By Bill Archer on Oct 31, 2017 at 8:37 AM
  1. Bill Archer

    Bill Archer BigSoccer Supporter

    Mar 19, 2002
    Washington, NC
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    #1 Bill Archer, Oct 31, 2017
    Last edited: Nov 6, 2017

    Done Don: Major League Sleaze

    By Bill Archer on Oct 31, 2017 at 8:37 AM
    Twenty some-odd years ago there were two bright young sports marketing executives toiling for the NFL; Roger Goodell and Don Garber. Everyone knows that they each ended up as the commissioner of a professional league; Goodell at the NFL and Garber at MLS.

    But until last week nobody suspected that it was MLS who got the stupid one.

    First of all, let's dispense with Garber's patent lies about how Anthony "Fratboy McTrustfund" Precourt is simply "exploring his options in Austin" but that "no decision has been made":

    In 2013 when Precourt bought the team, he was granted the legal right to move the Crew to Texas. He has decided to exercise that right and nobody can stop him. Garber arranged it, Garber got the owners to approve it and Garber has worked hard to make sure it happens.

    Is that plain enough for you?

    [​IMG]

    There's no real point in rehearsing the litany of lies and deceits that Precourt and Garber have engaged in: how Precourt registered his sports company in Austin, not in Columbus. Or how in 2014 he switched the Crew's USL affiliate from Dayton (90miles away) to Austin (2000 miles away) where no team even existed. Or how Precourt signed a TV deal that made it impossible for most fans to ever see a game. Or how he cancelled all team advertising, fired most of the office staff and cancelled the traditional team promotions which had been highly successful for years and replaced them with: nothing.

    It's hardly surprising that when Twellman and Delacamera invited Fratboy to the booth at halftime last Thursday to explain what is going on he refused to speak with them. Hard to blame him.

    Then of course there's Garber himself whose only comment has been the aforementioned "nothing has been decided" lie and the claim that he himself will be meeting with officials in Columbus "in the next couple of weeks".

    Except that "officials in Columbus" have been unable to get him to actually commit to a meeting or set a date. His only apparent response to their request for a meeting has been to inform the "Columbus Partners" group that if they didn't stop talking to the media about all of this he would refuse to EVER talk with them.

    So they shut up but Garber is still refusing to respond to their requests.

    Meanwhile, Garber and other MLS staff have met with officials in Austin on numerous occasions over the past year while Precourt has spent so much time there that he's going to have to get his driver's license changed over. Now they're promoting a fan event in Austin tomorrow called "An Evening with Dave Greeley", the utterly creepy Grima Wormtongue of Precourt Sports Ventures and the man whom Peter Wilt famously called a m**********r to his face before stomping out of a meeting in Chicago.


    I ran across this picture last week.

    It's a photo of a "fan meetup" in support of MLS2ATX, the Astroturf supporters group that PSV created last August before any of this was made public.

    I'll leave aside the snark about the massive outpouring of support (this was immediately after Precourt announced the move; there must be literally a dozen people there), or the Austin "hipsters" we keep hearing about who seem to be out taking a leak (probably from all those ultra-hip cans of Coors) and instead focus on the brand new scarves that were apparently for sale.

    Something about them look familiar?

    [​IMG]

    It displays an MLS trademarked logo - try that yourself and see how long it takes their lawyers to send you a threat - that's been professionally adopted for Austin, it's identical to the "split logo" style used for MLS teams and from the obvious quality and heft it would appear to actually be an adidas-made, MLS designed and approved licensed product for MLS Austin.

    Which didn't happen in the 3 days between the announcement and the event.

    Wanting to be fair, I contacted numerous normally quite responsive MLS officials inquiring as to whether this was indeed MLS merch. Today marks a week with no reply whatsoever.


    So how bad a "PR disaster" (to borrow a phrase from Taylor Twellman) has this whole thing become?

