I realized that I no longer have a "Jester One Sports" page any more, and since this is the public page where I do most of my sharing, I figured I should write about the events of the last few days here...
I try not to be a “knee-jerk reaction” kind of person. The internet and social media has made it so easy for each and every one of us to just jump out and throw things against the wall, regardless of whether those things should actually stick or not. When the announcement about the Crew happened two days ago, I decided to do a little personal reflecting about the team and the impact they have had on my life.
I got into soccer because my dear friend Johnny Francia. Baseball was always my number 1, and back then there was the Buckeyes and the Chill as well. But then there was a new American soccer league, and my city was going to have one of the inaugural franchises. How cool was that? Johnny was obsessed with soccer, and so Jester was obsessed with soccer too. We had this cool uniform, great logo, and a pretty darn good team too. I vividly remember screaming at my radio in the basement about Roy Lassiter in the playoffs that year, and any time we played the Mutiny, really. They were the original nemesis for me, along with DC.
But Major League Soccer quickly became confusing. The rules were different from the Olympics that I had watched. I only knew of the MLS, the World Cup and the Olympics, so it didn’t even occur to me that soccer was played different (or called by a different name) elsewhere. It also upset me that my favorite players wanted to leave the team quickly to go overseas to play in England for teams with silly names. Plus, why was it called MLS Soccer? And why did it have to be played in the middle of my baseball season??
When the Blue Jackets came to town, it split things for me. Losing the Chill was awful, but I figured that having a real NHL team would be pretty similar (whoops, lol). I had been a hockey fan longer than I had been a soccer fan, and ECHL hockey was pretty darn similar to NHL hockey in its rules and execution. I learned pretty quickly that every night wasn’t going to be 7-5 with 14 fights, but otherwise it was just a more skilled version of what I grew up with.
I still loved the Crew though. The spotlight may not have shone quite as bright, but the ’96-’04 names will always be etched in stone in my mind. Unfortunately, I never got to go to any games as a kid (I never really got to attend much of anything as a kid), and as a young adult I’d spend my small cash savings on CBJ things before Crew things. The NHL was a thriving, long term league, while MLS was a dying brand, and so I just paid more attention to the Jackets.
Shame on me, I suppose. But the first two times I ever went to Crew Stadium, it was to watch marching band tournaments. What a beautiful stadium, man. Of course, my experience at the time was limited to the glorious ‘Shoe, beautiful new Nationwide, dilapidated old Cinergy, and the laughingstock that was the Coop. All the same, once I had my own car, I made sure to try and go to Crew games when I could, because it was just a really nice place to watch that great black and gold team.
Alex Kachino introduced me to the EPL a few years after high school, and everything changed again. Soccer was great! And MLS eventually caught up to doing things the right way (except for the idiotic schedule), and so my love for the Crew grew again. And then… there was 2008. That was a glorious year, except that my all-time favorite player was playing for Chicago, the Crew’s biggest rival. And Brian McBride even managed to score a goal against us and rip my heart out in the playoffs. But between the Reds and Browns never doing anything in the playoffs, the CBJ being the CBJ, and not being able to witness the 2003 BCS Title game (to this day, I have still never seen it), I had no idea how amazing a CHAMPIONSHIP felt. Man, that was cool.
But something weird happened after that. Supporters. The Nordecke. Any friendships I built in that time between Crew fans were tested by supporter bickering. The cliques. The dissent. The sheer disarray. I was told to choose between sides, and between friends. No thanks, I said. I’m an adult and I’ll choose my friends based on character, not which part of the Nordecke they associate with. Besides, I could go to a Jackets game (even in spite of the eventual ACA circus) and be friends with just about everyone there, win or lose, regardless of what team the people attending supported. In recent years, hockey has brought long-term relationships into my life that I never knew possible, and so I gravitate even closer to it, despite the difficulties the team has had with winning over the years. I mean, come on. I’m a Browns fan. Winning simply is what it is these days. Lol
And then there’s the Crew. I went to a game last year with Kelly, and it was a lot of fun. It was nice being away from the chaos clique that was the corner, and just enjoying some good old fashioned footie. I told myself I should go to a game or two this year, but I just never got around to it. I was trying *not* to kill myself, not find reasons to proceed with the action. And you know what? Despite the slow start, this team actually has shown some promise to push towards the playoffs.
....
So, back to present day. Where does that leave us today with Anthony Precourt? He came to Columbus with great promises of revitalizing Lamar’s team. And then he dumped the TV rights into Time Warner (which no one had) and the radio onto CD102.5 (which nobody can pick up). He got a great stadium name deal (with a company that no one had heard of), but then he made the uniforms embarrassingly bad (and the team played accordingly). The MLS Cup disaster was probably no fault of his own (or… was it?), but just the same he made upgrades to the stadium and got a tremendous sponsorship deal with Acura. And then, inexplicably on the eve of the playoffs, he came out to try and extort the good city of Columbus for a new stadium. Not because he wants a new stadium here, but because he wants a franchise at the forefront of the millennial culture. All because HE wanted to move the team somewhere else. His team.
His team? No.
MY team. Your team. OUR team. MY city, MY club. Not Anthony Precourt’s city, not Anthony Precourt’s club. I may not have been the biggest and most passionate fan over the last few years, but I still love the Crew, and I am just astonished at how all of this has played out. Finally, all Crew fans have something to truly rally around. It’s just a shame that it took something potentially life altering to really put things in focus for some.
The more I read into all that has happened in the last few days, the more it looks like this move is essentially a done deal, and the “build me a new stadium” jargon is simply a ploy. The league has already registered and trademarked “MLS Austin” naming rights, and the website leading the charge carries Precourt’s company as its host and sponsor. The most baffling thing about all of this is that Precourt decided to go public with the news mere weeks before the MLS playoffs were to begin, as if to dare fans to pull their support on him. As if to try and drive further nails into a coffin that he has seemingly already slammed shut. If people show up in bigger numbers next year, it will only serve to line his pockets while he plans the move. If people decide to abandon the team, he will only say “I told you so” and move the team just the same.
Fuck that guy. I don’t want to miss what might be the last year of Columbus Crew football, but I also don’t want to give a single penny to a man who just came through and eviscerated the hearts of so many people that I care about. A flim-flam man who undercut the system (WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF THE LEAGUE) to get what HE wanted. His dispassionate statements in the two days since have shown that he truly does not care who he stomps on to have his way. I guess that’s the business class of America, but if that truly is the case, then I want no part in the MLS business any more. I’m not saying that anyone owes myself or any other fan anything, but the fact that Precourt has been able to circumvent the expansion process and grab a team for 1/3rd of the cost and work to destroy the ORIGINAL FRANCHISE from the MLS just boggles my mind. The fact that Garber supports him 100% is essentially the last heartstring that the duo can pull together for me. I’ll always have 20+ years of memories, but I don’t want a single minute more. I don’t care about the last games of this season, and I certainly don’t care about the playoffs at this rate.
Much love, Columbus. It hurts me the most to see the more passionate friends of mine struggle with this announcement. For some that I know, the Crew are almost a religion, and now it is being forcibly removed with little to no say on their part. But, we have so many good things going for us here in the 614. Whether it be our other sports franchises, our thriving music scene, or our trend-setting bar, brewery and restaurant presence, we are a city of strength and we will all heal from this loss together. Hang in there friends.
-Jester
