When the team’s owner announced plans to move the Crew 1,000 miles south to Texas, supporters vowed he would not get his way

When Columbus Crew fans were making their wish for 2018 there was a simple dream: that their team would stay in their city and not move 1,000 miles south to Austin, Texas. It appears they have their wish. Major League Soccer announced last week that a tentative agreement had been reached with the Haslam and Edwards families to purchase the Crew with the intent of keeping the team in Columbus, Ohio.

“We are extremely grateful for the efforts of the Columbus community as well as Crew SC fans, to help us efficiently complete and fulfill the requirements and deadlines set,” read a statement from the Haslam and Edwards families. Both families are established names in Ohio sports: the Haslams own the NFL’s Cleveland Browns while Pete Edwards, the owner of a medical practice in Columbus, has also served as Crew’s team doctor. “Throughout our conversation, it’s been overwhelmingly clear that Crew SC belongs in Columbus, and we are thrilled to have reached an agreement in principle to assume an ownership position in Major League Soccer and to operate Columbus Crew SC.” Also notable is the approval of funds for a new stadium in downtown Columbus, while former Crew owner Anthony Precourt will retain the rights for an expansion team in Austin

The announcement settles a saga that dragged on for more than a year, and left a black cloud hanging over the 2018 season. During a year that saw high-profile arrivals such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Wayne Rooney in MLS, and Atlanta United’s march to the title, fans were also treated to courtroom proceedings between MLS and the state of Ohio during which the difference between owner v investor/operator was thrillingly deliberated.

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While recent months were dominated by rumors over which millionaire or billionaire owner would swoop in to save Crew, the movement to keep the team in Columbus had far more modest beginnings. What initially began as a simple hashtag within the MLS community, #SavetheCrew, became a force in the fight against relocation.

The initial outlook for the Crew looked grim. Much older teams from larger cities in more established leagues have fallen victim to moves in recent years. However fans on the ground in Columbus helped turn outrage over the move into concrete action.

Speaking with the Guardian, David Miller, the communications director of Save the Crew said that the movement began in the most traditional of settings. “It basically started in a large table in the back room at a bar with a bunch of supporters’ group leaders coming together and saying that … they were depressed and then they decided that they needed to put up a fight.”

Miller says the group approached the problem like they were running a “political campaign”. He adds: “We wanted to make a bunch of noise and do it strategically. That built our name recognition, that built our ability to get the meetings that we wanted.”

Their methods included organizing rallies to draw national attention, bringing signs to the popular College Gameday program on ESPN and attending council meetings. When they built up enough support in Columbus, they began pressing officials on city, county and state levels to join them. “There were Save the Crew banners and flags all across the international soccer community,” says Miller. “The message kind of spread like wildfire … people reached out across the globe.”

Once they found the backing of several Ohio politicians, they leveraged a law unique to the state, the Art Modell Law, to sue MLS and Precourt to keep the team in Columbus. Written after the relocation of the original Cleveland Browns franchise to Baltimore, and named after the owner responsible, the never before tested law prohibits an owner of team who uses tax-supported facilities and accepts financial assistance from the state from moving unless they give six months’ notice and give individuals who live in the area an opportunity to buy the team.

MLS and Precourt’s initial attempts to have the case thrown out failed. With the suit looming, the threat of legal issues pressured all parties to find a solution. With the announcement last week, the suit has now been dropped.

In the meantime, it was a precarious season for Crew fans who had to decide whether to continue to support their team – and thereby give money to an owner looking to move the team – or to pull back and potentially give credence to claims that Columbus lagged behind the rest of the league in its “business metrics”, and was therefore vulnerable to a move.

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Miller is optimistic that the local ownership group coming in will launch a new era for the Crew. “With major sport ownership, local is always best. You see that in Atlanta: they have a local owner who is in the community, invested in the community, cares about community. Anthony Precourt was neither of those things. He did not live here – over the course of his ownership he attended only six games in Columbus. Precourt was never ever in the fabric of Columbus, and I don’t think he cared to be. Now we have owners that care about the city, care about Ohio.”

And while there’s still work to be done, for the first time in a year, Crew fans can focus on soccer. Unfortunately coach Gregg Berhalter has departed to take charge of the US men’s national team, and their best player, Federico Higuain, will turn 35 this year. Still, they’re good problems to have. “I think Crew fans are still grappling with the fact that we actually have a future,” says Miller.

With cross-state rivals FC Cincinnati entering the league as an expansion side in 2019 and establishing the “Hell is Real” rivalry as an MLS fixture, there is a lot of momentum in Ohio soccer. Miller for his part, acknowledges Columbus’s rivals provided welcome support during the Crew’s trials. “Cincinnati had our back through the entire process, and that won’t be forgotten,” he says.

William Trapp (@wil_trapp) Haven’t expressed this until now, but damn, you people in Columbus, you Saved the Crew. I couldn’t be more proud of your efforts, your perseverance, and belief amidst the most bleak of circumstances. You deserve the plaudits and even more so, you deserve your club to STAY home 💛 https://t.co/IAVZJKF7bK

But perhaps the most eloquent tribute to the Crew fans’ campaign comes from the team’s captain, Wil Trapp, who was born and bred in the city. “You people in Columbus, you saved the Crew,” he wrote on Twitter last week. “I couldn’t be more proud of your efforts, your perseverance, and belief amidst the most bleak of circumstances. You deserve the plaudits and even more so, you deserve your club to stay home.”