Full name | Columbus Crew Soccer Club |
---|---|
Nickname(s) | The Black & Gold |
Founded | May 10, 1994 |
Stadium |
Mapfre Stadium Columbus, Ohio |
Capacity | 19,968 |
Owner | Anthony Precourt |
Head Coach | Gregg Berhalter |
League | Major League Soccer |
2016 | Eastern Conference: 9th Overall: 18th Playoffs: Did Not Qualify |
Website | Club home page |
Columbus Crew SC is an American professional soccer club based in Columbus, Ohio. Crew SC competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Eastern Conference. Crew SC began play in 1996 as one of the ten charter clubs of the league. The team is owned by Anthony Precourt and Precourt Sports Ventures LLC. Precourt became the second owner in the history of the club on July 30, 2013. The club's head coach is Gregg Berhalter, a former player of the United States men's national soccer team.
The franchise was founded in 1994 and originally known as the Columbus Crew, without any markers of its membership as a soccer club, until late 2014, when the club revealed a new logo and the addition of "SC" to its moniker. The "SC" in the team moniker stands for "Soccer Club", but the team name is officially "Columbus Crew SC".
The Crew currently plays its home games at MAPFRE Stadium (known as Columbus Crew Stadium until 2015), the first soccer-specific stadium ever built for a MLS team, with a seating capacity of 19,968 as of the 2015 season. From 1996 to 1998, Crew SC played its home games at Ohio Stadium on the campus of The Ohio State University. In 2014, the club's 19th season at MAPFRE Stadium, the Black & Gold set club attendance records for both most cumulative attendance and most sellouts.
The Crew has won five major trophies: MLS Cup 2008, the 2004, 2008, and 2009 Supporters' Shields, and the 2002 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. The Black & Gold have qualified for the CONCACAF Champions League (or its predecessor, the CONCACAF Champions' Cup) three times, reaching the quarterfinals each time.