    Bad enough that #savethecrew was the theme of ESPN College Football Gameday last Saturday.

    [​IMG]

    Bad enough that the Men in Blazers show used a Crew logo as a backdrop for their entire show this week. (They even used the old Construction Workers version which has become a fan symbol of resistance since Precourt got rid of it).

    [​IMG]

    Bad enough so that every single MLS stadium had #savethecrew signage up last weekend and broadcasters weren't at all shy about showing them. Other fan groups wore black armbands or yellow hardhats or shirts.

    At least Goodell can get the networks to break for commercial during National Anthem protests, but Garber doesn't get anything like that kind of deference from his TV partners.

    Which brings us to tonight's game in Columbus. How hard was Garber pulling for the Five Stripes last week to make going back to CBus unnecessary? Fortunately for him of course he can - and certainly will - be absent this evening. But one wonders how Precourt can possibly show his fat, smirking little crapweasel face anywhere in the building.

    That, as much as anything, is Garber's current legacy in all of this: he has cleverly arranged it so that an MLS owner doesn't dare show up in his own stadium.

    Great work Don.


    Still, when it comes to weapons-grade stupid, nothing can top Don's self-inflicted problem with San Antonio, which will surely end up in court, generating even more bad PR and probably costing the league a fortune.

    Last December, with the deadline for expansion applications looming, our boy Don assembled a committee to evaluate the bids and, inexplicably, he made Precourt one of the members.

    He then solicited, encouraged and accepted a bid from San Antonio, who - based on Garber's assurances of good faith - committed five million bucks to the purchase of Toyota Stadium. Garber also assured them that the league would not be taking teams from both Austin and SA.

    What they weren't told was that a member of the committee responsible for evaluating the bids was a guy who already had a signed contract with MLS allowing him to put a team in Austin. In other words, before they ever spent a dime on a bid for a team, they had already lost.

    This is known politely as "not negotiating in good faith". Not so politely, it's called fraud.

    Apparently Garber thought San Antonio would overlook the fact that he had stacked the deck against them. He was mistaken.

    A powerful Judge and politician in San Antonio - he's a former member of the Texas house and senate as well as a former Mayor of SA - Nelson Wolff, has instructed the district attorney to explore this whole deal with a view to filing both civil and criminal charges against MLS in general and Don Garber in particular.

    He feels they were cheated and lied to. And he's entirely correct: they were.

    Yesterday, the Mayor of San Antonio announced that his legal people would be conducting an investigation as well. And that's not even getting into the fact that the City of Columbus and the State of Ohio may also have grounds for a lawsuit.

    You can't just go through life lying to everybody about everything because you're determined to rid your little league of a town in flyover country that your Queens New York ass doesn't feel adds to your personal perception of "Major League".

    MLS issued a brief response yesterday saying that they disagree that San Antonio was ever promised a team. Which is not, of course, what San Antonio is claiming, but never mind. It's lies all the way down.

    So what the hell happened here?

    Well, it's not really complicated.

    Garber made this secret deal with Precourt to mug Columbus and move their team to Austin Texas but he didn't want anyone to know about it.

    Then, when they opened up the bidding process for expansion teams and San Antonio wanted in, our man Don was stuck between a rock and a hard place. So Garber actually sent league officials, including league President Mark Abbott - I can recommend a good lawyer, bud - to meet with local government and Spurs officials, tour the facilities and say nice sounding things about SA landing a team.

    It was all a lie. A fraud. Call it Expansion Kabuki.

    Garber couldn't tell SA that Austin was already going to get a team since that would let the cat out of the bag vis a vie Columbus and he wasn't ready to play that card. Apparently he planned on waiting until after the expansion process was completed, SA had been turned down for some reason they would make up when necessary and then, when the dust had settled, they'd go ahead and have Precourt announce that he was going to "exercise his option".

    Maybe they planned on claiming that Precourt had held off on his move out of respect for San Antonio's bid. Once you start lying to everybody,it all starts to come easily.

