Columbus Crew Clarification

First off I would like to say thank you very much to the Columbus Crew communications office for reaching out to me and giving me some data on some discrepancies that you very observant readers have noticed.

Here are some points that he stated for me in an email that clarifies the situation. He also includes some cool statistics and historical data. All of these are official MLS modifications made along with the Columbus Crew.

-          As a point of clarification, the official MLS attendance for the Columbus Crew vs. FC Dallas match, originally scheduled for June 28, 2014 and then rescheduled for June 29, 2014 due to extenuating circumstances, is 20,617.

-          This was an unprecedented situation for both the Columbus Crew and MLS, and after further dialogue and clarification with the League, the official ruling on the attendance figure is 20,617, since that was the number calculated within the League’s standard attendance reporting structure.

-          This clarification should have been communicated to the appropriate audiences sooner, but because of the unique nature surrounding the events that took place the weekend of June 18-29, the interpretation of this attendance data was delayed.

-          The FC Dallas match is officially classified as a sellout at Columbus Crew Stadium, the first of the 2014 season. The July 19 match between the Columbus Crew and the Montreal Impact is officially classified as the second sellout at Crew Stadium for the 2014 season (attendance of 21,112).

-          The last time the Columbus Crew posted two sellouts in a single season was during the 2007 campaign. Prior to this season, the last sellout at Crew Stadium was Saturday, August 31, 2013 against Seattle Sounders FC.

-          An additional point of clarification is the new seating capacity at Crew Stadium, which changed at the beginning of the 2014 season from 20,145 to 19,968 due to physical improvements in the east stands that involved providing more access portals to the lower concourse and replacing the bench seating with individual chairback seating in the three center sections of Premier East. These two construction projects reduced the overall seating capacity in the stadium. It is possible for the club to accommodate more than 19,968 fans in standing-room areas, such as the north bridge, as was the case in both of this year’s sellout games.

I updated the attendance a couple weeks ago, but I will now update the capacity of Crew Stadium. They will most likely have another sellout this weekend as they have now organized a ceremony for Landon Donovan to honor his last game in Columbus.

  

He has had some great moments in Crew Stadium including this recent “dos a cero” win against Mexico in 2013.

Also sorry for the delay in this week’s attendance. I had to wait for the FC Dallas attendance to be posted before I could post the weekly update.