Philadelphia, St. Louis, Portland, Vancouver and Miami are all vying to secure the rights to a 15th MLS expansion club, and the Columbus Dispatch’s Bob Hunter points out that many citizens of Columbus are probably wondering what the big deal is. “This is unfortunate and understandable,” Hunter says, because the Crew has been terrible for some time, “and bad teams have a way of killing interest faster than anything.” Unfortunately, he adds that Columbus might have to lose its team, like San Jose and Miami did, before its citizens realize what they had.
Nobody likes a perennial loser, and the Crew seems to be headed in that direction. Three consecutive seasons without making the playoffs — especially in a league where nearly everyone makes the playoffs — simply isn’t good enough, says Hunter, so something’s got to give.
Where should the ax fall? Some might say that Coach Sigi Schmid or General Manager Mark McCullers should go. Hunter thinks the problem goes deeper than that: “Ownership,” he says “isn’t making the commitment necessary to turn the franchise around.” And that would be the Hunt family, as in the late Lamar Hunt’s family, the family of the man who built Crew Stadium with his own money. Hunter understands that without Hunt and his family there would be no Crew, but he says the pain of not winning isn’t as easily felt in Dallas, where the Hunts own FC Dallas. On the other hand, MLS wants local ownership, a rule that would presumably apply to Columbus. The Hunt family has already sold Kansas City, so perhaps the Crew is next in line.