Looking ahead bit (admittedly prematurely) and thinking about what are the first 90-120 day priorities for a new local ownership once they buy the team?
I would like to ask the person who didnt pick work on a new stadium or major upgrades to existing stadium what they picked instead, and why? I voted options 1, 2 and six
The new owners major problem at the moment is attendance. So meeting with fans and whatever else necessary needs to be done. So that is two of my three votes. The Crew training facility is up for new contract. That is pretty important so that is my number three. I don't care a lot about a new stadium. I will continue my three hour round trip from Middletown (not making the 35 to 40 minute trip to fc Cincinnati)) regardless of the stadium because I have been a Crew fan and season ticket holder since "96" . If a new stadium doesn't add traffic problems and another ,half hour to my travel time I would be fine with it. I find no problem with fixing up the current Crew stadium,I just think it is step four After Attendance,Attendance and making sure we have a training facility!
My choices: 1 Reconnect with the fans. That's partly a matter of promotions to increase attendance but also committing to doing things the right way. 2 Extend Gregg. He's probably on a relatively cheap contract since he's with PSV. Don't cheap out on him since he's a value add (outside of open cup matches at least). 3 Round up sponsors, both for the existing facility and for a new stadium. Upgrading our sponsorships would help a lot on the financial side and should be doable with local owners.
They need to do more than 3 things, so while the poll is fun, and ID's some areas we need to address, it misses the point. And I think a lot of choices overlap. Here would be my Mt. Rushmore to do list: 1) Stadium. This is going to have to be a near done deal before MLS agrees to let us have a team. Now, if we win in court (which won't happen until 2019 at the earliest) then we might have work to do in this area. 2) Attendence. This is our issue. Stadium should help. More marketing will help. But it has to also be better marketing. More community involvement. More interaction with fans & supporter's groups is a must. More than one meeting. New front office folk is a must. 3) Academy. One way for a smaller market team to compete is through a great academy system. This has to get put on the right track, pronto. New FO will help and is intertwined. As is a new training facility which should be open to the academy players (depending on age) as well. I would also advocate going for a women's team so we can have boys & girl's academies and pro teams here. More exposure for the Crew in the community. More ties that bind. 4) Celebrate the club's history. Obviously having Frankie in before Guille is silly. But we have a lot of former players from the hard hat era that I am sure would be willing to help in some way or be connected beyond Frankie. McBride. Warzycha. Moreno. Clark. Dante. Padula. Mais. Stern. Gaven. Oughton. I am sure there are others. And get rid of that SC crap. And a new logo. All traces of Precourt must be wiped.
That's probably job #1. But of the options: -Need to market & 'win back' fans -- whether stadium is new or old, it doesn't pay the if the seats are empty! -[other] Get to work on good relationships with area businesses, both for sponsorship deals & for filling the luxury boxes (esp. if that's going to be a bigger feature in the new stadium -- again, empty luxury suites don't bring in revenue!) [edit] Don't pull a Precourt and send an underlying to meet the local CEO's!!! -I picked 'upgrade' to current stadium as one of them -- but I'm thinking just a bunch of brooms, mops, bleach, windex and a little old fashioned elbow grease would be a nice start! Marketing & then having people show up to a pig sty isn't going to convince them to return another time... rid the place of that Precourt stench! -New training grounds, new stadium, etc are all nice -- but get the basics going first
I had beers with a former coworker a couple months ago and one of his opinions was to fix what needs fixing but do nothing major to Mapfre and do not build a new stadium - lower ticket prices and concessions and build an average 15K attendance and send a big **** you to MLS. Anything bright and shiny new is a temporary thing. I don't agree fully but I can see his point of returning the stadium to a time where it felt like "home" and had consistent numbers, people kicking the bleachers during corner kicks, everything missing (minus the supporters corner) from today's "experience". Personally, I think Mapfre is fine with upgrades. Why sink $150 million on 9-12 years of newness? (debatable). The Crew needs faces and something for the central Ohio area to connect with - to undo the damage caused after Lamar's death. Chasing high attendances is unsustainable. Being realistic isn't.
This may be unpopular, but that's hardly a first for me, so here goes: Keep the logo. And the "SC." The re-brand was one of the few things this club has done right from a business perspective. I can see where the impulse to purge comes from, but there's an argument to be made that if we can strip AP of his team, making him look at the logo he created would be a good way to needle him long after we've stopped worrying about him.
