A New Stadium in Columbus Could Mean New Era for MLS

By GRAHAME L. JONES

May 16, 1999 12 AM PT

It’s all too seldom that soccer in this country has reason to celebrate, but this weekend is one of those rare exceptions.

The opening Saturday in Columbus, Ohio, of the first stadium that Major League Soccer can call its own is the most positive development for the professional game since the inception of the league in 1996.

At least one of MLS’ 12 teams will not be a cuckoo in another bird’s nest. Thanks to team owner Lamar Hunt and the $25 million he provided to build the first soccer-specific stadium in the country, the Columbus Crew has a home of its own.

If other “investor-operators,” as MLS refers to its money men, follow suit, it could signal the beginning of a sharp rise in stature for pro soccer.

Hunt and MLS Commissioner Doug Logan believe the new stadium will be the first of many.

“We think the leap of faith that Lamar Hunt took last summer will be a real catalyst toward what we hope is the development of one of these stadiums each year for the next four or five years,” Logan said. “That’s our fervent hope and we see indications that that’s entirely possible.

“I know that four teams in this league have sent groups of planners to the stadium during the construction process. I can tell you that there are four or five teams [among them the Galaxy] that are looking at potential sites.”

Said Hunt, who has devoted the better part of three decades to supporting soccer: “I know that several [other owners] are interested. The circumstances are really different in every community and that’s going to be a big factor. Several teams are looking at the concept of developing a smaller stadium, but every one is going to be different and every one is going to be looked at differently.”

They will certainly be looked at more closely, once it is realized what Columbus accomplished in the 366 days it took for the as-yet-unnamed stadium to move from concept to reality.

“It’s paid off,” said Jamey Rootes, the Crew’s president and general manager. “Our season ticket sales have jumped 60% [to more than 9,000], our corporate base of support has doubled, and the way that we’re perceived in the community has changed dramatically from last year to this year. We’re truly perceived as one of the major league sport franchises that will be in this community for many years to come.”

The new stadium, on the grounds of the Ohio Exposition Center, seats 22,485 and is expandable in increments to a capacity of 40,000. Saturday’s sellout crowd of 24,741 included the 431 construction workers who built the stadium. They were invited as guests of the Crew, which beat the New England Revolution, 2-0.

Within the next week or two, Hunt said, Crew season-ticket sales will have topped 10,000, a figure that he said “starts to become respectable.”

Other MLS teams, Logan said, need to follow suit.

“From a business standpoint, this league is going to have to significantly improve its sale of season tickets because that is the heart-blood of the league, its regular customer, the customer who is with you through thick and thin, weekends and weekdays, good weather, bad weather,” he said. “The fact that nearly 50% of the attendance in Columbus is going to be represented by season-ticket holders is remarkable and a healthy step forward in our growth process.”

HUNT’S INFLUENCE

Hunt’s faith in the sport has been unwavering. His ownership of the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs obviously gives him a larger profile, but he has stood by soccer since the mid-1960s, first as a spectator, then as owner of the North American Soccer League’s Dallas Tornado.

“I was able to see the game on an international level,” he said of his first exposure to the sport. “The first meaningful view that I had would have been the 1966 World Cup final, which I saw on television. I was attracted by the crowd, their enthusiasm. . . . I was able through the years to have seen seven of the last eight World Cups in person, beginning in 1970. I just think the game has a tremendous international flair and international appeal and that was attractive to me. I never played the game personally.”

Even the collapse of the NASL in the mid-1980s did not deter Hunt from investing in MLS. Besides the Crew, he also owns the Kansas City Wizards.

“I think maybe I’m just a glutton for punishment or something,” he joked. “Seriously, I thought the potential was there [when the NASL was launched] and the potential the second time around was much better because of the things that had happened in the game [in the interim]. One of them was the ’94 World Cup and its success. There was the success of the U.S. women’s team in ’91 [in the Women’s World Cup] and in the Olympics in ’96. And then, going all the way back, the success of the ’84 Olympics in Los Angeles.”

He believes MLS will find a permanent place on the U.S. sporting scene but preaches patience.

“I think it’s going to happen in stages and I think it’s going to be a long time,” he said. “Obviously, the sport that’s most visible is the NFL, although in baseball season you would guess otherwise. Same during the basketball season.

“I think it’s going to be a long, slow process, but it will happen. Just look at the NBA 31 or 32 years ago. The NBA only had nine teams. Here we are 30 years later and it has 29, I believe.

“Soccer . . . must have a larger footprint. MLS is only in 12 markets right now and that’s a small percentage by comparison to the other sports. But it’s a wonderful opportunity.

“I think that this [Columbus] stadium is going to be extremely important to the development of MLS and the sport in this country.”

Which is why Philip Anschutz is considering building a similar home for the Galaxy and perhaps also for his other teams, the Colorado Rapids and the Chicago Fire. And why MetroStar owners John Kluge and Stuart Subotnick have a stadium project on the drawing board in New Jersey. And why former NASL commissioner Phil Woosnam was in Columbus for Saturday’s game. Woosnam heads a group that is planning an “Atlanta Soccer Village” that includes a 25,000-seat stadium to house a prospective MLS expansion team.

But Hunt is the pioneer who already has put his millions on the line.

“He is to a large degree the spirit that has propelled this league forward over the years,” Logan said. “He has long been a patron of this sport, as a consequence of his involvement back in the NASL days. I don’t think this league would have gone forward without the significant investment of Hunt Sports. Lamar Hunt’s involvement in this league, I think, is critical.”

PLAYER PERSPECTIVE

Until Saturday, the Crew had been playing its home games at Ohio Stadium, a cavernous facility unsuited to soccer because of its narrow field width.

Crew and U.S. national team midfielder Brian Maisonneuve said the team is thrilled to have a home of its own.

“It was tough playing in Ohio Stadium,” he said. “It was really narrow. Everybody always said that gave us an advantage, but I don’t think so. Nobody enjoyed playing on such a narrow field.

“When a field’s that small, you don’t have time on the ball and the pace of the game is so much quicker, especially in the midfield. When you get the ball, there’s somebody right on your back. On a bigger field, you’ve got time and space to be a little bit more creative. At Ohio Stadium, you pretty much got it out wide and whipped it into the box because that’s really all you had time for.

“I think [the new stadium] will actually help our team. We’ve got a skillful team and we like to move the ball around. A bigger field is definitely better for us. . . . It’s a flat surface and the grass is perfect. So from that standpoint I know the whole team is really excited. The atmosphere will be second to none, like last summer in France.”

Well, maybe not quite like World Cup ‘98, but a big step forward for MLS, which already has awarded its All-Star Game to Columbus in 2000 and will stage MLS Cup, its championship game, there in 2001.

“Going out another eight or 10 years, I think that the majority of the communities that we’re in are going to gravitate toward stadiums of this type,” Logan said.

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COLUMBUS STADIUM AT A GLANCE

The Columbus Crew played its first game in its new stadium on Saturday. Some facts and figures:

* Location--Ohio Exposition Center, Columbus.

* Cost--$25 million.

* Construction time--274 days.

* Initial capacity--22,485 seats.

* Maximum capacity--40,000 seats.

* Playing surface--natural grass, 115 by 75 yards.

* Plaza with stage for concerts--57,000 square feet.

* Stadium club--9,600 square feet.

* Video board--384 square feet.