Tobias C

The Nationwide owned "Pen West" property is more than enough for a stadium in neighborhood of such density. Ample room for the stadium itself and surrounding pedestrian/fan plaza space. Obviously you're not gonna have a bunch of surface parking lots but between all of the existing garages and lots in close proximity, and the fact that you could easily fit a new parking structure in there as well......space can't be held up as a valid argument. You could have a stadium toward the back of the lot fronting the freeways with mixed use development along Nationwide Blvd and big open paths leading back to the stadium. Now....the Schottenstein land (the adjacent triangle of land bound by railroad tracks) which was supposed to be that Grand Central development but they canceled that and offered the land to the Crew.....is a different story. We reportedly declined the offer and that plot of land would definitely be a complicated fit for a stadium, especially if all of the tracks are still in use and can't be altered.

Could Nationwide Blvd. be extended to go over the Olentangy, curving down to Spring/Long St? Also, I wonder if a northbound street could go under 670 into the new White Castle development to connect to Goodale St. WCs plans make it looks like a drive on the east side of the property might go under 670. Just brainstorming over here!

Oh, I meant Cooper for a spot to relocate recreational facilities that are at Dodge. NRI is still the best choice since nothing has to be moved. It's a blank canvas ready to be painted black and gold in the Arena District. The only issue I can see is maybe improving access since its kinda at the end of a dead end street basically but a stadium there would be a huge catalyst for development in the western end of the AD.

I've never been to Dodge Park (not a Columbus area resident) but It doesn't appear to be so much open greenspace than a collection of recreation facilities on one site (pool, ice rink, skate park, ball diamond, rec building). Is it not possible these amenities could still be kept in the vicinity for the use of the neighborhood.....just on another site(s).....if PSV or whoever winds up owning the Crew, puts up money for it? Maybe the Cooper Stadium site? Or the car dealership on Broad next to Mt Carmel? Just spitballin. Would love to be enlightened.

I'm pretty confident Cleveland will never have an MLS team and that's fine with the Crew in the center of the state, and FCC chomping at the bit to get in the league. I personally think a well ran (well funded) USL team could be one of the biggest and most successful teams in that division....if not on the level of Cincinnati, then at least as successful as Sacramento or Louisville. USL won't happen unless there's a plan for a soccer specific stadium though.

SC usually means soccer club.

I dont suspect much, if any, surface parking lot would be part of a stadium plan here, or in the Arena District. The rapid development of Franklinton, especially with a lot of mixed use, walkable developments will create an environment where fans won't need on site parking but will walk from any number of locations including the inevitable parking garages that will spring up with future development in the neighborhood. A Crew Stadium, if announced this year, wouldn't even open for a few years so Franklinton would have a headstart on being able to capacitate 20 thousand fans.

It's surprising some of the Columbus business community is still willing to partner with him going forward. I wonder just what it will/would take for him to just say F it, I'm done, and sell the team completely. As of late I've been really interested in Dodge Park as a stadium site. The city offered it as a location for a stadium and that area is developing pretty quickly. That River and Rich project would be next door. And it would still have highway visibility for good advertising and naming rights. Could the amenities at Dodge Park be moved somewhere nearby so that the neighborhood doesn't have to lose them? Are there plans for the old Cooper Stadium property. That could make a good recreation park possibly? Just tossing ideas around. SAVE THE CREW.

