As has extensively been reported, the Crew will undergo rebranding this October. Much of the speculation has focused on a new crest/badge since reports suggest Anthony Precourt is not set on changing the name or departing from the general color scheme. Adam Jardy reports for the Dispatch that
"The new logo is expected to incorporate the Columbus skyline as well as the number 96. It will likely be circular as well. The colors and name will remain the same, but say goodbye to the three construction workers."
Though it seems that both "Columbus" and "Crew" will stay in the name some have wondered if the club will follow the trend of adding things like "FC", "Sporting", "SC", or "Real" to their name. Through some digging, I think that the rebrand will include the addition of "SC", presumably standing for "Soccer Club", to the "Columbus Crew" name.
The reason has to do with the importance of domain names. When starting a company/organization or launching a product it is important for one to check whether or not the associated domain is available. Colbert grabbing your domain with the definite article (thesarahpalinchannel.com) or Flickr dropping the "e" when it realizes someone else has the domain shows why this is important. So, if the Crew were looking to change their name it would be prudent of them to secure the appropriate domain name.
Currently the Crew owns the domain "thecrew.com". A whois search of the domain reveals it was registered for the Crew on January 4, 1996 and that the registrant is currently Thomas (TJ) Ansley12. This search was done using Terminal on my computer, but a site like whois.net will provide the same result.
Domain Name: thecrew.com
Registry Domain ID: 1038421_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.register.com
Registrar URL: http://www.register.com
Updated Date: 1996-01-04T00:00:00-0500
Creation Date: 1996-01-04T00:00:00-0500
...
Registrant Name: Thomas Ansley
Registrant Organization: Columbus Crew
Registrant Street: One Black & Gold Blvd.
Registrant City: Columbus
Registrant State/Province: OH
Registrant Postal Code: 43211
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone: +1.6144472739
...
Registrant Email: tansley@thecrew.com
Registry Admin ID:
Admin Name: Thomas Ansley
Admin Organization: Columbus Crew
Admin Street: One Black & Gold Blvd.
Admin City: Columbus
Admin State/Province: OH
Admin Postal Code: 43211
Admin Country: US
Admin Phone: +1.6144472739
...
Admin Email: tansley@thecrew.com
After some digging I came across a whois result that indicates that as of July 1, 2014 the Crew also owns "columbuscrewsc.us". The registration lists the Crew's Senior Director of Marketing & Promotions Arica Kress as the current registrant (from whois.net):
Domain Name: COLUMBUSCREWSC.US
Domain ID: D45842087-US
Sponsoring Registrar: GODADDY.COM, INC.
Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID: 146
...
Registrant Name: Arica Kress
Registrant Organization: Columbus Crew
Registrant Address1: 1 Black and Gold Blvd
Registrant City: Columbus
Registrant State/Province: Ohio
Registrant Postal Code: 43211
Registrant Country: United States
Registrant Country Code: US
Registrant Phone Number: +1.6144472739
Registrant Email: akress@thecrew.com
Registrant Application Purpose: P1
Registrant Nexus Category: C11
...
Name Server: NS69.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
Name Server: NS70.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
Created by Registrar: GODADDY.COM, INC.
Last Updated by Registrar: GODADDY.COM, INC.
Domain Registration Date: Tue Jul 01 16:21:35 GMT 2014
Domain Expiration Date: Tue Jun 30 23:59:59 GMT 2015
Domain Last Updated Date: Tue Jul 01 16:21:35 GMT 2014
Domain Name: COLUMBUSCREWSC.COM
Registry Domain ID: 1865072840_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com
Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com
Update Date: 2014-07-01 11:21:18
Creation Date: 2014-07-01 11:21:18
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2015-07-01 11:21:18
Registrar: GoDaddy.com, LLC
...
Registrant Name: Registration Private
Registrant Organization: Domains By Proxy, LLC
Registrant Street: DomainsByProxy.com
Registrant Street: 14747 N Northsight Blvd Suite 111, PMB 309
Registrant City: Scottsdale
Registrant State/Province: Arizona
Registrant Postal Code: 85260
Registrant Country: United States
Registrant Phone: +1.4806242599
Domain Name:COLUMBUSCREWSC.ORG
Domain ID: D173158527-LROR
Creation Date: 2014-07-01T16:20:52Z
Updated Date: 2014-07-01T16:20:52Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2015-07-01T16:20:52Z
Sponsoring Registrar:GoDaddy.com, LLC (R91-LROR)
...
Registrant Name:Registration Private
Registrant Organization:Domains By Proxy, LLC
Registrant Street: DomainsByProxy.com
Registrant City:Scottsdale
Registrant State/Province:Arizona
Registrant Postal Code:85260
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:+1.4806242599
Domains by Proxy is a company that allows individuals to purchase domain names by proxy so that they up publicly as the owner while the actual individual or organization uses the domain. Go Daddy offers it as option when registering a domain.
I assume the Crew used this option to purchase "columbuscrewsc.com" and "columbuscrewsc.org" in order to hide the fact that the Crew actually owns the domains. The reason is that all three registrations seem to have occurred at around 11:20 am EST on July 1, 2014:
- "columbuscrewsc.us" was registered at 16:21:35 GMT, which is 11:21 am EST.
- "columbuscrewsc.com" was registered at 11:21:18 (no time zone listed).
- "columbuscrewsc.org" was registered at 16:20:52 (which I assume is GMT), which is at 11:20 EST.
The fact that all three were purchased on the same day, are all currently parked by Go Daddy, and were bought the summer before launching a rebrand suggests that the "Columbus Crew" will become "Columbus Crew SC" this October.
I am left wondering if the definite article in "The Crew" is going to be dropped. Whois queries with "the" added to the beginning show that those domains are not currently owned. Also, I tried other TLDs like .net and .info which did not turn up any results. Perhaps others might find other TLDs with "columbuscrewsc" purchased on or around July 1.
1. A previous version of this post read "A whois search of the domain reveals it was registered for the Crew on January 4, 1996 by Thomas Ansley." As Matt Bernhardt pointed out to me on Twitter, TJ Ansley did not join the Crew until 2010. This makes it highly unlikely he originally registered the domain name, a fact Ansley himself confirmed. The name of the registrant was changed to him during his tenure with the Crew and has not been updated since his departure (see 2).
2. My original post glossed over what is an important distinction. The registration entry can be updated to reflect current information. For instance, the creation of the domain registration may include a registrant for the domain that then gets changed or transferred. By not keeping this in mind I incorrectly inferred that since TJ Ansley was listed as the registrant in the result of the Whois query. This also explains why, as Levi Moore points out below, the current address for the Columbus Crew was nonexistent in 1996.
3. See LarryB's comment below for the likely explanation of why this is the case.
How could Tom Ansley register the original name from an address that didn't exist yet? 1 Black and Gold Blvd would've came with our new stadium which was built three years later.
ReplyDeleteI'll explain in an update. Basically the entry can be updated at a later date and this is not reflected in the creation date.
DeleteSee footnote 2 for a more detailed explanation. Thanks for pointing this out.
DeleteIt appears that Domains by Proxy can not manage the .us domain extension. So my guess would be that is why it was not purchased via Domains by Proxy.
ReplyDeleteThis seems like a good explanation to me.
Delete