    Apparently, Precourt jumped the gun. We have no idea why.

    Garber told the Spurs that Precourt had "gone rogue" and Merritt Paulson Tweeted that "nobody is happy about this", but what it really amounted to was that Fratboy decided he didn't want to wait for permission. He has a contract that says he can move the team and thats what he's going to do.

    So what's the end game here?

    Well, there aren't a lot of good options.

    They can't make Precourt stay in Columbus. He has a contract that says he gets to move to Austin and that's what he is going to do. Anyone tells you different or that nothing has been decided, they're - yes - lying.

    They could try and force Precourt to sell the team to Columbus Partners, who offered to buy it and, failing that, offered to buy half of it for $75 million. Since Richie Rich paid $68 million for the thing four years ago that's a pretty healthy return.

    They also offered him an immediate $ 2 million sponsorship package, land for a stadium and much more to come on top of that. This is the offer which Precourt rejected as "not serious".

    If they can't make him sell, then it's likely they're going to have to pay a big stack of money to San Antonio to settle a case which is a sure loser in court. This will undoubtedly infuriate the other owners, but they're the ones who let Garber run this game and they're stuck with him.

    Either way, Garber's contract only has a little over a year left to run, and when this is allover his credibility with the entire soccer community will be so shot to hell that he'll almost certainly decide that he needs to spend more time with his grandchildren.

    Which will be cold consolation for Columbus, who deserved much better than this public knifing from a couple of liars who set them up four years ago, and that includes, sadly, Clark Hunt.

    Betrayal is an ugly thing.


    *Edited to reflect that it was MLS President Mark Abbott who met with San Antonio officials in Texas, not Dan Courtemanche.
     
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Comments

Discussion in 'Articles' started by Bill Archer, Oct 31, 2017.

    1. Dan Loney

      Dan Loney BigSoccer Supporter

      Mar 10, 2000
      Cincilluminati
      Club:
      Los Angeles Sol
      Nat'l Team:
      Philippines

      Done Don: Major League Sleaze

      By Bill Archer on Oct 31, 2017 at 8:37 AM
      The owners can, and should, hang Precourt out to dry at this point. He's cost them actual money as well as intangible goodwill.

      I have a hard time blaming Garber, unless for some reason he neglected to keep his other twenty-one bosses informed. (Which is entirely possible, it's tough to think of that many people keeping a secret.)

      I think you're "Done deal announced too soon" is a very very plausible scenario. And thanks for the reminder that Peter Wilt is an excellent judge of character.
       
    2. Olo2317

      Olo2317 Member

      Jun 1, 2014
      Club:
      CA River Plate
      Nat'l Team:
      Argentina

      Done Don: Major League Sleaze

      By Bill Archer on Oct 31, 2017 at 8:37 AM
      i'm no longer interested in MLS now
       
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    3. Nacional Tijuana

      Nacional Tijuana St. Louis City

      St. Louis City SC
      May 6, 2003
      San Diego, Calif.
      Club:
      Seattle Sounders
      Nat'l Team:
      United States

      Done Don: Major League Sleaze

      By Bill Archer on Oct 31, 2017 at 8:37 AM
      I'm a little TOO interested in MLS now. But for reasons I'd rather not be.
       
    4. Bill Archer

      Bill Archer BigSoccer Supporter

      Mar 19, 2002
      Washington, NC
      Club:
      Columbus Crew
      Nat'l Team:
      United States

      Done Don: Major League Sleaze

      By Bill Archer on Oct 31, 2017 at 8:37 AM
      I'm only blaming Garber for all the blatant lying.

      Only the owners as a whole can grant permission to relocate, so it's apparent they were all in on this. At the very least 18 owners (2013) would have known about it and 2/3 of them, by rule, would have had to approve.

      It's lies and deception all the way down.
       
