Columbus is Montreal's daddy

How Arch City secretly helped birth CF Montreal

Author

Columbus Cooligans
April 06, 2025

With last night’s 2-1 win over CF Montreal, the Crew remains undefeated on the season, leads the Eastern Conference (for now) and is 1 point behind Vancouver for the Supporters’ Shield. All without CUCHO. How about that??

Well, hold onto your poutine, Crew cats and kittens, because we're about to spill the maple syrup-soaked TEA! You already know the Crew is CF Montreal’s daddy on the field, but did you know that fact translates off the field as well? Yup, we basically birthed CF Montreal.

Long before the Crew robbed Montreal of the 🐐 coach, Columbus was the Impact's daddy. Think back to August 1996. Almost 29 years ago. The Crew's about to take over MLS, as the first team in league history. But in Columbus, the Crew weren't the city’s first soccer team and they weren't alone.

Prior to the Crew, another soccer team existed in Ohio's capital. For two short seasons starting in 1979, the Columbus Magic, of the American Soccer League, played their home games in Franklin County Stadium, which they shared with the Clippers.

Wanna pay homage to the Columbus Magic? Check out Supporter Supply!

And then there was the even-shorter lived Columbus Invaders.The Invaders were a minor league indoor soccer team that played one year in the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL). The team was previously known as the Canton Invaders and had relocated to Columbus for the 1996 season.

The Invaders struggled in their only season in Columbus, finishing with a league-worst 5-35 record and was outscored by its opponents by an average of nearly 10 goals per game. The Invaders' low point came in a 52-18 loss to the Cleveland Crunch in March 1997, which was the most brutal defeat in NPSL's 17-year history.

The Invaders' struggles on the field were compounded by poor attendance. The team averaged just 1,588 fans per game at Battelle Hall, a sterile downtown convention center. The Invaders' lack of success and low attendance led to the team ceasing operations after the 1997 season.

After the Invaders fold, lo and behold, what rises from the ashes?

The MONTREAL IMPACT!

Reports "It Was Fun While It Lasted:"

To no one’s surprise, the Columbus Invaders ceased operations in the summer of 1997. The owners of the Montreal Impact of outdoor soccer’s A-League purchased the franchise rights of the moribund club that August and entered the NPSL. For the next three seasons, the Impact played both summer outdoor soccer in the A-League and winter indoor soccer in the NPSL, becoming the only North American pro soccer team to play year-round during the late 1990s.

So while the Columbus Invaders were a short-lived experiment that ultimately failed, their legacy lives on in the form of the Montreal Impact. Maybe the Crew's emergence had nothing to do with the Invaders' struggles. Maybe the Impact predate the Crew. But who's to say it didn't and they did??

So we say if the Impact get to trace their history back to the '90s, the Crew should claim the Magic, too. Give us that sweet sweet '79.

Also, the next time we play CF Montreal (fka the Montreal Impact), don't be fooled by their fancy French scarves. Remember, they are, in a way, the Crew's illegitimate child.