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Reactions to the Crew’s rebrand announcement

The supporters made their feelings quite clear on the club’s new name and logo.

By 1ThomasCostello
Columbus SC brand marks
Photo from https://www.columbuscrewsc.com/post/2021/05/10/crew-reveals-updated-brand-marks

For the third time in 26 years, the Columbus Major League Soccer franchise is changing its name and logo. From their beginnings as the first club in the league, under the hard hat clad Columbus Crew, to the former investor operator Anthony Precourt-era change to Columbus Crew SC.

Sunday, the Columbus front office confirmed that a third rebrand was pending announcement. Massive Report reported that includes not just a name change but a going away from the current logo, released in 2014.

Reports came in Friday that the team met with members of the Nordecke, the Crew’s supporters’ group, to show them the upcoming change. This resulted in no banners in the stands for the 3-1 home win against DC United on Saturday and chants from the stands heard on the live television broadcast. Chants against the rebrand of the club.

Before noon, on Sunday, the first logo leaked on Twitter from SportsBusiness reporter Bob Williams.

The logo began circulation and social media hasn’t looked back. Go to any Crew official account tweet and the replies are littered with anger and frustration towards the change. A reaction not seen from Columbus supporters since the days of Save The Crew when no official MLS tweet was safe from a hoard of replies.

The Nordecke joined the conversation too. They shared their disappointment with the front office and what would be announced Monday afternoon.

Feedback to the team came in different forms, but two stood out. The prevailing thought was the looks of the logo, talking about the simplicity of the logo and a lack of real creativity.

An underlying issue, that is more troubling for supporters, is the lack of communication in planning this rebrand with the supporters themselves.

Unfortunately, the response didn’t stay on Twitter. The reaction got more personal and people within the Crew supporters ranks had to remind people of common-sense values.

The response also came from the sports world in long form. Crew historian Steve Sirk, Tom Reed and even the Athletic dusted off its file on the Crew to contribute.

The response was so much that the team released a teaser video to try and mitigate some of the damage.

It didn’t do much to quell the storm. More response came from players and personalities outside of Columbus. Also, a petition quickly surpassed its initial goal of obtaining 1,500 signatures.

Reports came in Monday afternoon that the front office met again with the Nordecke, but no changes were made to their plan to rebrand the club. It prompted the rise of a new hashtag.

Just after 3 p.m ET, Columbus made what was already confirmed official with their announcement video. An extended version of the Sunday preview included a lot of phrases familiar to Crew supporters like “Black & Gold” and “Massive.” Minutes later, they shared more logo information with various alternates including two featuring the Crew moniker.

Like Sunday, this didn’t go over well. Supporters pounced on the official announcement, with more negative replies than there are people that like it. The Nordecke hitting the team the hardest.

Like it or not, and it seems most people don’t, the Columbus Crew is now officially Columbus SC.

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