History

TEAM HISTORY

The Columbus Crew, formerly known as Columbus Crew SC and briefly Columbus SC, are an American professional soccer club and current MLS Champions based in Columbus, Ohio. The Crew competes in Major League Soccer as a member of the league's Eastern Conference and began play in 1996 as one of the 10 charter clubs of the league. The team is currently operated by an ownership group led by the Haslam family (also owners of the Cleveland Browns) and former team physician Pete Edwards. The Haslam/Edwards group is the third ownership group in club history.

The franchise was founded in 1994. Its stadium is Lower.com Field, opened in 2021. From 1999 to 2021, the Crew played home games at Historic Crew Stadium (formerly Mapfre Stadium and Columbus Crew Stadium), the first soccer-specific stadium built for an MLS team, with a seating capacity of 19,968 as of the 2015 season. From 1996 to 1998, the Crew played its home games at Ohio Stadium on the campus of Ohio State University. In 2014, the team set club attendance records for both most cumulative attendance and most sellouts.

The Crew have won the MLS Cup in 2008, 2020, and 2023, as well as the Supporters' Shield in 2004, 2008, and 2009; and the 2002 U.S. Open Cup. The Crew have qualified for the CONCACAF Champions League (or its predecessor, the CONCACAF Champions' Cup) four times, reaching the quarter-finals on the first three occasions.