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    5. The Irish Rover

      The Irish Rover Member+

      Aug 1, 2010
      Dublin
      Club:
      Manchester United FC
      Nat'l Team:
      Ireland Republic
      #6 The Irish Rover, Oct 31, 2017
      Last edited: Oct 31, 2017

      Done Don: Major League Sleaze

      By Bill Archer on Oct 31, 2017 at 8:37 AM
      True. But how many of them were enthusiastic about the idea, as opposed to willing to go along with it despite having many misgivings?

      My guess is the team moves to Texas and flops (a guy too dumb to keep his trap shut is going piss people off big time when thing go against him in Austin), Cincinnati comes in to replace the Crew in Ohio (maybe that should read "replace"), the Spurs and San Antonio get a large hush-money cheque.

      In the meantime, a Columbus USL team draws well and is eventually outdrawing the Austin flop, which is sold to the Spurs at a knockdown price and moved to San Antonio. Then Garber/his replacement have to look at Columbus as an attractive expasion destination around 2025.
       
    6. USRufnex

      USRufnex Red Card

      Tulsa Athletic / Sheffield United
      United States
      Jul 15, 2000
      Tulsa, OK
      Club:
      --other--

      Done Don: Major League Sleaze

      By Bill Archer on Oct 31, 2017 at 8:37 AM
      Good stuff, Bill.
       
    7. Stupid_American

      Stupid_American Member+

      Jan 8, 2003
      New York, NY
      Club:
      Columbus Crew
      Nat'l Team:
      United States

      Done Don: Major League Sleaze

      By Bill Archer on Oct 31, 2017 at 8:37 AM
      Regarding the "Precourt jumped the gun. We have no idea why." piece, the only thing that seems plausible (beyond Precourt just being a petulant moron, of course) is that Bobby Epstein's USL Austin announcement happened sooner than he expected it to.

      Since the Austin team wouldn't be joining USL until 2019, perhaps Precourt assumed Epstein would not start the branding and marketing push until 2018? Which would, most importantly, be after the expansion decision in Dec 2017 and around the same time Precourt could start his own marketing push.

      So maybe Precourt reads stories in August/September about how Epstein's USL team will be playing in a new 5,000-seat stadium at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in 2019 and starts to worry that this may create consumer confusion and friction with the municipal government on his own stadium project down there? And while USL and MLS and generally cooperative, USL has no idea Precourt put this escape clause in his ownership agreement so they saw no reason to give MLS the heads up (let alone an impatient Precourt)?
       
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    8. Bill Archer

      Bill Archer BigSoccer Supporter

      Mar 19, 2002
      Washington, NC
      Club:
      Columbus Crew
      Nat'l Team:
      United States
      #9 Bill Archer, Oct 31, 2017
      Last edited: Oct 31, 2017

      Done Don: Major League Sleaze

      By Bill Archer on Oct 31, 2017 at 8:37 AM
      This makes eminent sense.

      Precourt didn't want to get beaten to the marketplace, particularly by a well-known and credible local.

      And either he asked for permission to announce and was turned down OR he didn't even bother to ask for a green light. Either way, he's not someone that you'd want as a partner.

      Putting the whole enterprise into legal jeopardy is no way to win friends among your fellow owners. And if SA is not inclined to settle and/or just feels like rubbing their faces in it, they can call and/or depose every one of 18 MLS owners to testify as to what they knew,who said what and when it was said.

      I bet the owners - and Garber in particular - can't wait for that.
       
    9. Zoidberg

      Zoidberg Member+

      Jun 23, 2006

      Done Don: Major League Sleaze

      By Bill Archer on Oct 31, 2017 at 8:37 AM

      ....and let's be honest Bill. We often get frustarted at the venom blindly tossed at corporations when it isn't close to being true. We also hate when con artists and swindlers take advantage of, milk and blatantly extort/shake down corporate, all for some BS social good/lies.