Also the Nashville Fairgounds are adjacent to the Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood which I've heard is kind of an up and coming neighborhood. From a cursory Google Maps visit, I see theres already several hip looking restaurants and bars in the area within walking distance....and there's still all of the intended development that will accompany the stadium as well as the likely spike in revitalization of the neighborhood. So it's not exactly the same situation people are making it out to be. Even if you wanted to make something similar happen here....Crew stadium is already penned in by suburban style development to the north (Lowes, Aldi, etc.), railroad to the west and I-71 to the east. Theres obviously tons of land to the south on the fairgrounds/expo property that's the current parking lots but it's necessary for lots of events, be it the fair, quarter horse Congress, etc and would never be considered by the state. I love our current stadium but I also feel that it has quickly become obsolete...through no fault of it/the organizations own. The leagues exponential growth has just made it so. I'm a firm believer that a more centrally located, modern stadium, with adjacent walkable amenities, business, and activity is crucial to the long term sustainability and growth of the club. I however do not think that we desperately need to be high tailing it out of Mapfre in one years time from now if we can't get a new stadium done right away. It's clear there are people and entities in this city that do want to help the Crew and it has become apparent that there are plenty of viable locations for a new stadium. PSV has rejected any of those possibilities though so it's come down to a necessary legal battle to Save the Crew.

Hopefully it's another gay bar. Adams St and Uptown in general has the potential to become a solid bastion of LGBTQ culture and business for Toledo.

Just by the simple fact that he had an escape clause (specifically to Austin) in his purchase agreement when buying the club.....tells you all you need to know. He thought of us as nothing but a stepping stone, right out the gate.

It has to do with his percieved ideas that Austin can be a more profitable market going forward in the future. As of now, there's not that much difference between Austin and Columbus. He sees Austin as this trendy hip place exploding with new business......with no professional sports teams....that will be a perfect soccer market. He might not be wrong. But it's far from a sure deal there. There will be vast opposition to building on parkland and at 20k, he's already limiting himself to only a few thousand more potential attendees per game than hes currently getting in Columbus. It's understandable that a business owner who has attempted to be successful in a particular business market but failed would search for greener pastures....and all of the detractors and proponents of this move keep justifying like that. The issue with that claim is that Precourt never actual tried much to succeed here. He was here for 4 years and barely spent any money on improving the team. There's no legitimacy to any argument that he tried to make it work here. His most notable investments, if you can call them that, were replacing the video/scoreboard (and that was because it erupted into flames)...and sprucing up the existing locker rooms and training facilities a bit. And on the player expenditure front, only now in the most recent season did he carry a full complement of 3 Designated Players. In the last season they cut promotions and advertising and marketing. They pretty much gave up before they even started. He never thought for a second that maybe spending that couple hundred mil in Columbus instead might result in his existing team stepping up to the next level. Weve already shown we can routinely attract 15 to 17k regularly in our barebones erector set stadium in a muddy field at the fairgounds. Imagine how we would draw in a modern stadium, downtown, in proximity to all of the activity of the central city. That was never the plan though anyway....proven by the fact that PSV has been offered several, viable sites in great locations and declined them all.

I believe that was from supporters group Twitter (who subsequently posted it on bigsoccer). No official announcement yet.

Privately owned structure on leased, public land.

Has anybody heard anything about the potential pro team lately? As a diehard Crew fan.....the news of our impending move to Austin has me wishing this team would happen and be announced soon. Even though FC Cincy exists I have no connection to that region of the state....and while Im a Toledoan (we normally gravitate toward Detroit sports wise)....i support Cleveland sports as my family is from CLE and it's the only other place I could get passionately behind a team. I still really think a potential team owner should partner with CSU to build a new, bigger, modern Krenzler "Stadium". Cleveland USL soccer as well as CSU soccer can use it. It could also host lacrosse teams, and be a central location for area high school football teams to use for big games occasionally. Actually, has CSU ever had plans for a football team in the future? This would be a good opportunity to save money on a proper stadium. Keeping my fingers crossed.

I'm glad this is happening. This section of Downtown along Summit is finally coming back to life. Promedica HQ. The new Promenade Park. Renaissance Hotel w/ Brim House and The Heights. Tower on the Maumee (Fiberglas Tower) will be done soon. Barry's Bagels is open. City Egg is opening soon. Balance Pan-Asian is working on their location that will have a hydroponic farm where they grow their own produce. Fort Industry Square is supposed to be redeveloped. Seagate Center is redoing the Monroe st side of the building so it isn't a sheer blank wall facing Fifth Third Field. Lots of progress in the heart of downtown.

