Save The Crew

Two years of pouring every career skill into the fight of a lifetime.

Columbus Crew SC (or “The Crew”) is a professional soccer team that plays in the top-flight American soccer league, Major League Soccer (MLS). The Crew was the first team in the league when it formed over 23 years ago. In October of 2017, the new-ish owner revealed that plans to relocate the franchise to Austin had been his plan for most of the 4 years he owned the team and he was about to pull the trigger.

We said NO. We got to work. We Saved The Crew.

The city and state sued the team and the league for violating the terms of a no-relocation law placed on pro sports teams that had been quietly passed long ago, after the Cleveland Browns left Ohio. This is one leg of the tripod.

The local government, heads of local corporations, and moneyed elite of Columbus banded together to meet the demands of a potential sale of the team and to explore a new stadium as part of the league’s ask for this transaction to be considered. This was the second leg of the tripod.

A group of 16 volunteers, mostly lifelong Crew fans, who possessed expertise in a diverse set of career specialties came together and built the “Save The Crew” organization. This is the leg that underpinned the entire movement—a grass-roots advocacy group that wore many hats, but ultimately was an exercise in creativity, PR, marketing savvy, and delivered a universal human message that the entire globe connected with and emphatically supported. This mastery of controlling the narrative of the wrongs that were being committed is what changed everything.

Here’s how I helped lead that.

Click each topic below for a snapshot of my role with Save The Crew

LEADERSHIP
• Organizational consulting
• Creative vendor procurement & partnership

MESSAGE STRATEGY & BRANDING
• Messaging & media response
• Brand ethos
• Consensus building across sectors and audiences

CREATIVE DIRECTION, CONTENT DEVELOPMENT, & ADVERTISING
• Creative media
• Traditional media campaigns
• Social media campaigns

MARKETING & EXPERIENCE ACTIVATIONS
• Events & Appearances
• Community & Organizational Partnerships

MEDIA COVERAGE
• The New York Times
• BBC World
• The Washington Post
• ESPN, ESPN.com
• Fox Sports, Fox Soccer
• Sports Illustrated
• NPR
• The Columbus Dispatch
• Columbus Business First
• Ongoing coverage from local TV

AWARDS
• The Columbus Foundation: True Columbus Originals (2019-Inaugural Award)
• Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission: Massive Collaboration Award (2019)
• The Columbus Foundation: The Spirit of Columbus Award (2019)
• Experience Columbus: Annual EXPY Award (2019)