      This however is corporate idiocy and "evil", if you will, at it's apex, and MLS deserves to get torched. What's so sad is that quite a few of us saw this coming. It was almost as sad, obvious and painfull to watch as the US qualifying campaign.

      Very happy to see the blow back. Didn't expect as much as we have seen...and my guess is the owners probably didn't expect it either. Good sign....and maybe, just maybe Columbus can be saved.....or a new stadium and ownership will arrive ala SJ. Glad to see you wrote this.
       
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    10. patricksp

      patricksp 91.9 Crew Fan Rating

      Nov 4, 2007
      Columbus
      Club:
      Columbus Crew
      Nat'l Team:
      United States

      Done Don: Major League Sleaze

      By Bill Archer on Oct 31, 2017 at 8:37 AM
      I assuming that the Players Union would love to get their hands on depositions and Discovery. Under Possible Criminal Investigation or Possible Criminal Fraud should be mentioned every time MLS is mentioned in a sentence.

      I am sure a DA's ( City and County are involved) would love to make a name for themselves by putting a New York jerk in jail for fraud, because people from New York don't think they are smarter than those hicks in Texas. and after they are done with the Criminal part they then can pursue Civil actions.
       
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    11. Cavan9

      Cavan9 Member

      Nov 16, 2011
      Silver Spring, MD
      Club:
      DC United
      Nat'l Team:
      United States

      Done Don: Major League Sleaze

      By Bill Archer on Oct 31, 2017 at 8:37 AM
      It's sad how MLS has destroyed its reputation with this fiasco. It's time for Garber to go. He did a lot of good things for the league such as courting new ownership. Perhaps he flew too close to the sun by letting Precourt have his way. Or, maybe the other owners simply didn't think this Crew to Austin thing would blow up in their collective face as dramatically as it did when they gave the contract four years ago.

      I get the thinking from a purely dollars and cents perspective. I think it's stupid but I get the (faulty) thought process. However, the money guys forgot that you need customers/fans who are excited to pay money for your product and they usually don't think purely in terms of dollars and cents. You have to give them something more, something they have a stake in, or at least let them feel that way. (I say that as a DC United supporters' group member who employs double-think on a personal level when it comes to my favorite team) Angering fans does the exact opposite of that. I hope the other owners recognize how much damage this whole fiasco is doing to their pocketbooks and settle with San Antonio and buy Precourt out. They'll be able to make money by selling the Crew to a new local owner for $150 million while saying out of the discovery process of a civil trial.

      That's the end of my money guy side talking. My soccer fan side says keep the Crew in Columbus because there would have been no MLS without it. Crew fans showed up back in the 1990's when few did in other places. They're a beacon of pride for the league and a jewel that says our league figures out how to make it work in a smaller market rather than abandoning fans. That can-do spirit that markets like Columbus, Kansas City, and Salt Lake represent would be sorely missed. Not to mention all that goodwill (both in the common use and accounting use of the word).
       
    12. nick p

      nick p Member+

      Jul 11, 2009
      Baltimore Maryland
      Club:
      DC United
      Nat'l Team:
      United States

      Done Don: Major League Sleaze

      By Bill Archer on Oct 31, 2017 at 8:37 AM
      Precourt should cut his losses and sell the Crew to local investors
       
    13. bigredfutbol

      bigredfutbol Moderator
      Staff Member

      Sep 5, 2000
      Woodbridge, VA
      Club:
      DC United
      Nat'l Team:
      United States

      Done Don: Major League Sleaze

      By Bill Archer on Oct 31, 2017 at 8:37 AM
      Great stuff, Bill.

      I've been pleasantly surprised at how the "broadcast partners" have been willing to call shenanigans on this on air. That's cold comfort to Columbus fans, of course. And frankly all of us who support an MLS team or the entire league as an enterprise should be troubled by this.
       
