It’s a Wednesday evening in Columbus, and flags and pennants flap in the wind in the parking lots that surround MAPFRE stadium. A gentle breeze fills the entire place with the smell of barbecued meats. Fans are making all kinds of sounds native to this environment – bean bags pegging off cornhole boards, soccer balls skipping off the pavement. Soon, inside the stadium, the Columbus Crew will take the field.



It’s a scene that’s played out here hundreds of times over the past twenty years. But there is now beauty in that normalcy. Months after famously saving their own team from a potential move to Austin, Texas, the Crew’s fan base are basking in the afterglow.



“I think we’re in the romantic, post-coitus phase where nothing can be wrong,” longtime Crew fan and #SaveTheCrew organizer Morgan Hughes says, chuckling. “We just went through such an emotional thing … This was our best case scenario that we...