#COLUMBUS CREW LOGOS PROFESSIONAL#

The Crew, under Fitzgerald, won 9 of their last 10 games to finish fourth in the Eastern Conference. After the 6–16 start, Tom Fitzgerald replaced head coach Liekoski.

Columbus would struggle, however, winning only 5 of their next 21 games. The Crew played their first game on April 13, 1996, in front of a home crowd of 25,266 in Ohio Stadium against D.C. National Team coach Timo Liekoski would be the team's head coach for its first season. McBride was selected as the first overall pick in MLS's first draft in 1996. The first players for the Crew were South African national team veteran Doctor Khumalo, by assignment, and Brian McBride. MLS investor Lamar Hunt, and his son Clark became the owners of both the Columbus Crew and Kansas City Wizards in 1996. The team was tentatively named the Columbus Eclipse in its application to the league, as a solar eclipse had passed over the city after reaching the league's 10,000-deposit minimum, but it was eventually renamed the Crew. Columbus had promised construction of a soccer-specific stadium and had sold over 12,000 season ticket deposits.

#COLUMBUS CREW LOGOS PROFESSIONAL#

On June 15, 1994, Major League Soccer announced that Columbus, Ohio, would be home to one of the ten founding members of the new top flight North American professional soccer league. History The beginning (1994–1998) The Crew played their first game on April 13, 1996, at Ohio Stadium. In 2021, the club won their first continental trophy by winning the Campeones Cup. The Crew have qualified for the CONCACAF Champions Cup (or its predecessor, the CONCACAF Champions League) four times, reaching the quarter-finals on the first three occasions. The Crew have won six major trophies: the MLS Cup in 20 the Supporters' Shield in 2004, 2008, and 2009 and the 2002 U.S. In 2014, the team set club attendance records for both most cumulative attendance and most sellouts. From 1996 to 1998, the Crew played its home games at Ohio Stadium on the campus of Ohio State University. From 1999 to 2021, the Crew played home games at Historic Crew Stadium (formerly Mapfre Stadium and Columbus Crew Stadium), the first soccer-specific stadium built for an MLS team, with a seating capacity of 19,968 as of the 2015 season. The Haslam/Edwards group is the third ownership group in club history. The team is currently operated by an ownership group led by the Haslam family (also owners of the Cleveland Browns and Pilot Corporation) and former team physician Pete Edwards. The Crew competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference and began play in 1996 as one of the 10 charter clubs of the league. The Columbus Crew is an American professional soccer club based in Columbus, Ohio.

Columbus crew logos