A year ago, the Columbus Crew Soccer Club was facing a grim reality: then-owner Precourt Sports Ventures announced that it was planning to move the team to Austin, Texas. Ultimately, a groundswell of support fans led to a nationwide #SaveTheCrew movement that kept Major League Soccer’s first franchise in Ohio. Two local families took over operating rights in January, and now the team has committed to a new stadium and a tech overhaul.
Precourt Sports Ventures cited “historical and ongoing market challenges” in its bid to move the team to Texas. If its year-long battle had been successful, Columbus would’ve been among a number of mid-tier sports markets that have lost franchises. (Another, Oakland, will lose the NFL’s Raiders to Las Vegas in 2020.)
The Crew’s new owners—the Haslam family, which owns the NFL’s Cleveland Browns, and the former team doctor Pete Edwards and his family—are determined to build a state-of-the-art stadium that can revitalize the local economy and reinvigorate Crew fandom. Under their guidance, the Crew are set to open a new arena in downtown Columbus during the summer of 2021. With an estimated price tag of $230 million, which is expected to be sourced from public and private funds, the 430,000-square-foot arena will sit on 33-acres and have a capacity for 20,000 fans. Project plans also include a riverfront park, nearly 1,000 residential units, and office/commercial space.
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New arenas and renovations have been popping up throughout Major League Soccer recently. The Portland Timbers reopened their downtown stadium this summer after an $85 million transformation. Minnesota FC opened a new 19,400-capacity stadium, Allianz Field, this past April. Major MLS infrastructure projects, and newly-announced expansion teams, come amid swelling support for soccer in the U.S.
The Crew recently revealed their technology partner that will help drive much of the innovation behind ownership’s vision for the franchise. In teaming with IBM, specifically IBM iX, the franchise is creating a vision for design and technology that will transform the transform fan experience at the new arena. Team president Tim Bezbatchenko says the IBM deal shows how ownership wants to connect with fans following their campaign to keep the team in Columbus.
“This is a statement about our ownership’s commitment to changing the way we are not just perceived but how we treat our fans,” he says. “We’re partnering with the best digital reinvention partner to reimagine the fan experience at the arena. This is our commitment to give back to the community and the fans and give them the experience they deserve in this very digital and mobile age.”
IBM will pull from the work it has done with other venues and sporting events, such as Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the Masters, to build personalized experiences for Crew fans both in-stadium and at home. IBM served as the lead technology partner on the $1.6 billion state-of-the-art Mercedes-Benz Stadium, home to the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons and MLS’s 2018 league champions Atlanta United. It also supported tech development of the Los Angeles Football Club’s Banc of California Stadium and Kyle Field at Texas A&M. As part of its deal with Columbus Crew, IBM will create a “fan-first stadium strategy” that will include multiple technology touchpoints on a year-round basis.
IBM and the Crew were scant on details about their stadium plans, as they’re still in early stages of their partnership. IBM is currently working on a “comprehensive fan experience strategy” that it’s putting together using fan data and insights, as well as an in-stadium technology plan that will meet the franchise’s needs now and in the future. The arena is also being designed to be a community space that can support third-party events such as concerts, high school state soccer championships, future U.S. National Team matches, and watch parties for Crew fans when the team is on the road.
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“The groundswell of fan support keeping them in Columbus has created a unique situation where the new owners came in and said, ‘We want to do things the right way and really connect with fans,’ ” says Shannon Miller, the North America sports and entertainment lead at IBM Global Business Services. “To me, this just shows the commitment they have to the community.”
To be sure, the Crew’s most loyal fans are taking notice.
“This is a cool opportunity for the Crew to utilize top technological advances to ensure that our new home will be an immersive fan experience,” says David Miller, the communications director of Save the Crew. “ ‘Save the Crew’ had a goal of growing the sport of soccer in our community, and I believe this desire to integrate technology into the fan experience will do that.”
Bezbatchenko says the IBM partnership is also critical when considering that soccer has far less downtime than other sports. Football, basketball, hockey and baseball all have more stoppages and can engage fans during frequent breaks with content on video boards.
“You have 90 minutes in two segments that are sort-of sacred in terms of the way they’re engaged,” says Bezbatchenko. “The ability to interact and communicate with the fan base through personalized experiences before they get to their seat, at halftime, and after the game, is critical because we have limited moments [to do that] during our game.”
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