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October 9, 2014
The Columbus Crew unveiled their #NewCrew brand in front of a packed house at LC Pavillion in Columbus on Wednesday night. Crew investor-operator, Anthony Precourt, revealed the reincarnation of MLS’s first franchise in front of Columbus’ Mayor Michael B. Coleman, MLS Commissioner Don Garber, Crew players, and the Crew faithful in attendance.
The rebrand is an attempt to change the meaning of the word “Crew” from a band of construction workers to a “a tight knit group of people who share a unique passion for our club, our city, our sport.” Gone from the crest are the hard hatted men, and in steps the word “Columbus” and the initials “SC”. The move to Columbus Crew SC was made to “reflect the city’s ideals and a distinctive identity as a soccer club.”
As Precourt describes, the new crest symbolizes “Our pride in our city, our place in history, our authentic fan culture. Our soccer club.”
From MLSSoccer.com, here are the details behind the new crest.
The club’s new name, “Columbus Crew SC,” wraps around the circle’s outer ring and inside the heart of the logo are three key elements: (1) a “96” in reference to the year of the club’s founding; (2) nine black-and-gold diagonal lines that highlight the nine other charter clubs that together with Columbus formed the 10-team league in MLS’ inaugural season; and (3) a black-and-gold checkerboard pattern that serves as a nod to the supporters culture at Crew SC.
Aside from the new name and logo, Anthony Precourt is also pledging to make Columbus Crew Stadium feel more — Columbus.
Columbus’ Mayor Coleman described putting the “Columbus” back into Columbus Crew Stadium.
“Precourt is creating an authentic Columbus experience at our stadium that will feature food, shopping, arts elements that reflect unique experiences of some of the city’s iconic locations and landmarks. Authentically Columbus. It will be voted on by the fans of what it should be. The Columbus Crew SC is authentically Columbus.”
The MLS has reached new heights over the last few years thanks in part to the grass roots movements of its clubs and its fans. Embracing the culture of the team’s city has gone a long way to creating sustainable brands. The Browns and Cavaliers have recently jumped on this trend, offering up food from local establishments inside their gates. And the Cleveland Indians are now following suit, ripping out seating in favor of new food and beverage spots that embrace the uniqueness of Cleveland’s neighborhoods.
Along with the unveiling of the #NewCrew, Anthony Precourt confirmed Columbus Crew SC and the Cleveland Browns have had talks regarding sharing a training facility. Crew SC are in need of a new training facility to continue the push towards becoming a world class club, and the Browns are in search of some new digs for training camp. That’s enough common ground to finding a solution that would benefit both sides.
Back in September, Tom Reed wrote of the possibility that the Browns may head down I-71 as a possible site for training camp, and Precourt’s comments at the #NewCrew launch event confirmed that discussions between Crew SC and the Browns are ongoing.
“The Browns are talking to a lot of people and we’re certainly having conversations,” he said. “We want to have conversations with everyone. I don’t know where it’s going yet, but yeah, we’re having conversations.”
Reed wrote back in September of the battleground for NFL franchises that Central Ohio has become with the Browns, Bengals, Colts, Lions, and Steelers all within a reasonable drive of Columbus. Moving training camp to Columbus would give the Browns an inroad to an emerging metropolitan area that is diversifying in its NFL fanhood.
As someone with family and friends in Columbus, who feels a connection to both the state’s capital and the C-L-E, the idea of meshing together sports franchises is mouth wateringly appetizing.
Imagine sending the Cavaliers to play five home games a year at Nationwide Arena and the Blue Jackets coming up north to play five home games at Quicken Loans Arena. All of those games are for sure sellouts. Who doesn’t win in that situation?
11 Comments
The logo is a nice upgrade. The previous one is more appropriate for a Men at Work album cover.
Agreed, I always thought the logo looked like a picture of Devo or some New Wave 80s/90s group. I know Black and Yellow are ugly when associated with the Steelers, but the black and yellow stripes/checkers is a really nice color combination.
black and yellow stripes/checkers is a really nice color combination.
do you all see what they are doing? people can write and believe such things when discussing Ohio sports. it just isn’t right.
The colors never made sense to me regardless. And mark me down as a HELL NO to the Cleveland Browns moving anything to Columbus.
I will be displeased if the Browns move anything to Columbus. They already have a football team called the Buckeyes. For the Browns to move anything out of Cleveland is an insult.
I was going to suggest the thought of bringing a few of the Columbus Crew’s regular season games to Cleveland, but the thought of Steelers fans watching a Crews game and seeing black and yellow colors all over Firstenergy Stadium would probably drive them nuts. Browns fans wouldn’t hear the end of it.
Share a facility? No thank you. Not unless the Crew changes that horrid color scheme.
The Browns going through training camp with black and “what they try to call gold” being everywhere you can see?
http://cdn.pimpmyspace.org/media/pms/c/xf/fo/o4/ull7c.gif
I just never understood the choice of black and gold for an Ohio team. Could you imagine a Pennyslvania professional sports team using orange and brown? Me either.
Did it come from a land down under?
There are a lot of Cleveland transplants living in CBUS. Hence, my user name.
I think it makes a lot of sense to claim Central Ohio back for the Browns. It’s still a majority Browns town, as demonstrated by the game selection of the local CBS and FOX affiliates, but moving training camp closer to Columbus would strengthen that claim to the whole state. The Cavs sell out down here for pre-season…even without LeBron. Don’t forget…since the Browns were the first pro team, there are plenty of Browns fans scattered across southern Ohio. Everything outside of Cincy and Dayton metro is up for grabs.
Maybe there’s a midway point. Mansfield? Lots of people travel from both directions to MidOhio Speedway, so that doesn’t seem unreasonable. I think the idea above of transplanting a couple Cavs and CBJ games per year makes sense.