Columbus Crew to Austin Texas?

AVP - who the hell is that? ain’t a billionaire and he’s NEVER run a business. His dad has money and he wanted to buy something to make a quick buck.
Bill is right, PSV does not have $200m to pay for a new stadium. They are either waaaay over playing their hand or they have another investor. Either way Jay Anthony Precourt could make more money by selling to Columbus investors.
The 2019 timeline is either due to contractual obligations in Columbus, or the mystery investor not being on board yet.
Either way, next year will be very ugly for the league and uncomfortable for anyone that reads Twitter now and then.

 

The Crew's revenue situation isn't substantially different from about half the league's. The adidas and national media rights deals produce more money for every team than ticket sales.

And Precourt isn't that deep pocketed. His net worth was about $300 mil when he bought the team. There are several local folks worth a lot more than that, it's a matter of their peers convincing them to invest in a sports team. Les Wexner's art collection is worth a lot more than the Crew.

 

How hard is it to say that it would be extremely unfortunate to lose an original (technically THE original) team?

Too hard, apparently.

 

I'm jumpng in midstream, but a a couple of questions and observations -

- curent ownership situation aside, does Columbus have the fan base to support a team? Back in the late 2000's Columbus won an MLS Cup and for 2-3 years had one of the most exciting teams in MLS, yet in my recollection attendance remained pretty ordinary.

- To what extent do the orginial (and near orginial) MLS clubs face similar marketing challenges? Here in DC attendance was good the first few years (it didn't hurt that we were winning) but as the years went by the club was no longer an "in thing" in town (and wasn't winning as much), and attendance declined. How do you keep a 20 year old brand new and exciting?

- I'm pleased but puzzled at the amazing success of some of the newer clubs. Before MLS startes relocating clubs I think it's prudent explore whether Atlanta is really a much better soccer town than DC, or whether Cincinnati really likes pro soccer more than Columbus. Or are there other factors that could be addressed to increase the attractiveness of current clubs?

 

That's also the order of team value fwiw. And incoming revenue, using his same model for every club.

 

First interview question is about the Burgandy Wave.

If applicant responds with the question "Ron Burgandy?" they are considered for the position.

 

Dallas and Denver are both larger, growing, more attractive, and so much more. Hunt isn't selling and if Stan ever does Denver has the money.

 

I don't think they heard you.

 

Oh, I don't think there is any question that "other factors" are everything.

I think the biggest thing with MLS is that experience needs to feel like a top notch professional sports environment. The original teams have momentum from when the league was a bastard stepchild that is hard to shake off. Some of it is systemic, like cheap stadiums built in poor locations. Other parts are more cultural: For instance it's easy for Orlando to pack a stadium on opening day, and from that point everyone keeps coming back because of the great experience. It's hard for a team like DC to create that playing their 20th season in RFK.

 

- Did you not see the game? They have a customer base that ownership isn't pursuing.

-20 year old brand doesn't need to be new but entrenched in the community. The new stadium will help. If they field a team worth watching will help too. Not every effort to be old yet new comes off as an SKC homerun.

- Are there ideas? Sure. BigSoccer full of them.

 

After DC which teams are left with true dull stadium experiences? I bet the Revs win this tangent join a landslide. And some teams like Minnesota are building. LAFC will come in looking fine from what I can see. Audi Stadium has that 'nice' but not too much feel.

 

I think NER is the last "playing in an empty NFL stadium", but there are several others with an inconvenient location that adds hours to the gameday commitment and subtracts from pre and post game festivities.

 

Sure LA is in Carson, FCD is in Frisco and Philly is in Chester. But they could all work fine.

Chicago may have a Bridgeview problem with the new USL stadium coming.

 

Chicago already had a Bridgeview problem.

 

That's not exactly the argument.

The size only factors into the argument in the way that it's not like PSV is proposing a move to a much larger metro/media market. (For example the varied NFL teams that used LA's lack of an NFL team for about 2 decades as leverage when negotiating with smaller markets. Cinci/St Louis/ San Diego/etc -> LA makes a lot of sense just based upon size; C-bus -> Austin, not so much.)

