It primarily served as the home stadium of the Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer from 1999 until 2021, when the team moved to Lower.com Field.

The stadium was named for Madrid-based Mapfre Insurance after the company signed a 5-year sponsorship agreement announced on March 3, 2015.

In 2015, Mapfre Stadium and Director of Grounds Weston Appelfeller were honored with the prestigious Field of the Year award by the Sports Turf Managers Association (STMA) for the professional soccer division.

The site was previously home to Columbus Auto Parts, an OEM factory supplying the automobile industry, which stood vacant for decades between the Conrail railroad tracks and Interstate 71 before its demolition in the '90s.

After nearly 15 years of the stadium not having a corporate sponsor, the Crew announced naming rights were sold to Madrid-based insurance company Mapfre on March 3, 2015.

Both the United States men's and women's national teams have played numerous matches at Historic Crew Stadium, most notably, the 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifier in February 2001 between the U.S. and Mexico known as La Guerra Fria (The Cold War) due to sub-freezing temperatures.

In June 2010, Historic Crew Stadium hosted the inaugural USA Sevens Rugby Collegiate Championship Invitational.

[12] The venue was a regular site for Ohio High School Athletic Association state championship tournaments in soccer.

Since the opening of Historic Crew Stadium, it has been a regular site for the United States men's national soccer team matches, hosting ten games through 2013.

The latter two occurred following a 2012 MLS rules change which did away with a neutral site for the Final, and instead has the club with the best overall regular-season record hosting the match.

A permanent stage, built in 2008, was constructed in the north end of the stadium to accommodate concerts after the closing of Germain Amphitheater.

As part of the new ownership proposal for the Crew unveiled in 2018, the club announced plans to build a new stadium, eventually known as Lower.com Field, west of the Arena District near Downtown Columbus.