OPENING STATEMENTS
COLUMBUS CREW SC PRESIDENT OF BUSINESS OPERATIONS ANDY LOUGHNANE
Good morning and welcome everybody. This building opened in 1999 and revolutionized our sport. Crew SC has played 249 regular-season matches at this stadium, and we are here to announce that our 250th regular-season match will be played in a facility with a new name. I want to begin by thanking a few people who are very important to our club. First and foremost, there are a few Season Ticket Members who are here today who have been with us since the club first started in 1996. Thank you for those of you who are here and your support. There are a few supporters here as well, thank you very much for being here. I do want to thank the state of Ohio, the Governor in particular, who we have been in contact with and has been very supportive of today’s announcement. The city of Columbus and Mayor Coleman, who has been very supportive of the club and today’s announcement. The Franklin County Board of Commissioners, in particular, John O’Grady, who is a Season Ticket Member and has been very supportive of today’s announcement. The Columbus Sports Commission is here today, thank you for your support over the years. And of course, the staffs of both organizations. There has been a tremendous amount of hard work across the last few months to accomplish what we are here to announce today and I want to thank each and every one of you for your dedication to making today a reality. I’d like to turn it over to Anthony Precourt, [Investor-Operator] and Chairman of Columbus Crew SC.
COLUMBUS CREW SC INVESTOR-OPERATOR AND CHAIRMAN ANTHONY PRECOURT
Thank you all for being here today. I would also like to reiterate, I’m very thankful for all the hard work and dedication of our employees to bring us to this historic day for our stadium and our club. When Precourt Sports Ventures acquired the team in July of 2013, we did it because we believe in Columbus. We believe in the potential of this city, this soccer club and this stadium. We’ve talked a lot about the meaningfulness of good business leading to good soccer and good soccer leading to good business. Gregg Berhalter has done a tremendous job in his first year of improving our soccer side of the club and the team’s performance. There are few opportunities in the life cycle of a franchise as great as the subject we are going to discuss today. Our stadium is iconic and a special place with a lot of history. We have had over four million visitors to this stadium in its history. We’ve hosted MLS Cup Playoff games, MLS All-Star Games and four Dos a Cero matches starting in February of 2001. This place is not just about soccer, it is also about concerts. We host Rock on the Range, which is the nation’s largest rock festival. Today’s press conference is a celebration of two companies coming together that are very like-minded and very civic-oriented. I am very excited for what I would like to show you now on the video, so please turn your attention to the screens behind us, where we will introduce our new stadium naming rights partner.
[video plays]
It is my great honor to be the first to welcome you all to MAPFRE Stadium. I’m about to introduce to you Jaime Tamayo here to my left, who is President and CEO of MAPFRE North America. His company is a multi-billion dollar global brand that believes in soccer and believes in Columbus. It is a testament to how far we have come in our last two years and it is a very proud day for our club. We are thrilled to be bearing the name of MAPFRE on our stadium and look forward to making them feel like they’ve made the right decision. We are going to work very hard each and every day going forward to make this the special place that it has been in the past. We expect many more successes on the field. With that, I would like to introduce you to Jaime Tamayo.
PRESIDENT AND CEO OF MAPFRE NORTH AMERICA JAIME TAMAYO
Thank you, Anthony and good morning everyone. I am very excited to be here. On behalf of MAPFRE, we are truly honored to partner with such a fine organization as Columbus Crew SC. Yes, we are a multinational company, yes, we have presence in over 47 countries, but we are also local. We operate our group from Webster, Massachusetts, but we have been operating a company here in Columbus, Ohio since the 1940s. So, we are local. Our operations in the state of Ohio are managed by Ohioans and hopefully, with this partnership, our business can add our own share of contribution in building a winning team in the city of Columbus. As you can tell from my accent, I come from Madrid, Spain, a country that loves soccer. I am a big soccer fan, I love soccer, and I couldn’t be prouder to partner with such a fine organization. Hopefully, at the end of the season, we can all be celebrating the championship. That’s why we’re here. Thank you very much.
Q&A
COLUMBUS CREW SC PRESIDENT OF BUSINESS OPERATIONS ANDY LOUGHNANE
On what the partnership means for the community
When we sat down and went through all of the elements and ingredients that will be part of our relationship, Jaime made it personally very clear that this relationship could not move forward unless there were strong community relations aspects. From day one, that was our charge and we have developed programming, not just with branding elements and media elements and promotional elements, but [also] with community relations elements. Specifically, our Give Forward program will be presented by MAPFRE and again, this is a club that is committed to Columbus and a company that is committed to Columbus alongside of us.
On what level of commitment the partnership represents
This is a multi-year, long-term partnership. Both parties reached terms on an agreement that we are both very, very happy with. To that extent, it shows our commitment to Columbus.
COLUMBUS CREW SC INVESTOR-OPERATOR AND CHAIRMAN ANTHONY PRECOURT
On the importance of having a naming rights partner
It’s symbolic to partner with a global franchise the size of MAPFRE that they want to come to Columbus and partner with Crew SC at this stadium. It is the largest commercial partnership ever signed in the franchises history, so it is a significant deal for us and it will help us create the resources we need for us to be successful on the field. PSV has been very committed to bringing the resources to make this club successful on the pitch and off; MAPFRE’s partnership will continue that process of creating a winning team.
On when the decision was made to partner with MAPFRE
We have been actively looking for the right partner for the stadium’s naming rights and we wanted to wait till we found the right partner. Conversations started months ago with Jaime and his team and it was the right time to do it. We recognize that Crew Stadium has its significance in this community being the first soccer-specific stadium in Major League Soccer, and it kicked off an infrastructure revolution in MLS. Since then there have been 17 stadiums built, many of them have naming rights tied with them. We want to create the resources to win. Again, good business will lead to good soccer. It made sense for us, they are the right people that have the right focus on our community and they will fit right in.
On preserving the stadium's identity and what it means to U.S. Soccer and Crew SC soccer fans alike
The stadium is still the stadium. The atmosphere we create on matchdays won’t change. The character of our team and the culture of organization won’t change. We still have the same coach, the same players, the same front office and the same supporters groups and fans. We expect to host future significant World Cup qualifying matches here and we anticipate that, we hope to announce that news in the near future. I think U.S. Soccer views this as a special place, we’ve won four times in a row two to zero, why mess with that?
PRESIDENT AND CEO OF MAPFRE NORTH AMERICA JAIME TAMAYO
On how the process started and why he felt this was a good partnership
It started a few months ago and we have had some conversations with [Crew SC] about doing some other stuff in terms of partnership. The naming rights option came up and we thought it was a great opportunity. As I said before, both parties shared the same goal and that made the process really easy in order to make this partnership come true.
On why Columbus
As I said before, we have been doing business in Columbus for many years already. One of our eight insurance companies here in the United States is based out of Columbus, Ohio. It’s Columbus, but it is also the state of Ohio. It is a very important state for us, over eleven million people live in the state. As insurers, if we want to be successful in our expansion plans in the United States we have to have a strong presence in Ohio. That is why partnering with [Crew SC] and getting ourselves involved in the community here in Columbus is so important. As Andy was just mentioning, community involvement is crucial for us, we do not understand doing business in any territory, or state, or city or town through walkie-talkie. We have to have presence, we have to have physical presence and we have to be known by the community that we’re good citizens and people that want to take care of people.
