An announcement on the Crew's new Confluence Village stadium site "could come as soon as this week, maybe by Wednesday," according to Michael Arace of the COLUMBUS DISPATCH. It appears that Haslam Sports Group and Nationwide Realty Investors are "confident that there is nothing left to interfere with the Crew's timetable: an announcement of the purchase" of the parcel of land in the Arena District this month; "shovels in the ground sometime in October; grand opening of the stadium in midsummer" of '21. The "big issues, such as the price of the land, were settled early in the process." The parcel of land is the "last piece of the Arena District -- a project that Nationwide has spent 22 years developing." Nationwide "wants to have some say in the aesthetics of Confluence Village." The Crew's representatives have "had to balance their willingness ... to cede to Nationwide's wishes with the fact that, as buyers, they should have some control of the development of the land." In the interim, Nationwide has "allowed the Haslam group to do its due diligence on the land, to prepare to break ground" (COLUMBUS DISPATCH, 8/4).
