Columbus Crew to Austin Texas?

Yeah I'm fully aware of how hilariously awful Frisco is as a stadium location. I feel sorry for people in Dallas.

 

That is good of you to layout the rules as to how the crew can stay in MLS
First off from what we have heard there have been multiple offers to purchase the team from Precourt. So your top item is already checked. Second, the team does not have to move out of their current stadium to stay. The current stadium is only few miles from downtown and it can be upgraded much like Toronto did. This stadium is not much different than BMO field before the renovations. People stating that adding things like a roof would be more expensive than starting from scratch are mistaken. Starting from scratch would require scouting land, buying land, infrastructure around that land and then building a freaking stadium.

 

does anyone really watch MLS expecting it to be top notch world class soccer? I sure don’t. I appreciate it for what it is. I like competing against mostly equal teams knowing that on any day my team has a chance.
Am I way different than anyone else?

 

Not at all.

 

I cheer for a team that represents a community I was glad to live in for almost two decades. I can conceive of enjoying a Madrid-Barcelona game, but I don't understand why my father is a fan of one of those teams.

At its core, the question of relocating the Crew is "Who is failing this team?" Sometimes, it really is the fans. Sometimes, the business community. Sometimes the local governments even deliberately make things harder. And sometimes it's incompetent management or apathetic ownership. This is a prime example of the last. At his best Precourt was disinterested, at his worst working to decrease ticket sales and sabotage sponsor relationships.

 

Was going to address that...

There are people in Dallas who know about FCD only because I told them I had just driven 500 miles to see them play.

EDIT: Yes, I realize this has nothing to do with the Crew. Sorry.

 

For the last month I've been told "Go Astros" when people see me wearing an orange shirt in Houston. When I reply that it is a Dynamo shirt about half say "Dynamo?" Further explanation usually leads to "Houston has a soccer team?". One of those conversations recently took place as I was walking home from a playoff game where you could literally still see the Dynamo stadium behind me. Some people are just oblivious.

It doesn't help that the local newspaper, the Houston Chronicle, yesterday had a banner across the front page saying, "Dynamo begin playoff run by hosting reigning champion Seattle." Obviously some people at the paper know it was our 4th game of the playoffs but not everyone did.

 

well you could say that they weren't running before.. just a little walkin' !

 

To be fair to Dallas's non marketing, I bought tickets to a game in 2009 and they were still calling me as recently as 2016. I have seen other posters say the same thing.

 

Er, why do they "have" to be addressed?

Columbus has attendance and revenue comparable to several other teams and is in the final 4 of the league in play. We've won 1 MLS cup and played in another. Mapfre stadium isn't fancy but is perfectly serviceable. The playing surface is far better than that used by TFC, Seattle, or Houston, the other conference finalists.

The problem in Columbus isn't the market, fans, or players. The problem is the owner. If Precourt sells to local ownership, the Crew will continue to draw middling crowds and play middling soccer. With no marketing we finished with attendance of 15439 per game or 20th of 22 teams. With decent marketing and a decent team we could probably increase that by 2K per game which would put us 18th of 22 teams. In terms of revenue it would probably be less than 1 mil for the Crew which isn't that significant.

 

Getting by on a shoestring budget isn't going to cut it over the next several years. Discretionary spending is growing in every conceivable way (player payroll, facilities, development academies, USL reserve teams, coaching, scouting, etc.). And that discretionary spending is only going to accelerate as more expansion teams come into the league. The era of trying to break-even just by keeping costs down is over and revenue growth is key. Clubs like Atlanta, Seattle, Toronto, NYC FC, LAG, LAFC, Orlando, Portland and others are already pouring money into their clubs and that is only going to accelerate in the coming years.

Consider a potential expansion team like Nashville for example. They will spend $425 million in start-up costs alone (expansion fee and stadium). You better believe they are going to spend in other areas too in order to ensure they can put a winner on the field and attract fans, sell merchandise, maximize the value of their local media rights, etc. Otherwise, that giant outlay of sunken costs becomes a financial loss. Teams like Columbus are going to have to keep pace with the massive investment taking place all around them, but that investment can only happen if they have enough revenue.

