The Haslam and Edwards families have accomplished a lot since taking ownership of the Columbus Crew on New Year’s Day 2019.
Officially safeguarding the founding MLS club’s place in central Ohio. Investing in savvy acquisitions like president Tim Bezbatchenko and star playmaker Lucas Zelarayan. Appointing Caleb Porter as head coach after Gregg Berhalter departed for the US men’s national team. Winning MLS Cup 2020. Overseeing the conception and construction of both a new training facility, the OhioHealth Performance Center, and Lower.com Field in what MLS Commissioner Don Garber called “record time” during the new stadium’s ribbon-cutting this week.
But even they are quick to acknowledge the fundamental force that made all that possible in the first place.
“Let me start by thanking the supporters. They have been passionate, committed, energetic, loyal and 100 other words I can describe,” said a smiling Dee Haslam at Tuesday's event. “And we are so grateful for you, because we wouldn’t be here without you.”
That second MLS Cup title, Zelarayan, the new owners and facilities – none of it would have happened if not for “Save the Crew,” the grassroots movement that rose up to keep the MLS original where it’s been since 1996. And Columbus’ most fervent fans are set to take center stage as they lead the Crew into a new era with Saturday’s curtain-raiser vs. the New England Revolution on national TV (5 pm ET | ESPN, ESPN Deportes in US).
Jeff Barger is part of the Nordecke supporters’ section – which proudly claims “members on every continent except for Antarctica” – and serves on the organization’s board of directors. He’s been a Crew fan for about as long as he can remember, dating back to childhood, though for most of that time he didn’t consider himself a hard-core devotee.
“I enjoyed it, I loved it, cared about it, but I wasn't super involved. And then Save the Crew happened,” Barger told MLSsoccer.com this week. “And that changed everything for a lot of people.
“Because there was a lot of people like me who, this had been a constant in their life, had been a thing that was a part of their life and they just kind of assumed it would always be a thing. And then there was the threat of it going away, and it not existing anymore. And so I think a lot of people in that moment realized, oh, I have to not just protect this but, but once we won that fight, ensure that it carries on.”
For many years the Crew fanbase long took pride in their supposed small-market status, even going so far as to birth the tongue-in-cheek term “Massive” as a wry nod to that underdog identity. Today, however, Columbus are reigning league champs, with committed owners bankrolling a cosmopolitan roster, gorgeous new physical infrastructure, a resurgent youth academy and more – all trappings of membership in the MLS elite. Meanwhile the city itself has grown into a Midwest powerhouse, “Cowtown” no more.
“To me, it just speaks to redemption. I think that we get to show ourselves in the proper light for the first time,” said Ty Phillips, another longtime Crew fan who has more recently gotten involved with the Nordecke.
“We can finally be on display the way I think Columbus Crew soccer was always meant to be. Everything from the amenities of the stadium to even the product on the pitch, it’s all deserving of what I think any league would want from their charter club or their number-one club.
“The city in itself is evolving. So why can’t we also reflect that?”
Their home ground isn’t just significant because of its mere existence, as was the case with their former home, Historic Crew Stadium, MLS’s first soccer-specific venue but a relatively modest building. It’s a cutting-edge palace in the city’s downtown Arena District, with a gleaming full roof, incredible sightlines and luxurious amenities galore for both players and spectators.
That includes a steeply-pitched safe-standing section for the Nordecke more than twice the size of their corner digs at the old place, with new features like tifo rigging and the largest beer garden in the league. Now larger than even LAFC’s vaunted 3252, the Lower.com Field supporters section is already sold out for the rest of the season as newcomers flock to join ranks with the grizzled old-timers.
“We have people showing up to paint tifo that have never shown up to do anything before,” noted Barger. “We have people that have never sat in the Nordecke before, that have never held a season ticket in their hand before, volunteering and getting on our Slack channel to talk through like, ‘What can I do for this fundraiser, how can I help?’
“And we have players that are reaching out saying like ‘Hey, we'd love to talk to you guys about how to do stuff and do stuff better together.’ And I think just that those conversations are incredible because it represents a real growth, real change for the club.”
That carries both challenges and opportunities as the Crew community seeks to evolve gracefully and inclusively. Saturday will feature new and updated traditions alike.
The Nordecke – after direct consultation with the players themselves – will expand its traditional postgame “Wise Men” serenade (a rendition of the classic “Can't Help Falling in Love”) to a stadium-wide pregame greeting when the squad takes the pitch. And somewhere around 60 stakeholders were consulted on the hatching of a new goal celebration, a tribute to the club’s original crest that was planned as a gameday surprise but got leaked this week:
Such episodes illustrate the intense emotions – of all sorts – that can accompany such a cherished heritage. But the Crew faithful sound determined to elevate the old as they welcome the new.
“One of the things I'm most aware of is how entrenched we are with tradition, and I say that in the most complimentary way. But sometimes tradition needs to be shaken up a little bit to be able to breathe,” said Phillips. “The building in itself is going to give an entirely new dynamic – the roof, the proximity to the pitch, the stand itself.
“All of that is naturally going to shift the culture, but you still have to have intentionality as you move forward,” he added. “So how do we stay inclusive to the new fans that are coming in, how are we making them feel a part of it? How am I also making sure that the old heads or the OGs feel like this is still theirs? How do I have that all come together in this, like, beautiful mess?”
Barger hopes that those outside Columbus take note that the supporters' culture is “incredibly and vastly more diverse than people realize,” and has redoubled its traditional efforts to serve the wider community. He sees reason to believe that the Crew are on course for a place in the MLS cosmos on a whole different level from their “massive” roots, even as they continue to glorify that past.
“There's always this incredible discussion of, OK, so what's next?” he said.
“We started as a small market and that was the joke, that was the hit on us for a long time. And now we are where we are – the city’s grown exponentially, the city has changed a tremendous amount since then and the club and the team and the fans have changed. So how do we bridge that gap, but keep going ahead? So it's pretty exciting.”
