Hard to believe where it today compared to when it first opened back in 1999. Thirteen years ago today the Columbus Crew opens Crew Stadium before a sold-out crowd of 24,741, the first MLS stadium built specifically for soccer in the United States as Columbus beat the New England Revolution 2-0.

Now there is a stage on one side and probably a few other good changes. This place opened up many doors for the league and has seen its fair share of quality games too. Who doesn’t forget the US beating Mexico here a few times? Or some of the crazy MLS matches that have taken place here too.

Cheers Crew Stadium, you’ve never known a sponsor name and now you enter those fun teenage years. Still lots of growing to do but the ride has certainly been fun up until this point.

The Crew would like some upgrades, who can blame them?

I guess when all the other kids in the playground have a shiner new toy you tend to get a bit jealous. That’s what I took from Columbus Crew president Mark McCullers on his club’s stadium situation. McCullers has recently visited the league’s two newest stadiums, PPL Park and Red Bull Arena. Its easy to see why he’d look at those two venues and get a tad jealous when he looks at his own stadium which is looking “ancient” by today’s standards.

For those who don’t know Crew Stadium was the first of it’s kind in Major League Soccer. Lamar Hunt put down his own money for the venue back in 1999 and while it has some nice charm about it, there are plenty of things that are missing from it when you compare it to the newer ones around the league.

I recall one of the Hunts talking about this a bit back when Pizza Hut Park was first opened. I want to say it was Clark Hunt but honestly my memory is never good enough to recall things like this, but he said when PHP was opening up that they included some things that they wished they could have at Crew Stadium. At that time he was referring to the stage, permanent seats throughout most of the venue (not bleacher seats), and other modern things.

Fast forward to today and you can still see the Crew and their front office wanting some upgrades to their facility. No harm in that and its kind of one of those things that shows exactly how far the league has really come.

McCullers isn’t shy about his opinions on matters like this. He downplays things a bit when talking about stadium renovation. To me it sounds a bit more like he’d be willing to move the Crew in Columbus to a better location, one that may help drive in more fans.

I don’t have any issues with him thinking that moving the Crew to a new venue in Columbus is a good idea. Some folks will want clubs to build up a history in these venues and that’s alright but from a business standpoint I’d be willing to bet that Crew fans would take a shiny new facility in a better location with all the good bells and whistles over their current stadium. Just sayin’.

My bet is if the club gets serious about this, which I think they will in time we’ll see them stay where they are at but renovate the heck out of Crew Stadium. It just comes down to what money the Hunts want to spend and can spend on a renovation job or new stadium.

It all starts and ends with Mexico. Getting on the right foot tonight is huge for both sides. I like the US in a close, physical battle that may be a bit sloppy due to the nasty weather that is in the Columbus area right now.

What are your predictions for tonight? Let’s hear them.

WVH Prediction: US 1, Mexico 0

Goalkeepers: Tim Howard (Everton), Brad Guzan (Aston Villa).
Defenders: Carlos Bocanegra (Rennes), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard Liege), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock), Danny Califf (Midtjylland), Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Marvell Wynne (Toronto).
Midfielders: Michael Bradley (Moenchengladbach), DaMarcus Beasley (Glasgow Rangers), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Jose Francisco Torres (Pachuca), Clint Dempsey (Fulham), Ricardo Clark (Houston), Robbie Rogers (Columbus).
Forwards: Brian Ching (Houston), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles/Bayern Munich), Charlie Davies (Hammarby), Jozy Altidore (Villarreal/Xerez).

A few MLSers mixed in with a slew of European based guys. For the most part I cannot complain one bit about this roster. Could Bob Bradley have called up a Freddy Adu or someone like that? Possibly but I think this bunch is as solid as it can be.

What do you make of this roster?

More than likely a lot of these MLS guys won’t be on the final roster. Just a hunch.

GOALKEEPERS: Jon Busch (Chicago Fire), Will Hesmer (Columbus Crew), Matt Pickens (Colorado Rapids).

DEFENDERS: Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus Crew), Ugo Ihemelu (Colorado Rapids), Chris Wingert (Real Salt Lake), Marvell Wynne (Toronto FC).

MIDFIELDERS: Brian Carroll (Columbus Crew), Ricardo Clark (Houston Dynamo), Eddie Gaven (Columbus Crew), Stuart Holden (Houston Dynamo), Jack Jewsbury (Kansas City Wizards), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew), John Thorrington (Chicago Fire).

FORWARDS: Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo), Kenny Cooper (FC Dallas), Charlie Davies (Hammarby IF), Chris Rolfe (Chicago Fire)

Read all about it here. And according to Mr. Goff, keep on ignoring those Salt Lake reports.

Thankfully the USSF got it right once again. Mark your calendars if you haven’t already.

Surely by now most of you know of the incident at the friendly between West Ham United and the Crew this weekend. At halftime some West Ham fans apparently went near the Crew fans at Crew Stadium and from there things got a bit too ugly.

Crew supporters began directing chants toward the rival fans, and fights quickly broke out between more than 100 Crew fans and at least 30 West Ham fans. Columbus police officers and Crew Stadium security staff eventually separated the groups.

Highway Patrol officers arrested one fan outside the stadium for disorderly conduct, Patrol spokeswoman Anne Ralston said. A dispatcher didn’t know whether Columbus police had made any arrests inside the stadium.

This is the second incident Crew fans have been involved in this season. As New England celebrated its winning goal at Columbus on May 24, a fan shouted a racial slur at Revolution forward Kheli Dube, who scored in the 89th minute. Dube is black. The incident prompted a league investigation, with MLS commissioner Don Garber saying that the fan will be banned from league games for life if officials were able to identify him from a video that captured it.

Honestly by now its gotta be a put up or shut up kind of deal for some of these fans. While I felt the whole “video-gate” situation was blown a bit out of proportion by some out there, seeing an in-game brawl between fans at a damn friendly is not cool.

Come on, at a friendly.That was everything but friendly.

But let’s not blame those Crew fans for this all though. Those 30 or so West Ham fans apparently started it all according to various wire reports. They were the ones seen going towards the Crew supporters. I’m sure had this been anywhere else in the world the home fans would have responded in the same manner as the Columbus ones did. Let’s be real honest about that here okay.

It always seems like the guy who responds to the first punch throw is always the one that gets caught or punished the most. I will try to remain in contact with some of my contacts that I know were probably at the game or at least know what really went on. Once I get some response back from them I will try to pass it along to you. Don’t worry, I won’t go MLS-Rumors style on this though and continue to talk about it for days on end just to stir up stuff.

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