Note that Columbus is NOT alone in terms of unfavorable "business metrics," but they are one of the handful of teams that will need to significantly change their business model or they will be left behind. An owner like Stan Kroenke is too pre-occupied with the Rams, Arsenal, Nuggets, and Avalanche to invest much time or energy in fixing the business model for a team like the Colorado Rapids. Otherwise, they could be in the same boat. But while Anthony Precourt may not exactly be a pillar of integrity, he saw these business realities from the day he bought the Crew, thus the insistence on an escape clause.

 

KSE interns with their Men's Warehouse suits, daydreaming about being the GM someday.

 

Jesus Christ, your throat clearing is so ********ing transparent.

 

I'm curious to see what develops on the Austin side.

I have seen people on here speculate that Precourt has no actual plan in Austin and is just expecting everything to fall together. IMO if that is true--and it may be--Crew fans don't have much to worry about. Austin doesn't have a USL team drawing 20k per game, it doesn't have a stadium suitable for MLS, nor has it passed any Nashville-esque public funding measure. If it's really "The Columbus Crew vs absolutely nothing in Austin", then that's not much of a competition. Austin is obviously not a turnkey operation.

My suspicion is that there is more to the story. I'm imagining that there is a rich guy with Austin ties willing to be a partner in constructing a state of the art soccer stadium in Austin, particularly if a well located piece of land can be obtained from the city.

Then the debate is not Austin vs Columbus (OMG two markets that are identical!!!). It's Austin, with the city's first major pro sports franchise in a brand new stadium getting to sell the "MLS 3.0" experience, versus Columbus stuck in Mapfre having to shake off memories from 20 years ago when MLS was "major" in name only.

In this admittedly entirely hypothetical scenario, the economic argument starts to become crystal clear. But like I said, I'm waiting to see how it plays out. I have no insider information.

 

Hey, those game flyers in the Whataburger in Frisco ain't gonna post themselves, ya know.

 

What the hell did Columbus ever do to you?
What “level” of investment is owed to anyone? If the owner loses $10 million a year, who the hell cares? It’s their business.
I’ve got news for you: the smart owners in mls aren’t spending big money on DPs. Their sitting back and watching your unbridled fandom grow their minimal investment 10 fold.
Bob Kraft and HSG have 10x the value in their franchise than anyone in Cascadia.

 

I believe you are correct

1) Fratboy Slim and his lackeys in Austin keep repeating "privately funded" like macaws begging crackers. But they never ever say "Precourt funded". Mostly because he doesn't really have that kind of money. There's someone else.

2) A strange story from a very reliable source:

Last summer Berhalter was negotiating with SKC over the top allocation slot which CBus owned. Gregggg was holding out for an arm and a leg

At one point (conference call) one of the SKC principals blurted out in frustration "you guys ought to just give us that slot on return for the help we gave you with the Austin deal"

The blurter has since been banished from talking to people.

What deal is that, SKC? Help us out.

 

AVP isnt a billionaire by being an idiot when it comes to running a business... and soccer is a business to some people who always come to the bottom line in dollars and sense- austin city officials, MLS brass and AVP have had lots of meetings over the past 2-3 years- its why it was put into his purchase to buy the Crew- its a way more developed of a plan in austin than we can imagine, especially if the rumored move is 2019- it wouldnt surprise me if AVP has made a deal to sell the austin franchise to rich local ownership when its all said and done (saw that happen in the vancouver grizzlies NBA move to memphis by the asshole owner, michael heisley, who cashed out quickly after the team moved)

i would be worried if i were a dallas/colorado supporter- these markets seem to have the same type of issues as columbus- if this relocation succeeds, it wont be the last

 

Business owners are sometimes idiots when it comes to sports though, they often don't understand the emotional connections and the dynamic that you need competition (opponents).