Picture the scene, it’s around 11pm on Monday October 16th. I finish the show I have been watching and say to myself, one more check of social media then bed. I open Twitter and see tweets of outrage, sadness, uncertainty, then I see THE tweet for myself, Sports Illustrated Grant Wahl telling us that unless Columbus crew get a new state of the art stadium in downtown Columbus, Owner or business operations manager, or whatever he is calling himself this week, Anthony Precourt may move the team to Austin Texas. My head goes into a haze, this doesn’t happen in this beautiful game of ours, sure teams have folded in the past due to mis-management, over spending, illegal tax programs, but it’s rare, and never because an owner just wanted to move to a hipster new city. By now it’s almost 1am and I decide I really should go to bed, maybe it’s fake news and everything will be cleared up by the time I wake up. It wasn’t!
Next morning my online feed was full of others confirming that I hadn’t just had a nightmare, this was happening and Precourt Sports Ventures (PSV) were having a press conference later in the day. Precourt announced via telephone, as he was too chicken to actually show his face in Columbus in front of the local soccer media who’s very Jobs could be effected by his actions, that attendances were down, the stadium was outdated and there was no support from the local business community. Most of the facts he was coming out with we would later find to be false, and it would become clear as time went by that this was just an owner trying to bypass the large fee that would have to be paid to MLS to own a new club by moving an existing one he had bought on the cheap. A clause was revealed that he wasn’t allowed to move the team until he had owned it for ten years, unless…. wait for it, surprise surprise, an opportunity arose in, yup you guessed it, Austin Texas. This could happen after he had owned the club for three years, which by this time he had. But I’m getting ahead of myself here. As the haze left the heads of the Columbus community , determination took over. #savethecrew was born, This is not over, tell everyone you know, would become the battle cry. Shirts, scarfs, community kit, lawn signs, car magnets would appear all over Columbus and beyond sporting the #savethecrew logo. The grassroots movement quickly got to work, getting the support of other supporters groups, contacting MLS owners, MLS sponsors and local businesses to get sponsorship support and possibly new local owners.
The next few months would be like a rollercoaster, for every high point where we were like we have them we are going to save the crew there would be a counter action or statement and we were back to square one. I even thought MLS will step in and stop this nonsense, I remember when Rangers in Scotland were being put into administration and then liquidated the league and Scottish FA were doing all they could to help them, they didn’t want one of their oldest clubs disappearing into oblivion. Columbus Crew are one of the founding members of MLS, in fact they were the very first team to be announced. When MLS was struggling and looked like it was going to fold, Columbus Crew owner Lamar Hunt built Crew stadium now known as MAPFRE stadium, which is now in the words of Anthony Precourt, not fit for its purpose, it was the first soccer specific stadium in MLS. This helped move MLS to the next level and the league survived. Now in its time of need MLS commissioner Don Garber has turned his back on its founding member and is not only allowing the move but encouraging it.
Between the trouble PSV are having finding a stadium site in Austin and the law suit that is going on after Ohio attorney general Mike DeWine found a law known as the Art Model law, which was made after the former Cleveland Browns owner moved the Browns under the cover of darkness to Baltimore. The law in basic terms says that any Ohio sports team which has received government funding is not allowed to move before giving six months notice and must listen to any reasonable offers for the team. Columbus received government funding when Anthony Precourt paved the parking lot at MAPFRE stadium which is situated on the fairgrounds. We are kinda in limbo right now.
There could possibly be an announcement this month but who knows how long this will drag on for. But in my mind, for the integrity of the game in the USA, this move MUST not happen, if it does, myself and many others are done supporting MLS as a league, they will not receive another penny from us, and could lose many fans from the game completely. As one my friends points out MLS is not really interested in trying to grow the game in this country, but instead want to grow their profits and the profits of all the team owners.
visit savethecrew.com for more details and updates, to buy merchandise or to check out the many sponsors who support save the crew. Lastly tell everyone you know, This is not over.