Two-thousand or so Crew SC fans congregated in front of City Hall on Sunday to voice their support for the Columbus Crew, as well as their disapproval of the Precourt Sport Venture’s proposed move to Austin, Texas, if a new Downtown stadium isn’t built in Columbus.



Nine speakers, all of whom are public figures and/or ardent Crew supporters, addressed a crowd donned mostly in black and gold Crew SC merchandise for about an hour, with shouts of “Save the Crew” and other popular chants at Columbus home games sprinkled in between speeches.



Morgan Hughes, the host of the event and one of the several people behind the Save the Crew movement, was thrilled with the turnout.



“It was more insane and more massive than I ever hoped it would be,” Hughes said.



Hughes helped welcome speakers on stage, which included: Jeni Britton Bauer, the founder of Jen’s Splendid Ice Creams; Nate DeMars, the CEO and Founder of Pursuit, a local suit company and corporate sponsor of the Crew; Jeremy Loper of 99.7 The Blitz’s morning radio show, Loper and Randi in the morning; Jess Gainor, a longtime Crew fan and #TIFOSweat legend, according to Hughes; Steve Sirk, a Crew writer; two former Crew players, Dante Washington and Mike Clark; former Ohio State basketball player and five-year Crew season-ticket holder Mark Titus, who currently writes about college basketball for The Ringer; and Jonathan “T-Bone” Smith of 97.1 The Fan.



There were several themes that rung throughout the rally, most notably that Crew supporters need to continue to be outspoken and not let the Save the Crew movement die and that the group is “far from done.”



“We’re not going to let this story go away,” Hughes told the crowd in his opening speech.



In addition to those call to actions, several speakers and fans emphasized how the team is more than just a soccer club to them. It’s a part of their identity.



Gainor shared how she and her wife, both die-hard Crew fans, scheduled their wedding on a Saturday so they could attend a Crew game the following Saturday, included a commitment to Crew victories into their wedding vows, and took their wedding pictures at Mapfre stadium.



“The Crew has been a part of some of the biggest moments of my life,” she said.



Hans Shenk, 27, of Plain City, traveled to the rally and recounted his personal connection with the Crew: After being apathetic to sports for much of his early life, he stumbled upon an interview with Brian McBride in Lego Club Magazine in 2001, and the merger of his love of legos and his hometown inspired him and his siblings to set up milk crates as goals and play soccer in the yard. He’s been a passionate Crew fan ever since.



“Soccer is not the purpose of my life, but it’s one of the main mediums in which my life is expressed and the Crew are completely inseparable from that,” Shenk said. “I owe so many parts of my life to the Columbus Crew.”



Dotted around Citi Field, where the Crew played NYCFC on Sunday in its regular season finale, were Crew fans, many of whom purchased their tickets well in advance of Tuesday’s announcement.



That included David and Caroline Davis of Columbus, who sat on a bench outside the stadium a couple hours before kickoff.



David, 70, said he and Caroline, 66, purchased their tickets two months ago, before “all this hoo-ha.” The eight-year season ticket holders — they sit in section 106, row 7 at Mapfre Stadium, dead center — weren’t thrilled about the news.



“We need a guy who owns the Crew who’s got his feet planted in the Buckeye (State)," David Davis said.

Precourt is "down there in Austin wooing those people or they’re wooing him or however it’s working out,” he said. “That tells me he ain’t got our interests at heart at all. That’s the way I feel about it.”



The Davises have renewed their season tickets for 2018, and they intend to go to Crew games until they can’t.



What’s next for the Save the Crew movement? Hughes didn’t offer any hints as to what that might be, but he made it clear would persist in trying to persuade Anthony Precourt to keep the team in Columbus.



“If you came here for a funeral, if you came here for a wake, you’re in the wrong place,” Hughes said. “This is not over.”



Andrew Erickson contributed to this story.



@joshhorton22

jhorton@dispatch.com





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