NWSL to Columbus

610 does a lot of shit talking and misinformation on a lot of stuff. They are terrible.

But they are likely right about one thing, Council is likely gonna pass this.

 

If it weren't for the traffic and weather, I'd switch to NPR in the morning.

Well, that and NPR in the morning is depressing as shit.

 

True. The first geoup are soccer fans, the second group are there because...well, I have some theories but none of them involve a desire to watch good soccer.

Im not sure its "easy" to see either one. Sure I can easily construct some theories out of.thin air, but our imaginations are not the same as legitimate business models.

 

1. Bez (if you don’t believe that he’s an upside on multiple fronts, there’s no hope for you)
2. Increased sponsorship (if more money is coming in, more will be spent)[/QUOTE]


1) Bez returning and the NWSL (???)
What is the connection?
Was it a pre-req for the NWSL for him to return?

2) Sponsorships is now spread across two teams at SMGF.

Bundling galore.

Likely more ticket deals ... dropped through the teams publicly and corporate partners/businesses.


There are several folks I know pissed off as STH because of the deals out there on the first 2 Crew home games of 2026


Again... you are ignoring the negativity in town with the Haslams and this (unwanted) team arriving.

To each their own.


People can close their wallets to attending a Crew team flipping schedules and a shady brokered NWSL team ... both with the Haslams as the face of ownership.

I don't want the Crew weakened.
But ... here we are.

 

Yeah, what a bizarre statement.

It's a lot easier to see how this elevates the Crew than it is to come up with ways in which an NWSL team here might potentially harm the Crew.[/QUOTE]

Please offer some facts ... or your learned opinion.

Rather just label something you don't agree with as "bizarre."

'

- The NWSL team is arriving under a cloud

- Many people are sick of the Haslams

- NWSL teams are largely losing money (based on public writing)

- Half of the NWSL team sponsorship comes from 3 markets (posted by me early in this thread)

- The price point for attending NWSL at SMGF will be lower than MLS, based on league pricing ... opening the door to being a Substitute Good to the Crew ... especially if NWSL stays Spring to Fall

- More ticket deals for either SMGF team undermines STH sales, which are still the driver for U.S. pro teams
(30+ dates are a lot to try and fill SMGF without deals)

-Rising asset values have nothing to deal with investing in team payrolls in North American sports.

- Crew are already losing money annually



How is the NWSL team arriving going to overcome these market factors and elevate the Crew?

 

You should be gracious in victory.

The NWSL is indeed likely coming to town, come hell or high water.


I am sad that the ticket buying public is likely to punish the Crew for this, the Haslams being the face of this ... (and the schedule flip).

 

With all due respect, I think you are off your rocker on this.

Blowback will be minimal to non-existant. A bit for the park loss, but it wasn't much but a field.

2% on tix is like $0.67 for Nordecke or a buck for others. If you are not upset about $10 beers, that does nothing.

The downside is VERY minimal.

 

The ability to manage both a top flight men's and women's team here was a selling point for Tim. He likes the challenge of putting the pieces together for multiple teams, and with the way the calendars will work, he will stay busy year round. That was part of why he went to Black Knight.

Sponsorships between the leagues will have little overlap. If anything, the women's team may land some bigger names because deals can be made for a lot less than MLS and corporations want to virtue signal through supporting women's sports. Having Nationwide in the fold helps a lot too as it signals credibility to other major companies. Similar to Ohio State athletics, the money brought in by teams in the soccer portfolio isn't going to be reinvested in the same proportion. Football gets all the money at OSU, and the Crew will get all the money from their shared owners.

You are again projecting your extreme hatred for Jimmy into constructing in your mind a groundswell of opposition. I subscribe to the Rooster and agree with him on some things, but he'd say himself he's a huge outlier in his political beliefs and interest in local government. There's still a giant percentage of Columbus' population that doesn't follow the Crew at all. They will never watch or care about soccer beyond loosely following the US men during the World Cup. They have no idea that the Haslams own the team and no idea that NWSL exists. The only people who will notice and care about this are small pockets of the overall population: those like us who are deeply invested in soccer, and those who hyper-focused on hating Jimmy Haslam and all his fellow conservatives. There's a ton of overlap in that Venn diagram too.

Your last point is hilarious. The idea that MLS and NWSL are substitutes is like saying MLS and MLS Next Pro, or the NBA and the WNBA, or the Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics, or the World Cup and the Women's World Cup, are substitutes. Attendance, ratings, financial investment, and common sense would tell you they're nothing alike.

I would urge you to canvas and try to find 50 people who choose to dump their Crew STMs to buy NWSL season tickets. Most who make that choice will be doing it as an expression of their political ideology rather than a love of women's soccer.

