Columbus Crew SC will stage a groundbreaking ceremony for its planned new stadium on Thursday, October 10.
The new Crew stadium will be constructed in Columbus’s Arena District, where it is expected to serve as the anchor of a surrounding mixed-use development initiative known as Confluence Village. Crew ownership has been working with local and state officials in planning the project, and will take a step forward with next month’s groundbreaking ceremony.
Scheduled for October 10, the groundbreaking ceremony will be staged at 650 W Nationwide Blvd. The event will be open to the public, with the first 500 attendees receiving a commemorative groundbreaking mini-shovel. Festivities will begin at 1:00 p.m. EST with music and food trucks, while the ceremony is expected to get underway at approximately 2:00 p.m.
The Crew has previously named the summer of 2021 as a targeted completion date for the new stadium. When the facility does open, it will replace MAPFRE Stadium as the club’s home.
Planning for the new stadium follows a development that saw Anthony Precourt explore a move of the Crew to Austin, only for a solution to emerge to keep the team in Columbus while allowing him to proceed with plans in the Texas capital. Jimmy and Dee Haslam–owners of the NFL’s Cleveland Browns–and the Columbus-based Edwards family bought into MLS and received operating rights to Columbus, and will be carrying out the plans for a new stadium. Precourt, meanwhile, remained an MLS investor and received rights to Austin, where Austin FC will begin play in 2021 as the league’s 27th team.
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