클리블랜드 SC

For the previous six seasons, from 2012 to 2017, AFC Cleveland had represented the city of Cleveland in the National Premier Soccer League. That run included an NPSL national championship in 2016, as well as two appearances in the U.S. Open Cup. However, the club was expelled from the NPSL due to "not [being] in good financial standing with the league." That announcement came on December 12, 2017, just months before the new season was set to begin.

Inaugural season

The catalysts for founding Cleveland SC were two former AFC Cleveland players, Coletun Long and Chris Cvecko. According to Long, the two "started having a conversation in the car and talked further in a Chipotle parking lot outside the city. We wrote down ideas and called teammates and others previously associated with AFC Cleveland." One of those people contacted was Samuel Seibert, a Northeast Ohio native who had been on the media relations staff for AFC Cleveland. He went on to take the lead on the NPSL expansion process, culminating in an official announcement of Cleveland SC as an NPSL expansion club on February 19, 2018. That announcement came just 90 days before the club was set to play its first regular season match.

Prior to the season beginning, CSC announced that the club would play its inaugural season at Don Shula Stadium, located in University Heights, Ohio on the campus of John Carroll University. In conjunction with local designers, a crest and kits featuring an orange and black color combination were launched in mid-March, less than a month before the club's inaugural match. Ryan Osborne was announced as the club's first head coach and the first two matches in club history took part in April, the inaugural edition of the Cheese Barn Derby against FC Columbus. The first-ever league match in CSC history took place on May 19, 2018, ending in a 2–0 victory over Rochester Lancers courtesy of goals from Declan McGivern and American futsal international Antonio Manfut. After a second-place finish in the Midwest-East, the club qualified for the playoffs and defeated Erie Commodores in the quarterfinals before falling to AFC Ann Arbor in the regional semifinals.