Okay, if this exists elsewhere, my apologies. I think our discussions about the Haslam and Edwards families has been stuck in the old mega-threads, and other threads about sponsorship, the stadium, etc. Still, I think there's value in having a place to talk about ownership and the front office they're building. Case in point, an unusual Sunday morning article in Columbus Business First: The Billion-Dollar Belt: Crew co-owner Pete Edwards talks Crew stadium progress Subscription-only, so I'll quote a couple of things: and and Nothing earth-shattering in the piece. But it does name, for the first time that I've seen, the "Edwards family" ownership group. And says they carrying part of the stadium and related development costs, which is rather obvious (recall, it's the Edwards who are land developers, not the Haslams), still, whenever investment is talked about, seems to me the Haslams are the only ones ever mentioned. This was never just Dr. Pete, and it's the remainder of the family has really brings the $$ and development know-how to the table, I assume. Stating that we'll clear 10K season tickets is good to know. First time I've heard that. Pete doesn't have a great track record when it comes to talking about ticket sales, but I'm guessing he's learned a thing or two in the past year. The article also talks about the Arena District being the only site that they really wanted, the ideal site, an the site Lamar wanted 25 years ago. Finally, the corporate sales stuff. Watch this page, I guess: https://www.columbuscrewsc.com/club/corporate-partners This line - "We want to use Columbus corporations as all of our sponsors as long as that’s possible" - is interesting. I've heard it several times now. I mean, if they can pull it off, I'm all for it. I'm no great fan of Papa John's, that's for sure. Guess we'll see how that goes. Still, the devil's in the details. Budweiser isn't a Columbus company, but has a large brewery here. Some of our current sponsors are Cleveland-based; is that close enough? Do we ditch Kroger? How about Pepsi? The existing sponsorship group is pretty local. It's also pretty small-time, when you consider the names that are missing, and the tier at which the vast majority of team partnerships exists within. Anyway, the Haslams, and Edwardses, Bez and co. Have at it.
Thanks for posting some quotes from this article. I saw it posted around on social media but I don’t have a subscription.
It shouldn't be important to have an all Columbus sponsorship base. While those are natural fits, if they're not interested, we shouldn't forgo an out of town sponsor just to keep it local.
The Billion-Dollar Belt: How the new Columbus Crew stadium fits into the Arena District Companion piece to the other article posted yesterday morning. Part of a larger series on the more than $1B in development underway downtown. Not much new here that wasn't addressed in the first piece. Dee was in town for a Feb. 6 Columbus Chamber of Commerce event. She and Dr. Pete talk again, in fairly general terms, about how the stadium development needs to be about much more than what happens on match day: Some of these ideas have been mentioned before: - “concerts, food trucks, farmer’s markets” - “We’ve talked about doing movies in the summer where we have a couple thousand people come to watch an outdoor movie on our screen on our plaza.” - Edwards said he wants to bring back the feel of “Rally in the Alley,” which took place each summer from 1978 to 1990 in Pearl and Lynn alleys downtown. People came to socialize over drinks, food and music. Recall, there will be a new, riverfront park in the area, as well as the bike/pedestrian bridge that'll cross the rover at the park, so W. Nationwide won't be just a dead end, as it is now. Here's a link to a graphic about who is paying for what re: the stadium and Mapfre projects: https://infogram.com/cdr-crew-money-sources-1ho16vrx7rz74nq Basically, currently these two projects are $350M, cumulatively, though it seems the Mapfre projects is still pretty vague. Private investment is $210M. There's a $25M loan form the State of Ohio that's listed under the "Public" side of the ledger, but last I checked, loans normally need to be paid off, so that $210M could be argued to be $235M. Regarding Confluence Village: Here's the original Billion-Dollar Bet article: https://www.bizjournals.com/columbu...-billion-dollarbelt-how-a-series-of-huge.html I'd read through the rest of the series and post anything that seems to be relevant to the Crew.
Speaking of great articles in The Athletic, I think this is one.... https://theathletic.com/2148851/202...lle-sc-columbus-crew-fc-cincinnati-la-galaxy/ I guess this goes in the roster thread since we are talking about the owners money. At any rate, Truck Stop Jimmy is the scourge many of us believed he was when he bought the team. Still it's startling to see how he dwarfs even Anschutz in this table. Woof.
I'm not surprised by that. He's from Tennessee and his brother was a Republican Governor there. He also makes his money from gas stations which is typically a GOP supporting industry. I'm also not surprised that cheapskate Precourt didn't make the list.
He's on the list, my screen grab only caught the top of that table from the article. Precourt had over 50k in political contributions 88% of which went to GOP candidates as opposed to Haslam's 94% and MUCH higher donation level. Really looking forward to a politicians bet between Ted Cruz and Jim Jordan and seeing them hamming it up in the owners boxes in coming seasons.