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    14. bigredfutbol

      bigredfutbol Moderator
      Staff Member

      Sep 5, 2000
      Woodbridge, VA
      Club:
      DC United
      Nat'l Team:
      United States

      Done Don: Major League Sleaze

      By Bill Archer on Oct 31, 2017 at 8:37 AM
      Yeah, as a fellow DCU fan we've gotten more than a taste of how the "money guys" want to run this league going forward.
       
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    15. billf

      billf Member+

      May 22, 2001
      Club:
      Philadelphia Union
      Nat'l Team:
      United States

      Done Don: Major League Sleaze

      By Bill Archer on Oct 31, 2017 at 8:37 AM
      Weapons grade stupid is one of your all time best lines!
       
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    16. JasonMa

      JasonMa Member+

      Mar 20, 2000
      Arvada, CO
      Club:
      Colorado Rapids
      Nat'l Team:
      United States

      Done Don: Major League Sleaze

      By Bill Archer on Oct 31, 2017 at 8:37 AM
      Minor nit but the whole scarf investigation (other than the 3 day timeline) is a bit much. I mean C38 sells "split logo" scarves but has no discussions with MLS over it.
       
    17. Cavan9

      Cavan9 Member

      Nov 16, 2011
      Silver Spring, MD
      Club:
      DC United
      Nat'l Team:
      United States

      Done Don: Major League Sleaze

      By Bill Archer on Oct 31, 2017 at 8:37 AM
      The photo with the scarves is relevant circumstantial evidence. Kind of like when Homer discovered the back room with the "Albuquerque Isotopes" merch. Except we now have the internet so that image is forever.
       
    18. Martek

      Martek New Member

      Apr 11, 2008
      Houston
      Club:
      Houston Dynamo
      Nat'l Team:
      United States

      Done Don: Major League Sleaze

      By Bill Archer on Oct 31, 2017 at 8:37 AM
      This string of tragicomedy will only continue unendingly. Wait until they try to work with the city on building a new stadium. This is a city that voted to kick out Uber/Lyft, which were only reinstated by the State Legislature. You're going to get them to approve a soccer stadium? Without UT on board? Think again.
       
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    19. Cavan9

      Cavan9 Member

      Nov 16, 2011
      Silver Spring, MD
      Club:
      DC United
      Nat'l Team:
      United States

      Done Don: Major League Sleaze

      By Bill Archer on Oct 31, 2017 at 8:37 AM
      I'm not ready to give up on the DCU ownership. Their flaws seem to stem from being stretched too thin, incompetence and arrogance that they can figure everything out themselves rather than asking their existing customers/fans. I don't see evidence for the kind of unbelievable ass-hattery involved with Precourt. I don't see them as malicious; more like neophites who are looking to the broader pro sports world for guidance and ignoring the fanbase's history. They'll get to where they should be after trying all other options. The thing to remember is that they've done the opposite of Precourt: spend lots of money to keep the team in D.C. rather than actively destroy it as a pretext to move it somewhere else.

      Sorry to go on a DCU tangent in a Crew thread. I don't know how this fiasco with the Crew ends but I will hope that it involves the other MLS owners buying out Precourt, selling to a local owner, settling with San Antonio, and granting Garber a leave of absence for the duration of his contract. Garber is too toxic now and that won't ever change. While I'm hoping, I'll also hope that the other owners learn to say "no" to bad ideas proposed by incompetent new owners. Precourt and Garber's actions are having real damage to the value of the other owners' investments.
       
    20. Beau Dure

      Beau Dure Member+

      May 31, 2000
      Vienna, VA

      Done Don: Major League Sleaze

      By Bill Archer on Oct 31, 2017 at 8:37 AM
    21. Martininho

      Martininho Member+

      Feb 13, 2007
      Chicago
      Club:
      --other--
      Nat'l Team:
      United States

      Done Don: Major League Sleaze

      By Bill Archer on Oct 31, 2017 at 8:37 AM
      The remaining Fire fanbase in Chicago...all 20 of us...will be watching with great interest to see what impact this has on future expansion fees and team valuations, and the anticipated knife fight between the owners...having had some small experience of our own with vulture capitalists.