I agree about the logo and SC. Keep it. It was the one thing this regime got right. It was/is popular and I think we shouldn't just try to wipe out the past few years of club history solely because its attached to Precourt. As for the SC....I personally dont care that it's there because I still dont verbally say it. Just like I dont say "Hey were playing Seattle Sounders FC or did you see that Chelsea FC game". With that said.....they would do well to de-emphasize the SC instead of cramming it down everyone's throat like PSV has. First things first the new ownership has to find the right people to lead a club. I dont know a whole lot about that kinda stuff but I know who we did go out and get....guys like Greeley and Loughnane. Nashville isn't even an MLS team yet and their first major hire is a former president or whatever of Liverpool. That kinda speaks to their ambition in my opinion. I agree with others that we need to lock Gregg down if it's possible. If he gets picked for the USMNT then so be it....but if not.....pay the man. I know a lot of people dont place much of a premium on the idea of a new stadium. Weve all been going to Crew Stadium forever and it works just fine for us (just needs some TLC). But that's us. The Crew moving into the future needs to be a modern club. Yes....new shiny things lose their luster sooner or later and you're still out millions of dollars.....but regardless of that. ...the fact remains that we need to boost attendance, and create new fans....and a lot of those new potential fans will be more won over by a modern "major league feeling" stadium and atmosphere. Otherwise you're not giving anybody any reason to think the Crew are worth any more of their entertainment dollars than a Clippers game. Even before that new stadium happens though, a well maintained Mapfre Stadium is perfectly sufficient in the short term. Huge focus on advertising and marketing is a necessity. I dont live in Columbus so I have no idea how much presence the team truly has in the public eye or has had in the past. What I can tell you is that out in the hinterland....in the other cities that are still easily Crew territory theres zilch in the way of advertising. I live in Toledo and unless a person is specifically a soccer fan theres a 98% chance they've never heard of the Crew. Especially with Cincinnati coming on board....I really hope a new Crew ownership pushes to expand their reach into Northwest, Northeast, and Southeast Ohio.
Counterpoint: The rebrand was shit, and you could tell it was done in house for little to no money. The new badge is what happens when you give a high school kid a project on creating a soccer crest and access to google. Stripes? Check. Chekers? Check. Number? Check. Additional letters? Check. Name of city? Check. Actual identity? Nonexistent.
Definitely increase the lines of communication between the FO and fans. Make it a true community team. If anyone remembers when the Blitz became the Rock and then turned back into the Blitz, they were like "What do you listeners want out of this station? This is your station." I'm not saying this is a "must" but it was cool how we had former players as coaching staff...it helped show a bit of respect for the history of the organization. Definitely do things to show the history. Bring back Crew Rock and the Urso tribute to the locker rooms. Throw several million into the stadium to refurbish it. New TVs at the concession stands. Fix the Upper 90. Allow the stadium to be open more than the weak 30 minutes after the game. Happy hour prices after the games, at least select games...kind of like what they do now, but put it after games. Figure out who else should be in the ring of honor. Training grounds, yes. Make it a "community" aspect so that various rec leagues can also use the fields. Have at least one indoor field for practice during inclement weather. Make a proper "Crewzeum barcade" somewhere that would show all MLS games, have a lot of Crew stuff on the walls, soccer-themed video games, Crew interactive videos, etc.
That's unlikely to happen. They already cut off alcohol sales early at all sporting events so folks don't drive home drunk--and I think that might be state law or at least an LCB rule.
I can't imagine a forced sale by MLS without a stadium plan in place. So, I don't even consider that as part of the deal. It's going to happen. Mapfre is perfectly fine for 2 or 3 years while the new stadium is built as long as some basic maintenance is performed. The time between an ownership change and the new stadium opening is all important. It is hard to change the minds of casual fans/non-fans/curious residents about Mapfre. If they've been there they know it's a minor league deal with near major league prices. When the new stadium opens it will be a major league facility with major league prices. Priming those folks (not the 12K hardcores that will pay whatever) to go is the need. I voted for build a new training ground. Put it in a suburb where soccer is played. Gahana, Westerville, Dublin, Hilliard, etc. Put 2 turf fields and indoor facility and several grass fields. Have the juniors train there, let clubs use it, integrate it into the fabric of the community. Engage the supporters groups, long term ticket holders, sponsors, etc. Be ready to launch the new stadium.
I am skeptical if Columbus will be willing to pay "major league" prices for a team. My suspicion is that's one of the things they discovered when doing that stadium poll. We don't for the Blue Jackets, not really. It was hard to find numbers for the NHL (most were secondary market prices), but in 2014/15, the Jackets average price was $48.9, while the league average was $62.18. But here, the big deal with a new stadium would be the luxury boxes. Fill those with local companies investing, and you've got a chance.
They used to keep the stadium club bar open late. Of course, that was during autograph alley, but even without, they were keeping it open late. If anything, it's a liability issue. If fans drink in the parking lot after the game, the team can say they closed all alcohol sales early.
Training ground should be at the south end of Berliner. Centrally located for academy. I also agree that MLS does not even entertain letting team stay if new stadium isn't firmly part of deal. FO - need to focus on marketing marketing, game day experience, marketing, grassroots, marketing, fresh merch, marketing. I believe much of ticket sales is controlled centrally by MLS. They have centralized training and then send reps out to clubs. Which brings up a question, are we getting their best or are they sending the to Seattle, Portland, Orlando etc? How much control does club have over that process? I didn't put it as part of options, but most definitely (and honestly more important than butts in seats) is corporate support. But I think local ownership will make quick and fruitful headway in the area. And that obviously ties to new stadium. without millions of dollars in corporate support, a new stadium will not happen (and should not).
Here's an interesting angle: Obviously, our stadium was built in almost no time at all, with very little to go on. Other stadia were built with more time, using pros/cons of past ones as building blocks. Ours had had very little maintenance other than the necessary things. I wonder what the expected lifespan was of stadium and how much longer it'll be until the Galaxy and FC Dallas talk new ones. I'd put Chicago on that list as well, but they're locked in. I believe the next two would be Colorado and RSL.
FCD isn't going anywhere. They've just added the Soccer Hall of Fame to their stadium. Galaxy probably won't like it that LAFC has a much nicer facility. They're also ambitious with a deep pocketed owner so they're probably next after the Crew.