It's hard to say whether MLS would permit such an ownership model but its extremely impressive and even promising that BrewDogs prepared to get involved in a game changing way. I would just be happy to have such community and fan oriented stakeholders steering our team.

Thats the most sensible site in my opinion. Hope it can get done. I know I had heard Nationwide was initially interested in doing mixed use type of development there, but that plot of land is honestly big enough that they could still probably do a little bit of that. I could picture having some streetfront buildings along Nationwide Blvd, and just having a pedestrian plaza stretching from the street back to the stadium, which would be visible from 670 and 315. It would be nice if they could make Nationwide Blvd continue across the Olentangy and curve around back over to Spring/Long St. for better traffic flow and accessibility. I also think it would be useful if the side road that would go north off Nationwide alongside the hypothetical stadium, could continue on under 670, and connect into the new White Castle development plan and Goodale St, but that might be asking a lot. But if Nationwide is interested in creating goodwill with the people of Columbus, making this deal would be quite wonderful.

God that was tense as hell. We made it though and thats what matters. A couple weeks of rest will do us good. Toronto will be an even tougher task......but at least in our initial home game, theyll be without Altidore and Giovinco. I just hope we dont take them lightly because we played them without those two before and we got punched in the freakin face. Ricketts and Hamilton will start and we better respect them. We need another solid cushion like we had with NYC, if anything a bigger cushion. Keeping them from scoring an away goal is essential.

Im glad we made an attempt, as unlikely as it is we would ever win. For starters, we dont even meet the 1 million population mark that Amazon desires for a new home city. We also dont have an international airport, which I imagine isnt very impressive. And while I love Toledo and think its making great progress in its revitalization downtown, were still far from being the large, progressive, cosmopolitan, hip, city that I imagine Amazon sees itself setting up shop in....especially when it comes to where theyre employees would want to live and work. But like I said, it never hurts to try. Cant win if you dont play.

I unfortunately agree with you westerninterloper about it being a long time before a big infill project on the east side would be feasible. I think most of the salvagable historic buildings downtown will eventually be restored and brought back to life, but the other side of the river is another story. Theres revitalization happening, but not at a blistering pace that would make a huge Marina District project possible. The plan being put forward is honestly probably quite realistic. Im with CDawg that while another metropark is a nice thing, the whole project feels like a big missed opportunity for a major development. It would be nice if the city just couldve sat on the land for awhile longer, but that definitely doesnt score anybody political points in the city.

On a more positive note, the city or the Columbus Partnership, I forget which, had said that they had 2 different downtown sites that they could make available to the Crew, but Precourt clearly isnt interested. If thats true.....does anyone have an idea what those sites likely are?

All of this is just absolutely tragic. I still have a tiny bit of hope left that this could work out but im not expecting anything. I think an ideal outcome would be Precourt not being able to secure land in Austin and/or a decent temporary home, and coming back to Columbus with his tail between his legs.......and then finding no friends left in Columbus after burning all his bridges and no ability to accomplish any of the things he was going to do for Austin, in Columbus......so he sells the team to the local group, makes his little profit (like 80 million) and runs back home to California. The very fact that he wants to move the team, and that it was never just about flipping the team and making some quick cash, makes me have little faith that it will work out........but who knows. The worst part about it is that if it doesnt work out for us......we wont have the benefit of the league coming back to us and offering us a new expansion team. Theyll be done with Columbus and let Cincy and/or Detroit absorb the market. So its either THIS Crew stays here, or were done for unfortunately, as I see it.

Not actually pertaining to AFC Cleveland.....just lower division soccer in our region.....reps from the upcoming USL D3 league office have been touring regional cities as prospective expansion cities for the league. They just visited Fort Wayne, Grand Rapids, Lansing, and Dayton and are coming to Toledo soon. Im excited about the prospect of having professional soccer (not to knock amateur and semi-pro teams) in a lot of cities.

Colleges having professional teams is actually a thing in some other countries I believe. Teams in Mexico and Chile come to mind. No idea its ever happened in any American sport.