I think its very appropriate to discuss this topic as its directly connected to the team. Perhaps having its own thread would make more sense.
Not sure this fits in this thread. But not many surprises. I'm guessing many of those high dollar amts are to national elections and the smaller amts are to local races. In many cases it appears owners are keeping their local, usually democrat run cities happy by flipping them a few bucks. I think I saw that even Fratboy by ended up donating to Leslie Pool's campaign. Clearly an attempt to keep her from looking further under the hood of his deal with city. I'm guessing same holds true for Haslams. They have two cities and counties run by democrats to keep happy. I'm willing to bet that is where all the blue money went. BTW - I am a staunch supporter of campaign finance reform. The whole system is rank with buying/selling votes.
I think it fits here in the same way discussion about public funds being used for the stadium fits in the stadium thread.
Please explain to me which politicians are on the Crew roster? I'm not saying at all that this isn't noteworthy. Just the location of it.
I suppose it was inevitable that the initial response to this was from the living embodiment of the Dunning-Kruger Effect, but your point is well taken. As consumers, we should take into account where our discretionary spending goes. Many on the left will no longer spend money at, e.g., Chik-Fil-A or Hobby Lobby. Yet, despite the "Thinking. Trying. Doing/supporting the marginalized" mantra of so many on the #savethecrew circle jerk, they are more than happy to hand over thousands of dollars to owners who redistribute those dollars to political causes that are diametrically opposed to the concerns the #STC crowd claim to support.
So I guess anyone who leans non-republican isn't allowed to be a Crew fan anymore, lest they be labeled a hypocrite. Is that what I should be taking away from this? If so, where do I pick up my Scarlet Letter? I don't have the energy to be outraged about this.
I mean that response was to be fully expected above yours. Inevitable as you said. And of course you are correct in regards to how consumer behavior, and specifically in regards to Columbus Crew fan consumer behavior. But I've also been around here long enough to remember how speculation of Precourt's finances morphed into every thread, including a roster thread where he was repeatedly called a cheapskate and everyone speculated how that would affect his spending on the team. And much of that speculation was based on far less information than confirmed information that the owner gives twice as much of his money to political causes than any other owner in the league. Moreso, in a time where athletes are thankfully feeling more comfortable about speaking out politically this sort of information could color the views of how players around the league feel about Columbus Crew. So, frankly I find kgilbert's objection not only predictable, but tedious, misguided, rife with double standard, and hopelessly naive.
I'm not sure that's the takeway, though I know I few high ranking officers of the fan police and I can get back and check. There was a kumbaya moment after STC where everyone throw petals at the feet of the owners and didn't want a bad word said about them. They are our saviors and everyone was supposed to get in line. That days after the Crew debuts a a #To96ther hashtag this story drops and we learn that the owner is donating absurd amounts of money to political forces who wish to work against many of the concerns, causes, and initiatives of the fans and players certainly is worth discussion. The Crew fanbase is a very politically engaged fanbase for many reasons, including the near theft of our team. I won't call you a hypocrite for continuing to support the team. Likewise, I certainly won't begrudge anyone who upon seeing this news feels less engaged and connected to the team. In fact I sympathize with the latter.
I was far less politically engaged during that time, but I would be now. In the same way that now I was upset that Roma's owner Dan Pallotta was a big Trump donor or that the team accepted money from Qatar Airlines for sponsorship.
I don't disagree with much of that, and certainly not enough to dissect it, but I'll say this: I think this is misguided rage. Political contributions are a personal choice and we are not going to get the Haslams to stop donating where they see fit. What we can do, what we can influence, is how those donations are used by their recipients. Fight the battle with the parties and causes, not the people. Also, random thought: How much of that sum is donated by the Edwards family?
Let's just lay the cards on the table, shall we: Wealthy people, by and large, lean Republican. A person has to be wealthy to own a sports franchise. So, if we're going to be fair, no one who identifies as non-Republican should be supporting any sports franchises, lest our dollars trickle up and over to causes we don't support in the form of contributions by wealthy Republican sports franchise owners. Therefore, by the transitive property of liberal logic, all monetary support for sports franchises is also monetary support of Republican causes. Right?
I would like to know who actually read the whole article? There was a section about how rich, white men have the privilege of being a single-issue voter. For example; Jimmy may deeply care about something that a Republican elected officially may help change so he donates without having to think about their stance on LGBTQ+ issues or BLM, etc. If this turns someone off to the Crew, fine but I don't understand how we can hold this single view of exactly what an owner is supposed to do. I do believe humans are complex enough to support BLM and a Republican candidate.