BW – The Crew seem to be a hard team to parse for me. I thought that they would be rather bad last year after their purge of players following the 2010 playoff loss – I'm often wrong about things, you may have noticed – but instead they managed to make a decent run for a top three spot in the East. This year I have no idea what to think, where do you expect the Crew to finish this year?
BW – Columbus seemed to have a hard time keeping fans around at Crew Stadium last year, surprising to me for a team with fairly recent successes, decent historical support and a very good home record. Is there any reason that last year seemed so dire and do you think it will improve this year by a good margin?
MR – It was a confluence of events. Firstly, the economy pinched the pocketbooks of a lot of soccer going fans. The MLS Cup cam right during a sharp economic downturn that hit Ohio pretty hard. The Crew front office also didn't do the best job of turning the championship into new fans either. Marketing and sales efforts really dropped off through 2010 and the full effect was seen in 2011. In the land of Ohio State, the team had slipped from public consciousness. The Crew have made several big hires in the ticket sales and corporate partnership groups. Season ticket sales are up and the Crew did get a jersey sponsor and a big TV deal this offseason. I expect to see attendance rebound as these new ticket sales initiatives take full effect and the team gets people coming back out.
More on the Crew can be found at Massive Report, check em out!
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Matt Pollard 