FC Cincy (The Bailey Sings As One for You)

Last year Cincinnati's resident soccer team joined the Major Leagues marking this year as its inaugural season. And we finally attended a game. The matches are currently held at Nippert Stadium on UC campus. Which, in our humble opinion, is the perfect location for the team for a variety of reasons. But the team is currently building a permanent home called the West End Stadium that will open in 2021. It's using tax-payer money. While I appreciate the opportunity to enjoy sporting events, I have strong opinions about my tax money going to build sports arenas (of any kind, this is not specific to soccer).

ANYWAYS

It was a good game and FCC played well against the Chicago Fire. Neither JC nor I had ever been to a MLS game before (which kind of surprised me). JC played on a club team in high school and again while at Xavier University. He loves coaching Hulk's soccer team and playing on our church's team. He loves soccer. So I had assumed that he'd attended a game before. While I don't dislike soccer (unlike other sports *cough* football, baseball, hockey, tennis, golf... *cough*) I was lamenting having not brought a book while we waited for the game to start. Relationships are all about compromise. I attend sporting events with JC so that he doesn't have to go by himself and he puts up with me reading a book or asking dumb questions about the sport the whole time. It works.

What impressed me the most about the experience was the fan base. They are the most enthusiastic and energetic group of fans. Ever.

About an hour before the game starts, the fans march down the street towards the stadium: chanting, drum playing, releasing smoke bombs. If you're planning on going to a game, you should definitely try to witness the march. The crowd then congregates around the Bearcat Statue (pictured above, after everyone had left) and sings and chants for several minutes while releasing even more smoke bombs before marching into the stadium. When in a large crowd, it was hard to tell what the chanters were saying so when we got home after the game I tried to look it up. Turns out that there are several chants. The next time we go to a game I am either going to print off the list or try to memorize a few.

A nickname for Cincinnati is the Queen City or the Queen of the West. This goes back to the pre-Civil War era when Cincinnati became the largest city in the midwest. In one of the chants, they reference "The Queen" which is a reference to Cincinnati.

Two other things I learned about the FCC fan base:

1) The Pride - I knew that the FCC fans called themselves "the pride" but I thought that was a reference to an alliance with the LGBTQ+ community. Turns out the FCC mascot is a lion with wings so "the pride" is a reference to a lion's pride. #gofigure

2) The Bailey - this is where The Pride sits during the games (as opposed to general admission where we sat). The fans sang, chanted, and played drums THE ENTIRE GAME. I couldn't believe it. I feel like I would have gotten tired and bored of chanting after 5 minutes - forget about a 90 minute game! But that also might explain why there are so many chants, 90 minutes is a long time to sing the same chant over and over so with several different ones it makes it less monotonous.

Right before the game starts there are fireworks and more smoke bombs. Little Viking Girl loved the game. She would try to clap along with the chanters and would get upset if JC and I weren't clapping along as well. She's our little athlete. Hulk was desperate to leave just after half time. He would stay locked in his room all day playing legos and drawing if I let him.

One thing that I would do differently (other than bring a book 😉) is bring headphones. I'm not naive enough to believe Little Viking Girl or Hulk would wear them but the level of noise was a bit much for Baby #3. He's only a month old and the game was over stimulating for him. But after we got home he slept for nine hours straight. Which was nice.