Happy anniversary, #SaveTheCrew
Has it really been seven years?
In the early afternoon of Oct. 12, 2018, it leaked on Twitter that the Haslam and Edwards families were buying the Columbus Crew in an effort to keep MLS's first chartered franchise in its rightful place, not Austin. A flash mob of 1,000 Crew fans packed into Endeavor Brewing on W. 5th Ave. to celebrate into the night. In the years since, a group of #SaveTheCrew organizers and volunteers have returned to Endeavor every Oct. 12, just to hang, tell stories and raise a toast to what was, for many of them, a life-changing interlude.
A dozen-plus old warriors maintained the tradition Sunday. It was nice to see the bee-striped #SaveTheCrew kits that were both a statement of resistance and a fundraising effort. The bee-stripes can still be seen in the Nordecke, and in other parts of the new Crew Stadium. Those jerseys will be collectors' items someday; maybe they are already. It was also nice to see the commemorative "Saved the Crew Day" T-shirts, which are still available at Supporter Supply Co. (Full disclosure and naked plug: I've been working with Supporter Supply on a line of Disrespected Media merch you don't need, and I'm told it will be cool.)
The talk Sunday, seven years removed from Saved Day, had a touch of bittersweetness to it. At this point there is, as one toastmaster put it, some "savers' remorse" among the old #STC guard. They blocked one billionaire, whiny punk Anthony Precourt, from moving the team to Texas – and wound up with multi-billionaire owners, Dee and Jimmy Haslam's Tennessee gang. And the Tennessee game, it seems, won't be happy until folks with $6,000 season tickets pay an extra $1,000 for any infant in a baby seat, and another $500 if unauthorized bottles of formula are smuggled in the diaper bag. Do the Haslams do that? Of course they don't – and I hate that I just gave them another idea.
Dare I say many Crew fans still feel disrespected? A column for another day, perhaps. Today, it's fitting to pause and consider the monumental achievement that was #SaveTheCrew, an organic, grassroots movement that shook up professional sports in America. Not an overstatement.
Precourt had designs to move the Crew to Texas because, he said, he liked the queso. To achieve his end, he tried to throw CBus under the bus. He neglected Crew stadium, disparaged the fan base and misrepresented the city. He did this with the conspiratorial support of the MLS front office and almost every other billionaire corporate socialist on the league's Board of Governors. Freedom!
— Alex Fischer (@AlexFischerCBUS) October 12, 2018
#STC fought them all and won. How often does that happen? Once.
#STC was a healthy outfit with 16 officers (web designers, financial specialists, graphic artists, researchers, PR professionals, and so on), scores upon scores of volunteers and more than 350 business partners. They had one team that painted murals, for god's sake. Their social-media outreach was so effective, and affective, that it their cause went national – then international. Soccer fans in other countries are accustomed to their teams being public trusts, woven into their communities, and the concept of a team owner disenfranchising a fan base was anathema to them. #STC hats, scarves, jerseys and other stuff were inventoried in Australia, England, Germany, Japan and at the World Cup in Russia.
All of this was not lost on those who played for the Crew, before and since. Josh Williams, now an assistant coach with Crew 2, was in the home stretch of a long and distinguished playing career in Columbus when Precourt hit the fan. Williams grew up a Crew fan in Akron and among those he idolized were early Crew players like Brian McBride and Brian Maisonneuve (now the coach at Ohio State). Williams showed up at Endeavor on Oct. 12, 2018, to celebrate with the fans, and he was not the only player there to raise a glass.
#STC was at least a contributing reason why Wilfried Nancy was eager to accept the coaching job in Columbus prior to the 2023 season. Nancy knew chapter and verse about what the fans did to keep the Crew and considers it his job to honor that passion. He makes sure all his players know the story. It is oft conjured, especially on those occasions when the Black & Gold are hoisting a trophy.
#STC was the subject of a full-length documentary ("Save the Crew: The Battle For Columbus," by Sean Kelly) and a book ("Accidental Heroes" by local author Pete McGinty). #STC is studied as blueprint of how to organize and fight the power in the internet age. Theirs was a watershed moment – they scared the polyps out of every aging billionaire who is alleged to be a caretaker of such a public trust – and their victory will never completely fade. Indeed, it will be there for other supporter groups if and when Precourt hits the fan in some other city.
Salute.
Thanks for reading. I'll next be covering the Blue Jackets' home opener at Nationwide Arena Monday night. If you're enjoying what we're doing, click on the link below to leave a tip. And if you're not a paying subscriber, consider making the small jump over the paywall. It'll help sustain local, independent disrespect.
Michael Arace
