Initially, the club consisted of several football sides based in towns from the entire county. In the summer of 1934, the refinery organised the inaugural edition of a tournament open for all the Astra teams, called the "Astra Societies Cup". The matches were played in the town of Moreni. At the time, the refinery had only one team, Astra Română Câmpina, that was playing in the district championship. In order to make the cup more attractive, the society created three new football sides for the event: Astra Română Moreni, Astra Română Boldești and Astra Română Unirea Hârsa. After the 1937 edition of the Cup, the society decided to merge all of its Prahova teams and thus created "Astra Română Ploiești" on 29 May 1937. The team was registered in the district championship. Just a few months after the team's foundation, the society changed its name to "Columbia" and moved it to a ground located near the society's headquarters, in Câmpina. In May 1945, "Astra Română Ploiești" was reformed and played its home matches on the old "Columbia Stadium", a stadium that still exists today in Ploiești and is used as a training ground by the team.