I likely will drop my STM for the Crew with the calendar switch but I'll follow the NWSL team about as closely as the Clippers. Which is to say, not at all. It'll be one or two games a year as something cheap to do with friends on a summer night, and that's it. Most people are exactly like me too. As someone else already pointed out, the fans who will be dedicated to this team are completely different from those of us that religiously follow the Crew.

 

If I had to choose between Crew/NWSL, I would probably pick the ladies at this point.

Yeah, Jimmy is a factor. I almost bailed after last year. And was kinda resigned to losing the team back in 2017-2019. Or at least the possibility. Dropping ST is just a step back. I'd still be a fan, just one who wants to give Jimmy less $$$.

He is only 30% of NWSL and I am assuming those will be cheaper.

But the idea that there is gonna be some sort of groundswell of opposition to getting an NWSL team is fantasy. 95%-99% of the population does not give a rats ass about a 2% tax on SMG tickets or McCoy Park either.

And even in the Crew fan/STM subgroup, the # of people who will drop their Crew seats because of NWSL is low. Hell, I am an outlier, and I am not doing it because of NWSL, I am doing it because of Haslam and how he runs things. I'd likely be dropping Crew ST without any NWSL team. If I get ST at all, it will be for that.

 

How many of us had ever heard of McCoy Park before it was announced as the site of the NWSL training facility? Certainly not me.

 

Me, either.

Now, in the abstract, am I in favor of using public spaces for private use? No, not really. But, Fairgrounds...hello!

Do I think the residents of the SW side are getting a raw deal here? A bit, yeah.

Do I think the idea that "it's too late" to substitute another location makes any lick of logical sense? No, it does not.

If I was on Council I'd be pissed about being presented with a fait accompli/take it or leave it deal. Absent some logical reason why an alternate (and better) site could not be substituted (other than Jimmy not wanting to pay for the land) or another site found for a park/field on the SW side, then I'd probably be a "no."

But I ain't on Council. And it looks like this thing will happen to me. If it does, even though I was probably a no in the abstract, my "outrage" about it happening will be negligible to non-existant.

Over time, the tax will cover the cost of a new park/field for rhe SW side. And I will enjoy having a NWSL team.

 

Me, but largely because it's where the city trucked a lot of the snow from that level 3 snowstorm.

 

I would hazard to guess that when Nationwide wants something done in this town, it isn't very often it doesn't happen. Probably not as powerful as The Columbus Partnership, but they get done what they want.

 

Oh no!! NWSL is really gonna steal all the money from the Crew now!!

 

Lol.

 

"Kids ... which money-losing Columbus occer team that is owned by the person your Mom and I dislike would you like to see this weekend?

The women's team on Friday night ... that no ones pays full price for and no one recognizes the players?

Or the men's team on Saturday afternoon ... to avoid the popular teams' games in town ... that no longer has players people recognize and people feel like a sucker paying full prices for?

Choose wisely.

We can only afford to go to one ... and the Unlikeable Man is already suggesting that sone games be moved to his new dome in Cleveland ... for "business viability", whatever that is."

 

I know this won't sound particularly progressive of me, but personally I find the argument that we should bring a NWSL team here to give little girls role models to be pretty weak sauce. Not that it's irrelevant, or wrong in any way. It's just that this is, in essence, an effort to bring a new franchise of a for-profit business to Columbus. The city, rightly, tries to attract such businesses here because they result in private investment, create jobs, expand the tax based, etc. In some cases, they might also enhance the city's or region's image, it's attractiveness to tourists (and their money), our ability to hook major events. That kind of thing.

With $50M of public $$ on the line, those are the kinds of arguments those behind the effort should be pushing. That NWSL players being role models for girls in Central Ohio is, at best, a secondary reason. I'd say tertiary. It's a good thing, to be sure. But this effort either succeeds or fails as a business decision.

 

I understand what you're getting at and your argument is not without validity.

But you do underestand that going to Crew games is fun, right? A lot of people - some call them sickos - just enjoy going to a sporting event with their friends & family and don't really put that much thought into it.

How dare they.

 

It wasn’t as if ownership just stuck a pin in a map for the training facility, McCoy was suggested by the city as a good fit. The planning permit wouldn’t have been applied for if the city hadn’t given its unofficial blessing. Obviously, ownership had no knowledge of previous plans the city had for its usage. That doesn’t make good click bait though ; ) .

 

The $50 mil in public funds thing is kinda misleading, is it not? If technically accurate.

It is not like they are just giving away $50 mil in tax dollars never to be seen again. It is essentially a loan that the club/fans pay back with the 2% tax, then continues to contribute to the City piggy-bank thereafter.

The projections have it taking about a decade to pay back. For the City's $25 mil, anyway.

"City nets $2.5 mil per year forever" would also be accurate, yes? If also incomplete.