It's the fact that it's not larger than Columbus, and that it's much the same "type" of city (a city with an identity that's enmeshed with a big state school with big sports programs), and it doesn't have a long tradition of supporting soccer (in fact, quite the opposite), and in fact has 2 franchises already in the same state.

I don't want the Crew going anywhere, but there are probably a half dozen cities that would make a lot more sense (most of whom have already submitted expansion bids), in a lot of ways beyond just size.

And ultimately, it's hard to see anything about this move that screams this is going to be a rousing success. When Columbus was awarded a franchise, there was a buzz from the start; STH lined up in advance. With Austin, it all looks like a bunch of astroturf from guys hired by Greeley.

In a way, it's like watching your high school girlfriend dump you to marry some middle-aged loser dumping his first wife for her. It hurts not just because you're losing your girlfriend, but you feel a little bit bad for her knowing that in 5-12 years, the loser is going to dump her for the next trophy wife...

 

Honestly, the biggest surprise out of all this is that they chose Austin and not literally any other major city. It screams disaster waiting to happen.

 

What defines a "top notch professional sports environment"?

 

Apparently sharing a stadium with a baseball team and being forced to relocate a home game to a neighboring state.

 

There is one big reason it is attractive. It is the largest city in the country without a pro sports team (defining that as the largest sports leagues in the nation, it may have some smaller pro teams). Austin is currently what Columbus was back in the 90's. It is a fast growing city both in terms of population and business that has no professional sports team for those two segments to spend money on.

Now it could be that it ends up that they don't support a pro team, but the idea is that the lack of competition could make the city a success. It should also be easier to pull in corporate money as their is much less competition for that. The biggest disappointment is that Columbus is like RSL or Portland in terms of pro team competition in that market. Each of those, like Columbus, only share the scene with one other pro team. Done correctly I would expect it to be a good market (not saying it is bad now, but it certainly doesn't seem to have the same feel as RSL for instance).

 

Have you heard of the University of Texas? Annual operating budget of over $100 million for their athletics? To discuss this as if UT would not compete for entertainment spending with a "pro team" is quite naive. Corporate sponsors give plenty of money to UT athletics.

 

It doesn't exactly breed confidence...does it.

 

Truth be told, it's also been an issue in Columbus. Not so much now--but one huge issue was when tOSU built a new arena at about the same time the Jackets built theirs. The truth is that Columbus really isn't big enough to support two arenas--as it's the "other" items that make an arena work. They were competing for concerts and the like (I know for a fact that the Shott was designed with Ringling in mind with special features for the circus--and then they went to Nationwide for some shows). They had to pay more/take less for these events due to that competition, and tOSU was not super friendly to the pro teams. Eventually, they worked out a joint marketing agreement, that at least too the competition out of it.

One other factor--while Columbus has far more Fortune 500 businesses than Austin, the folks who run those are either (a) working with the Jackets (Nationwide) or (b) not that interested in sports (Wexner and some others).

It also hasn't helped that the AAA baseball team is very popular. Folks here expect similar ticket prices (but will pay hundreds for tOSU football--it's a disconnect). That's getting better--but it's taken a while. One reason is that Columbus is cheap (in multiple senses of the word). It's an inexpensive place to live (housing can be half what it is on the coasts), so people don't expect to pay as much for other stuff.

 

I always forget Austin is the biggest metro without a pro team. Still screams disaster.

 

Bill Archer put it like this in his latest article:

Garber and Precourt didn't want this meeting to begin with. They thought they had this whole relocation thing pretty well figured out and when all hell broke loose they didn't know what to do, although one of the options they're NOT considering at the moment is "Not move the Crew to Austin Texas where they average 16 days a year over 100 degrees F.

It's like Qatar without the slaves.

https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/don-garber-and-the-beclowning-of-mls.2078908/

 

Yeah that about sums it up.