      Great to see the support for Columbus all around.
       
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    22. Virginian

      Virginian Member

      Sep 23, 1999
      Denver, Co
      Nat'l Team:
      United States

      Done Don: Major League Sleaze

      By Bill Archer on Oct 31, 2017 at 8:37 AM
      From Anthony Precourt's perspective, I am sure he feels like he gave Columbus a fair shot. New coach, new branding, spent more money on players, better- more attractive soccer, better food options in the stadium and yet, only incremental improvement in attendance. We have no clue on corporate sponsorship, but we can assume they aren't rolling in comparison to newer markets. AP sees the new teams coming into MLS (and even Cincy in USL) with packed stadia, huge retail sales and tremendous buzz and he sees the opportunity that a new market brings.

      One can dispute the above, but even assuming all of is is true, there is no reason to think that Austin is a good market for soccer, which is where I am confused. A failed USL club and a bunch of hipsters? Unless the quality of barbeque and volume of hipsters guarantees the success of a future MLS program, I'm just not seeing it. I am sure his group has done a ton of market research etc, but based upon what I have seen from Austin (in comparison to other markets that had weirdo soccer fans fixie-bike from their nearest Whole Foods/Trader Joe's to organically form supporters clubs even before MLS had been issued them a team)- based on Austin's lack of "buzz" as Mssr. Archer documents above, I'm not certain an MLS club would even work.
       
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    23. eboe

      eboe Member+

      Columbus Crew
      United States
      May 23, 2006
      Columbus, OH
      Club:
      Columbus Crew
      Nat'l Team:
      United States

      Done Don: Major League Sleaze

      By Bill Archer on Oct 31, 2017 at 8:37 AM
      The question I have is this: would the sale paperwork have to be reviewed in detail by all of the other owners at the time of the sale in 2013? AS in, would they have to be aware THEN of the clause about Austin? Because based upon what Paulson said about being taken by surprise, perhaps they didn't get to review the terms of the contract, but just the sale itself. And if the other owners were not aware of the clause, and were indeed just informed a month or so before the announcement, I can truly understand their anger. Part of the timeline that bears discussing is that there also was a document from the beginning of 2014 from Austin speaking of their interest in potentially building a stadium for MLS at THAT time. Someone in the Nordecke found it on accident when looking for the recent one. It spoke of how Garber had mentioned in a recent State of the League Address that Austin was being viewed as a potential expansion opportunity for MLS. That would have been the end of 2013, beginning of 2014, as this document was adopted March 6th, 2014. So that fits into a timeline AFTER the contract wa signed with an out clause to Austin, but BEFORE the rebrand. The resolution is Resolution # 20140306-022

      So, that's something that fits in there somehow. Not to mention the email exchange that is on Massive Report that dropped after your blog post.
       
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    24. eboe

      eboe Member+

      Columbus Crew
      United States
      May 23, 2006
      Columbus, OH
      Club:
      Columbus Crew
      Nat'l Team:
      United States

      Done Don: Major League Sleaze

      By Bill Archer on Oct 31, 2017 at 8:37 AM
      And I'm ALSO hoping you heard about sponsors getting squeezed out by PSV asking for a substantial bump in the amount they were giving. We can confirm, on the record, Heartland Bank. Plus people have spoken with inside sources at Barbasol that they were squeezed for more money, and that they received very little in return for their sponsorship in the way of customer service when they needed something from the team. So PSV was trying to squeeze sponsors for more money, and when they squeezed out the kit sponsor, they then complained it took so long to find another one, even with the help of the Columbus Partnership. It's dreadful business , these guys. You would almost think that Precourt has never run a sports team before.... oh, wait.
       
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