#SavetheCrew

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Pretty cool!​

Group plans $230M stadium to keep MLS team in Columbus

 

Columbus has lost its coach & goalkeeper. I am really starting to worry about them. I’ve come up with a hashtag that will hopefully lead them out of this dark time. You’re welcome Columbus. #SaveTheCrew

— Bobby Boswell (@bobbyboswell) December 14, 2018

 

Is he joking or does he really think he made that one up?

 

Of course it’s a joke. Bobby Boswell is actually a pretty funny guy to follow on Twitter. He doesn’t post a lot, but usually provides a good chuckle

 

I'm sure is been posted but I really don't have time to look it up or sift through the threads. Questions, what happens to the current Crew Stadium if the team moves or if they build another stadium downtown?

Wouldn't a fairly new 19 year old stadium still be in good shape?

 

They're going to convert it to be the Crew's training facility and build community soccer fields around it.

 

What about the Stands? Will they donate them to Kezar?

 

Kezar needs more than stands

 

I didn't realize that Kezar needed any more stands than they already have.

 

In their dec-13-2018 podcast, the Cooligans joked that Anthony Precourt #SavedTheCrew by trying to kill them off, and that in The Book of Garber, Precourt will get the credit for saving the team and getting them a new stadium.

 

That’s basically what happened with the SF Giants. They threatened to move to Tampa or St Petersburg Florida (I forget which one) and then new ownership came in. Only 4 or 5 years later I believe it was they broke ground on their new stadium. Three years after that, Pac Bell Park opened.

 

I think the stands Kezar has are fine. The issue with filling that place more often isn't the lack of stands. Rather it's the fact that its a pointy ball/track and field stadium whose only rival for a less appealing location to watch soccer is PAL stadium. (I'd rather go to Levi's than either of those places if given the choice).

 

It’s laughable that MLS is giving Precourt a team in Austin. What’s next, a hotel in Moscow?

 

Nice Brewpub grain silos in the foreground there.

 

Good news!

Browns owners agree to buy Columbus Crew, keep MLS team in Ohio


Crew near Columbus stay after agreement reached with new owners

Browns owners agree to buy Columbus Crew, keep team in Ohio

Ownership agreement reached to keep Crew SC in Columbus

 

This has to be one of the few American stories where fan perseverance overcame billionaire boys club business practices.
I hope it works and I hope the new Crew thrives.

BTW, early on, I joined a pledge to become an STH. I hope they'll have some low-priced small packages. It was kind of like when my 8 year old son signed up for a school walk-a-thon over 20 years ago. I pledged $10 a mile, thinking he would only walk 1-2 miles. But he and a buddy ran 20 miles that day. I couldn't really complain...

 

Still took someone from the billionaire boys club to make this happen.

 

Yeah, but they had to change their normal biz practice of “screw the fans’”

 

Here's my wildly out there take on this whole situation. It all went down exactly like Garber Precourt wanted. Precourt moves to Austin with a publicly financed stadium, gets paid to leave Columbus via "selling" the team and gets a "new" team with out having to buy in again. Garber looks like he cares about the fans AND gets a team in Austin with a publicly financed stadium. WIN WIN for both.

 

I just wish that our situation could have developed in a similar fashion, and we could have kept our two-star-winning team instead of keeping the stars but being saddled with almost uniformly terrible teams for the past ten years...

 

I was going to post this exact thing. Wouldn’t it have been so easy for Garber to sell or give AEG expansion rights to go to Houston and start a new club and sell the existing team to Lew & Fisher?

The situation is different though because as opposed to 2005 where Uncle Phil owned half of the league, Garber & Co have more power now. Unlike us, the Crew still had their own existing stadium to play in while the new one is being built. The Quakes never had the luxury. If San Jose did own their own 6 year old stadium at the time, it’s more than likely that AEG will have never owned or assumed the club.

Oh well no sense in going back....

 

I think the big difference in outcomes was not based on what made sense or was easiest for the owners. #SaveTheCrew succeeded because they had a core set of passionate relentless fans who were extremely well-organized and who worked tirelessly for over a year. In addition, they had government support for a lawsuit to force the team to stay. Much of the media also supported #SaveTheCrew.

So we have to really acknowledge Crew fans for achieving something extraordinary. They stopped owners from doing what's easiest and most attractive to themselves: simply pick up and move to a newer brighter shinier place.