As one of the founding clubs in Major League Soccer, Columbus Crew is no stranger to large-scale event operations. Staging events at Lower.com Field and Historic Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio, the team hosts a diverse calendar of sports, music, and community events year-round — from MLS matchdays and concerts to community runs, religious gatherings, and corporate dinners.
To manage this variety, the Crew’s operations and guest experience teams needed a way to centralize event planning, improve collaboration, and save time across departments and partners. They found that solution in OnePlan.
“We were looking to overcome old maps, a lack of collaboration, and the struggle of having data in too many places,” explains Michael Beirne, Director of Guest Experience at Columbus Crew. “With OnePlan, we’ve brought it all together in one system.”
A single platform for every kind of event
The Crew uses their team account in OnePlan to plan both indoor and outdoor spaces around the two venues, Lower.com Field and Historic Crew Stadium. For indoor planning, existing floor plans are imported into OnePlan; for the surrounding precinct, the team creates layouts for temporary infrastructure, traffic routes, parking and crowd management.
Since adopting OnePlan, the Crew have created over 65 event plans covering a remarkably broad range of events including:
- Sports: MLS home Matches, All star and MLS CUP matches, International soccer events, Collegiate Soccer matches, High school soccer and football championships, All Out War motorsports event
- Music Concerts & Festivals: Hozier, Kenny Chesney, Night Nation Run, Breakaway Music Festival, Sonic Temple, Bands of America and more
- Community participation events: Community prayer event, 9/11 Stair Climb, Humane Society vaccine event, Run Like a Girl
- Corporate events: seated dinners and private activations
Better collaboration across every stakeholder
From operations staff to external partners, the Crew’s planning process now connects multiple stakeholder groups in one shared workspace.
“We use OnePlan with team members, contractors, first responders, operations staff, and internal teams,” says Michael. “Everyone can add their own layer — whether it’s staffing, equipment, or layout changes. We can create a plan right in a meeting and instantly show everyone where we’re at.”
This collaboration extends to critical partners such as police, fire, and medical teams, ensuring clarity for emergency planning and risk management. Beirne highlights how the tool helps identify and correct issues in real time — for example, checking walking distances between venues and parking, or verifying safe access routes for vehicles and fans.
"We can plan faster, collaborate better, and make decisions in the same meeting. It’s just much more efficient"
Michael Beirne
Director of Guest Experience,Columbus Crew
40% time saved - and clearer, more confident operations
Since switching from static maps and manual drawings, the Columbus Crew team have had a 40% reduction in planning time compared to their previous methods.
“It saves me time planning the venue — about a 40% reduction overall,” Michael explains. “We can plan faster, collaborate better, and make decisions in the same meeting. It’s just much more efficient.”
For the Crew’s event and operations teams, that efficiency translates directly into better fan and staff experiences. Matchday parking, staffing plans, and even new-hire orientation maps are now all handled in OnePlan — allowing the team to plan every detail in real scale, with layers they can toggle on and off as needed.
“I enjoy being able to see the actual layout of the building and combine that from start to finish with roads, routing, and signage,” Michael adds. “It allows us to see what we’re really operating with — all in one place.”
Planning the future of events in Columbus
With a single, shared source of truth for every event type, Columbus Crew’s Guest Experience and Operations teams now plan more collaboratively and confidently than ever before.
Whether it’s a sold-out MLS match, a community festival, or a stadium concert, every event at Lower.com Field and Historic Crew Stadium now starts the same way — with a clear, collaborative plan in OnePlan.
Start planning your venues and events more efficiently, with up to 50 objects per event included in your free plan.