When a team decides to rebrand it can go one of two ways, great or terrible. The team formally known as Columbus Crew SC decided to go down the route of terrible. Now known as Columbus SC, the team has dropped the word Crew from their official team name and relegating it to nickname status. While the name falls in line with traditional football (soccer) team names, the new name combined with their new badge (logo) is not great.
It was in 2017 that that team opted for what was a great badge with the circular form with Columbus Crew SC featuring 96 in the middle. 96 being for the year that the MLS was created and the Crew being a founding club. The badge was clean and gave it a legitimate football look.
The new badge is a product of over-design, which is often the case in rebranding efforts.
The obvious takeaway from this is playing off the state flag of Ohio. While the flag shape for Ohio is unique, it doesn’t make a great shape for a team badge or logo. It is just incredibly disappointing to see something that looked so perfect be discarded for something so meh. Dropping the name Crew from the team name is just another difficult thing for the fanbase to swallow.
If the team knew what was best for them they would undo everything they just did. This wouldn’t be the first time a rebrand got trashed after backlash from the new look (Los Angeles Chargers in 2017 comes to mind). The Columbus Soccer Club, aka Crew, can fix what they unnecessarily broke and make everyone a lot happier.
