Lower.com Field – design description

It's supposed to be the successor of one of United States' most cherished football stadiums, first one ever to be built for MLS. But unlike its predecessor, the new Columbus Crew stadium would be built much closer to downtown, on the edge of Arena District, where indoor event arena and baseball stadium are both located. The old ground and its parking would, in turn, be converted into Crew's vast training centre.

The proposal was fielded by potential new owners of the Crew franchise, the Haslam family, who already own the Cleveland Browns NFL team. Their takeover would preferably be conjoined with team relocation to the new venue.

Closer to downtown the Haslams would also want to see 885 apartments, offices for 1,200 workers and some 25,000 square meters of commercial space. All of which is prognosed to cost $645 million, while the stadium itself is priced at $314 million (initially envisioned to consume 230m) and would take 5.26 of the 13.3 hectares earmarked for all of the project.

The football-specific stadium would offer 20,000 seats and first-ever complete roof over the auditorium for Crew's fans. They'd also have a new vast north terrace with a single tier to lead organised support from.