My stomach turned immediately upon reading his name in association with this. I got a bad feeling about this.
Yeah I don't think this is good news at all. Running out of spots for MLS teams, buy struggling financially Crew. Say oh yeah not moving the team, well why would you buy a minority share then? Just for future, FYI. Are you allowed to copy the whole article of a subscription if you give reference to the website? And, I wish I would have of just seen this, would of probably of saved me getting solicited to buy this Journal after my trial runs out. I didn't put the details on Crewture, except for the first paragraph, which is available to non-trial users because I didn't want to copyright infringe. Maybe I'll put a link to this forum, so people who read my blog don't totally freak out after reading the first paragraph.
So why would a group who wants to put a team in Las Vegas buy a chunk of the Columbus Crew? Particularly when they admit they STILL want a team in Las Vegas? So we're supposed to believe that the plan is to keep pushing for a team in Las Vegas so they will then SELL the stake in the Crew? Or did they hand a few million bucks over to HSG just for the hell of it? Nobody would pump millions of dollars into something like this for no good reason. And what did they buy, exactly? The piece "the local investors" hold? No, because you couldn't buy that from HSG. So they bought a chunk of HSG's percentage? Well, that used to be 51%. There's no Earthly reason for them to buy a piece of the Crew. It makes no sense whatsoever. It's a money losing proposition. This stinks. HSG stinks.
Isn't this how the SuperSonics are now the OKC Oh-Sh*t-Where'd-Seattle-Go? Edit: Furthermore, the article states that this helps bring MLS' ideal of "one team per owner" closer...how does that happen if they want part of the Crew, but still want a team in Vegas? That statement + Caliguri = WTF
I agree this could be very bad news for Crew fans. I don't believe for a minute that they would invest in this team and then not move them to Vegas once the retractable roof stadium & casino is built. What the hell else are they going to use it for? There is no way they get an expansion team if they own a large stake in an MLS club already. They can move their lips and make pretty sounds, but the real message is very easy to hear, "We want to buy the Crew and move them to Las Vegas".
Las Vegas Crewwww! Woo-o-oh-o-oh-o-oh! Las Vegas 'til I die! Las Vegas 'til I die! I know I am I swear I am Las Vegas 'til I die!
The item that will tell the true tale on this is if the new training center is announced and built. There has been little news on this for some time. You are not likely to move from a place you have sunk big money into. If built, we're staying. However, the longer this takes (or if it doesn't happen at all), the more likely a move will be. Crew Stadium has probably already been paid for or depreciated so that is not an issue (or HSG would just keep it as a concert venue--folks have indicated in the Forbes discussion that it might be just as valuable that way). The Hunts have no real stake here, now that Lamar has passed. They left KC where they did have a stake (which makes me wonder if they do not plan on selling the Chiefs at some point too). LV gives a rivalry with RSL. I can see the league going for it. They like glitz.
Yeah, move a team that built a stadium to play in so that every city considering doing the same can point and say “how do we know you won’t move our team”. What a stupid move, start writing your letters to Lex asking him to buy a majority stake. If you want to move a team go buy into Chivas you #!@$ers.
Because its not the league moving the Crew. It's any outside investor with their own money buying (part of) the team and then (maybe) deciding to relocate their asset. MLS is not (as far as we know) pushing for this relocation to happen.
From Crew 14 "Does anybody else see Caliguri's name in there and want nothing to do with it?" ooh, ooh, ooh, pick me, pick me, ooh, ooh, ooh, pick me, pick me