Columbus Crew SC officially broke ground on their new stadium today shortly after a season of rebuilding for the new ownership of the franchise.
An hour before the event, fans were invited over for beer, food, and plenty of other amenities, including a DJ playing music.
The celebration of the beginning of a massive project for the Crew and the city of Columbus began with an enthusiastic reception for the emcee of the event, Crew SC legend and NBC Sports pundit Kyle Martino. His message went back to the time Columbus was faced with the threat of losing the Crew to a move to Austin, Texas. “Saving the Crew was about the people on this stage saying, ‘We hear you,’” said Martino.
“I think the league recognized a downtown stadium was the turning point in many other MLS markets like Kansas City,” said Dr. Pete Edwards.
One of the interesting side stories from the groundbreaking event was the reception MLS Commissioner Don Garber would receive from Crew SC supporters after not taking a super pro-Columbus approach during the months of Save the Crew. While he did not receive a standing ovation like Martino, Dee Haslam or Dr. Pete Edwards, there were no significant boos or chants directed at the commissioner. Though, interestingly, a decent portion of Crew fans standing in the Nordecke turned their backs on Garber as he spoke about the exhausting process of trying to find the best possible solution for all parties involved, for Austin and Columbus. The reasoning they turned their backs on Garber was to symbolize how he turned his back on the Crew back during discussions of relocation.
Garber focused much of his speech on his ties to Columbus saying, “I was hired by Lamar Hunt. The first game I ever attended as MLS commissioner was in Crew Stadium…The most difficult thing I’ve ever had to manage though professionally was to find a way to keep this team where they are today.”
Kyle Martino quickly addressed the initial period fans felt the MLS didn’t do their due diligence with the Austin situation, stating he shared some of the same frustrations the fans did about how the Austin-PSV situation was handled by the MLS. But he encouraged fans to have more “discourse” about it and not make this massive event for the club about an event in the past.
“For me this is a celebration,” Martino noted. “I’m not gonna take anybody’s discontent or frustration with how this has been handled. You can be upset with some of the decisions being made by the MLS. But you also have to, I think, respect the tough decisions they have made.”
“It will be a lot of fun when Cincinnati comes here,” said Lt. Governor Jon Husted. “But it will be a lot of fun when Austin comes here.”
The ceremony closed with Dr. Edwards speaking about his pleasure at how far the club have come and are going to go.
“We fight for what we believe in, and we fight for what is ours, and in Columbus we win those fights,” said Dr. Edwards.
And that is how we got to today.
