Post-match: Yer a Goalscorer, Abou Ali - Crew v Orlando - Match 7 - 4/12/26 7:00 PM

Let’s see besides ticket prices
- He wanted to change team name and even colors
- let his daughter create a new logo which is inferior to the logo we already had and they made lies & excuses to justify it
- Cleveland fiasco
- making GM shop on a budget instead of actually trying to dominate and that’s why we sold Cucho and instead of giving him a raise after the Cup we pushed him out the door to the highest bidder
- blowing up one of the greatest rosters ever to play in Columbus to recover back some of what he invested

That’s off the top of my head and i don’t know all the other owners but I don’t like this guy based on his actions.

 

He also besides the players let top FO ppl get away instead of paying them what they are worth and trying to keep the winning FO team together. You know what makes the Columbus Crew team value go up ? Winning trophies and he does treat it like a business which is exactly what I don’t like about it.

 

Ok? That’s happened a few times while he’s been owner I believe.

I know everything is rotten right now. It is. No way around that. Bad times tend to turn people’s brains into oatmeal (if they weren’t already in that state to begin with.) But for people to act like the Haslem reign of the Columbus Crew has been defined by failure and bad decisions is absolutely factually untrue and frankly insane.

 

Ownership now viewed by a large group of people in the whole state as "an entitled dick", to quote @DCED2019.

With a largely-hated schedule change coming.


Net positive from Day 1? Yep.

In free fall now and alienating a lot of casuals and STHs? Yep.

People are finding easy reasons to stop spending money on Crew soccer.


If Bez is the only fix ... that ain't overcoming all the stuff @TRUJDUB21 listed above.

Tone deaf and arrogant ownership.

 

I believe it was greedy entitled dick, but potato potatoe.

 

Let's not rewrite history here. Cucho left because he wanted to play in the World Cup and was told by his national coach that it would not happen as long as he was in MLS. it wasn't the money.

 

Don't let facts get in the way of a good narrative.

 

I love everybody here.

If we were Nor On Touring ... I got their back if they were getting harassed by home team jerks.


Something has changed around here.

I lurked during Save The Crew ... and the fire of not buying what ownership is selling ... is gone.

Too much winning?
Folks mellowing out?


I work with wealthy executives. And I have worked with a self-made billionaire. Money extraction > Stewardship is the norm with that crowd.

I see where this is going.



A long-time friend turned down free premium Crew tickets from me today.

He texted in reply, "I think you are right. Haslam is going to poison soccer in this town within 5 years if some things don't change."

 

Am I the only one having deju vu? I feel like I've read this book before.

 

well that was a painful 3ish pages

 

The fact that we'd rather continue to bludgeon the long-dead horse of Cucho's departure than discuss tomorrow's match (3 whole posts) tells you all you need to know about the trajectory of the Crew's 2026 season.

 

Thank you and I am sure someone will make it pop up in another thread in 3 - 6 months.

 

People still complaining about Cucho are like the people that bring up rebranding CBJ after every single loss lol.