Major League Soccer president and deputy commissioner Mark Abbott took in the scene of the 2019 Crew SC home opener at Mapfre Stadium last Saturday, seeing what he believes to be all the elements in place for a successful rebirth of the franchise.

Abbott was in Columbus on multiple occasions during the club’s once-potential move to Austin, Texas, working with Columbus Partnership CEO Alex Fischer on the potential of a new stadium site and helping usher in Dr. Pete Edwards and the Haslam family as the Crew’s new ownership group.

Abbott spoke with The Dispatch before the Crew’s 1-1 draw against the New York Red Bulls about the league’s relationship with Columbus, what the league looks for in a downtown stadium, the rivalry with FC Cincinnati and other topics around MLS.

It’s no secret that there has been tension between the Crew supporters and MLS, heightened once former owner Anthony Precourt intentions to move the club became public in late 2017. Abbott was asked how the league planned to instill the confidence of supporters back in MLS.

"Well you think that's going to be a result of the success that they see here, right?” Abbott said. “So we want fans to be fans of their club, and I think that’s what the league wanted to do. And I recognize there was a little bit of controversy at times over that. We wanted to make sure that the elements for success were in place here and that's what happened.

“Stadium planned, unbelievable ownership group with local connections, support of the corporate market. And with those things in place, we're the biggest believers in the potential for this market."

Here are a few other highlights from Abbott’s interview with The Dispatch. Some of the answers are condensed for clarity.

Dispatch: Does the league just want a downtown stadium, or is there more to it? What do you exactly want in a downtown stadium?

Abbott: “So there's a lot of different things. The demographic for our league at this point in time, very young — people in their 20s, early 30s. Many of them are living in downtown locations, or they're working downtown, or it's easy for them to get downtown. So it's where people are.

“The second is it's part of a social experience. And so being where there's other food and beverages either pregame or postgame, kind of activities to engage in, that's why it's downtown. So it's not just downtown for the sake of it. It's the environment that we can create there.

“With respect to the stadium itself, there's a whole bunch of thinking that goes into those in terms of how to make them really work from a fan perspective. So if you take Kansas City where they have done an unbelievable job. Their thinking around how to create an environment for their supporters — where there's actual a supporters club that you'd think is a corporate club, but it's for supporters — really has helped drive the environment in that stadium and make it great for everybody else to be there, too.”

Dispatch: With what feels like a total rebirth of one of the inaugural clubs of MLS, how much could these next few years in Columbus be an example for the other legacy clubs in the league?

Abbott: "So Kansas City is, again, a similar example. So Kansas City had been playing in Arrowhead (Stadium), was one of the original teams and really wasn't connecting with the market. Change, rebrand, local ownership group came in, new stadium. And now it's a premier team in Major League Soccer. And I think that's what we see here.

“You got the stadium in a downtown location, which really is an opportunity to relaunch. You've got this tremendous ownership group, majority owners Dee Haslam and the Haslam family and their experience in professional sports, their commitment to this. And the Edwards family, the local connection. You've got Alex Fischer and the corporate partnership and what they mean in terms of activating corporate support for the team, which is so critical for it to be successful. And you've got the fan energy. What we're optimistic about is you see the elements in place for it to be successful.”

Dispatch: There's a lot of energy, not just in Columbus, but in the state of Ohio for soccer right now, with FC Cincinnati. Does the league want to create those types of rivalries?

Abbott: "It's one of the really fundamental values of the league. If you take a look at what's going on in the Pacific Northwest, that's one of the great rivalries. Those are among the most intense games that we have. If you take a look at Los Angeles between the Galaxy and LAFC, the intensity of a rivalry that's one year old really shows the passion that people have for their teams, how that match takes on extra meaning to them.

“So I believe that the opportunity of a rivalry between Columbus and Cincinnati is going to produce something very, very special here. And I think it's going to benefit both markets."

Dispatch: How important are these two years in the Columbus market before the new stadium?

Abbott: "Very important. You only get a chance to open a new stadium once. And so the prep work and having the lead time we've been able to do that is really, really important. The ownership group here is tremendously smart, tremendously experienced and they're going to start to put in place the things that you need to do to lead up to that really special moment.”

Dispatch: Why did the league move the playoff structure from two legs to a single game?

Abbott: "A couple things, we wanted to fit the playoffs between the two FIFA (international) windows so we didn't have the FIFA window breakup the momentum was one thing. Secondly, we think that sometimes the second leg wasn't as compelling as a game depending what happened the first leg, so the sort of more immediacy of it. And it really makes the regular season count."

Dispatch: How do you see the league moving in terms of bringing in superstars from top leagues or developing them in MLS, then those players getting opportunities to play in said leagues?

Abbott: “The broad way I would look at it is we're participants in the world market, which means players are both transferred out and players are brought in. So let's take an example in Atlanta. So we had (Miguel) Almiron, a great young player that came in to play for (Atlanta United). Played two years and was transferred out at a record fee — $22 million transfer fee — to Newcastle (in England). And in the first two games has done quite well and is getting standing ovations. That's a great validation of the league and I think people around the world are taking notice of the quality of play that's taking place. But what's equally important is they just didn't take that money … they ended up reinvesting it in Pity Martinez, the South American soccer player of the year.

“So I think it's a market where you're both generating revenue by participating, by transferring out at the right time, but you're also reinvesting and bringing people in. That's true at the youth level. So I think you're going to see players that get developed at the youth level that participate and are on the first team. Each player is going to have their unique needs. Many great players will be able to get all of their playing time and development needs here and some will find that abroad. As long as we're generally a participant in that market in both ways, I think we're going to benefit."



jmyers@dispatch.com



@Jacob_Myers_25