The Columbus Crew SC will stay in Columbus an all-new, downtown stadium. According to city officials, the 20-year-old MAPFRE stadium will be redeveloped into a new complex featuring indoor basketball and soccer facilities, athletic fields and a new green space, and a new stadium will be built west of Huntington Park downtown.

While Crew fans are overjoyed at the new stadium and sports complex proposals, some are wondering if the public-private partnership is a good use of tax dollars. The City of Columbus will invest $50 million dollars to make this new vision a reality, and Mayor Andrew Ginther said private investors will contribute approximately $600 million to the project. Ginther said it’s a prime example of how Columbus makes public-private partnerships work for the greater good of the capital city.

“It was never about just a soccer team. It was about the community benefit,” Ginther said. “We know that if there was going to be a public-private partnership to remake the stadium there could be a great resource for the community and that is why we are planning this community sports complex.”

The Crew will continue to play at the current stadium for a couple years while the final details about the new stadium are ironed out. Ginther said this gives city leaders time to engage with neighborhood and community leaders about what they would like to see in the new sports park.

You can watch Colleen’s full interview with Ginther in the video above.