bidders—Phoenix, Detroit, San Diego, Charlotte—to finalize stadium financing and demonstrate corporate sponsorship depth before the window closes.
Watch for MLS to announce the Vegas decision by September 2018, clearing the runway for a 2020 launch. The league will then pause expansion to digest the new footprint, but expect formal invitations for teams 26-28 by 2020, targeting 2022-2023 kickoffs. Cincinnati's kit sponsor and jersey manufacturer will be named by January 2019, and that deal's structure—whether it mirrors Atlanta's richly guaranteed Adidas contract or follows a safer revshare model—will signal how MLS values a high-attendance, small-market club. Las Vegas ownership will need to show a filled stadium rendering and naming-rights partner before the board votes; neither has been made public.
The Cincinnati-Vegas pairing gives MLS a Midwest anchor with proven attendance and a Western entertainment market with zero track record but significant tourism upside. One carries less risk. The other carries the brand leverage MLS has been chasing since Beckham.