to prepare for the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup. Reception Nippert has earned a reputation as a tough place to play. One national columnist, visiting the sold-out Keg of Nails rivalry game in 2013, described Nippert Stadium as a "quaint bowl of angry noise sitting under the gaze of remarkable architecture" and went on to compare it to a "baby Death Valley" (referring to LSU's notoriously intimidating Tiger Stadium). In 2012, USA Today called Nippert Stadium the best football venue in what was then the Big East Conference. Other tenants and events hosted The stadium served as home for the American Football League expansion team, the Cincinnati Bengals, in 1968 and 1969, while their eventual permanent home at Riverfront Stadium was being constructed. The Cincinnati Comets of the American Soccer League played at Nippert in 1973. The stadium has served as a concert venue at least three times. On July 22, 1973, a show headlined by The Edgar Winter Group with The James Gang and Peter Frampton's group, Frampton's Camel, drew between 5,000 and 7,000 fans. On July 29, 1973, a concert with Grand Funk Railroad drew 8,000 fans; seventeen were arrested on charges they got in without a ticket. On August 3, 1975, Nippert hosted The Ohio River Rock Festival (Aerosmith, Black Oak Arkansas, Blue Öyster Cult, Foghat, Mahogany Rush, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, REO Speedwagon, and Styx; admission was festival seating/general admission, attendance 32,000 est. according to local radio broadcasts). In addition, the Grateful Dead was supposed to perform at Nippert on June 15, 1973, but the show was canceled, according to the Cincinnati Post, due to the fact that the staging was not up to the Dead's demands (they eventually played Cincinnati Gardens on December 4, 1973.) On November 2, 2008, Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama held a rally at Nippert two days before the election to an estimated 27,000 attendees. FC Cincinnati began playing at Nippert in 2016. The team broke the United Soccer League regular-season record for attendance five times, drawing 30,417 fans to its game against New York Red Bulls II on September 16, 2017. They drew 30,187 to their playoff game against the Charleston Battery on October 2, 2016. On September 29, 2018, they once again broke the USL attendance record, drawing 31,478 fans against Indy Eleven in FCC's final regular-season home game before the team's move to MLS. The team drew 35,061 for