How Columbus is growing into a soccer city

Last week was a big one for soccer in Columbus.

In a matter of 24 hours, Columbus soccer fans were treated to the announcement of a massive redevelopment that will turn the Mapfre Stadium site into a community soccer complex and another announcement of plans for a new home for the Columbus Crew downtown in the city’s Arena District.

But perhaps the most important thing to come from last week isn’t the new stadium itself or the announcement of a redeveloped Mapfre site.

The best and most encouraging outcome of the two announcements and the buzz surrounding them is that Columbus is no longer focused on being a city with a professional soccer team. Instead, it’s working to truly become a soccer city, and one that makes soccer grow far beyond its MLS team.

When the infamous news broke that owner Anthony Precourt planned to move the Crew to Austin, Texas, the idea was immediately met with questions of what the move would mean for the Columbus community.

What would the move mean for the dozens of kids in the Crew academy?

Where would the Ohio High School Athletic Association hold its championship games?

Where was the path for a talented young Columbus soccer player to become a professional?

With one decision made by one person regarding one organization, the entirety of the Columbus soccer scene had been shaken, and it seemed destined to fall apart with nothing pinning it down.

More than a year later, that bullet seems to have been dodged. The Save the Crew movement and the state of Ohio stalled the process long enough that the Haslam and Edwards families are preparing to buy the team and keep it in Columbus.

Last Thursday’s new stadium announcement deservedly stole much of the spotlight. A new, downtown stadium for the Crew is nearly as big as the news of a new owner.

But for the greater community at large, those who were not packing Land Grant Brewing for Thursday’s announcement, Wednesday’s news is just as exciting.

In a collaboration between the city of Columbus and Franklin County, a new plan would turn the grounds of Mapfre Stadium — currently a field, the stadium and a variety of parking lots — into a community soccer complex with two MLS-caliber fields, six “community fields,” an indoor turf field, basketball courts and a “programming space” for other events. All of those new amenities would join the existing Mapfre Stadium to create the complex.

“It will be another facility and resource helping to grow Columbus as a destination for tournaments and events,” Mayor Andrew Ginther said at the unveiling.

The new complex should, however, represent far more than just a tournament site.

Anita Davis, a resident of Columbus’ northeast side, helped open proceedings at the announcement. Davis is the mother of two kids who play multiple sports and participate in multiple activities, and she said having this new site in her neighborhood is a major addition.

“Like all parents, my top priority is the health, safety and well-being of my children,” she said. So I’m very excited to know that Mayor Ginther, the city of Columbus and its partners are committed to creating and maintaining safe, state-of-the-art facilities for all of our children to grow and thrive.”

Franklin County Commissioner Marilyn Brown said the plans represent “a facility that will serve all the needs of the community,” and the county sees soccer as “being the most accessible sport for any neighborhood, any ZIP code.

“This is about what we need to do throughout this community, bringing people together of multigenerational support to put this facility in use in ways that hadn’t been considered before,” she said.

Ginther said adding “much-needed” fields and facilities that are “easily acceptable” to lower-income families in neighborhoods like Weiland Park, Milo-Grogan, Northland, Glen Echo, Indianola Trace, Linden and the University District is a major component of the plan, and a major reason why the city and county are willing to spend $50 million apiece on the project.

“If your top three priorities are neighborhoods, neighborhoods, neighborhoods, any public-private partnerships that we enter into have to help us with our public policy goals: affordable housing, high-paying job creation, youth programming … and diversity and inclusion,” Ginther said.

The government entities involved in the plan deserve credit for its community-focused benefits.

But the people who deserve the most credit for getting Columbus officials to think about community-focused benefits of a soccer-oriented development are the same ones who helped save the team: the Save the Crew organization.

For almost a year, members of Save the Crew have been focused on helping their communities, not just on securing their MLS team.

Last January, with the group just a couple of months old, Save the Crew hosted a free soccer clinic for Columbus youth players on Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service.

Throughout 2018, the group’s “Community Assist” program partnered with a variety of local organizations, providing donated tickets to Community Refugee and Immigration Services, Gladden Community House, Boys and Girls Clubs of Columbus, Star House, Local Matters, Communities in Schools of Central Ohio and Equitas Health.

And from acts of service to its overall movement, Save the Crew showed the resilience of the Columbus soccer community, a group that’s only strengthened by last week’s news.

“What this community has proven over the last 416 days is that when people decide to change the world around them, they can do anything they want,” said Morgan Hughes, one of the most visible Save the Crew leaders. “They’ve just got to be together when they’re doing it. Let that be the lesson that comes from this entire saga.”

Columbus Partnership CEO Alex Fischer, who has helped to broker the deal between Precourt, MLS and the new ownership group, looked back on the Grant Wahl tweet that broke the news of a potential relocation and said the future is brighter than anyone could’ve imagined back then.

“That tweet many days ago changed Columbus,” he said. “It changed us for the better. We may not have liked it, but we’re better because of it. Soccer is going to be better in our community.”

(Photo: Trevor Ruszkowski / USA Today Sports)