#SavedTheCrew

This.

 

Issues with the Crew have always been ownership issues. After Lamar passed.

Austin shouldn’t have ownership issues with Epstein. Any problems there are market problems.

 

Congrats guys from a DC United fan who never wanted to see you booted out of a league that you helped found! Still seems like there's a bit of work to be done from MLS' perspective and in general, but local and better capitalized ownership is a great start. So happy for all the Crew fans that have been waiting for any shred of good news all these months! #NowLet'sGetThisThingFinalized

 

Austin Bold FC isn't happening in a vacuum. For political reasons I will not be supporting them. ******** Epstein and ******** COTA.

Are we also being judged for drawing 13,000 for a Liga MX match this past weekend?

http://hillcountrynews.com/stories/chivas-beats-tigres-in-penalties-in-front-of-record-crowd,78555

 

I agree. In order for this move to have been pulled off, the Crew would have had to load up the moving vans after the last game and have everything waiting in Austin. Practice space and a temporary stadium deal would have had to be in place. This whole thing would have had to be pulled off with incredible precision since there would still be people under contract and in off-season practice/scouting mode. Only a fool would have counted on this happening so quickly and in this case that fool was named Precourt. Last thing he organized was probably a fraternity kegger and I doubt that came off without a hitch.

 

I didn't say that at all. Your reply is way off.
Wow.
Just said I wondered if AP be paid for the Crew.
Never did I even remotely suggest crew team should move to Austin.

 

Not true. They also have the team being in a lower division and the giant issue that the team won’t exist in a few seasons. There’s also the issue where Epstein and Co were actively undermining PSV with the city, so he’s already alienated the people that want an MLS team..

 

Does Epstein know they won’t exist in a few seasons?

Look, there have been a ton of bad opinions in here, mostly in support of Austin, but this takes the cake.

IMO, the Crew was saved when Epstein launched Bold. He obviously knew AP had zero chance of ever launching anything in Austin.

 

There is a reason why Epstein has been undermining PSV’s bid for McKalla.. If a MLS team comes in, his team is dead.

You’re right.. You’re take is absolutely horrible. You are committing the exact same offense that you railed against Austin fans doing with regards to Columbus as a market. You absolutely cannot make predictions for how a market will perform in MLS based upon how they draw in the lower divisions. Just look at Atlanta and Seattle, very few could have predicted their attendances based upon their DivII attendance..

Whatever fantasy you want to spin up to get you through the day....

As for what changed.. You can likely thank the Haslam family for that.. They simply made an offer that MLS couldn’t refuse. The backed the money-filled dump truck up to MLS HQ’s front door, dumped $150m on their doorstep, guaranteed a new stadium, and allowed MLS a face saving proposition that would allow PSV to go on hiatus until their stadium situation got figured out, while allowing the Crew to remain in Columbus.

 

Epstein would never have relaunched Bold if he thought AP was going to be able to launch an MLS team. You do understand that, right?

Austin has had two previously failed teams, one that had to move to jump to MLS. Columbus sold the most initial season tickets and has hosted tons of sold out USNT games. Your comparison of the markets is clouded by your dislike of me.

There were groups trying to buy from the day AP made the announcement, so I don't know why you think this is a big deal. There were always ownership issues in Columbus due to the history of the Hunt family, the Blue Jackets and the original local investors. Yes, in the end, MLS went with an NFL owner. Surprise, surprise. The other groups were viable as well but Garber is an NFL guy so he went with what he knows.

I am 100% confident MLS in Austin will NEVER happen unless it's Epstein getting Bold promoted. AP will quietly have his operator rights bought out and fade into a bowl of queso and Zima.

Have a nice day Mr. Moderator.

 

There's a lot of utterly unfair hate getting tossed in Epsteins' direction here and it's just plain ridiculous because it ignores reality.

Epstein was first. It was Precourt who tried to low bridge him, not the other way around.

As we all know now, Precourt jumped the gun a year ago. He had no plans, no ground game, nothing in Austin other than a ludicrously staged survey which claimed, among other things, that something like 60% of the Austin market were big MLS fans, watched MLS games on TV all the time and a bunch of other risible nonsense.

The plan,apparently, was for him to get some shit in order and announce in earl Spring of 2018. But, as Merritt Paulson famously Tweeted and then deleted, Precourt "jumped the gun".

The reason he did was that Epstein had paid for a USL team and was getting ready to announce in Austin and Precourt wanted to beat him to the punch and stop him if he could.

So Epstein, a lifelong Austin resident, successful local businessman and sports entrepreneur, backed down to give Precourt, a West Coast trust fund clown with zero business accomplishments and no ties to Austin whatsoever, the floor.

Now obviously Epstein didn't do this out of the kindness of his heart, he did it because launching a USL team in exactly the same time and place as an MLS team is a good way to lose bigly. Nonetheless, he put his plans on hold and USL agreed to give him a year, after which he either had to field a team or move to another city.

So Precourt flopped and floundered around in the way he does for months on end, in the clown college fashion of the incompetent that he is until finally USL told Epstein that they needed a decision: Austin or not.

Epstein, like a lot of us, did not (and does not) think Precourt will ever be able to put a team on the field down there. He simply has not the competence. In any case, even MLS thinks there's not much chance of him doing it until 2021 since he has no place in which to play and isn't likely to come up with one.

So Epstein made a business decision: he's taking his chances on Austin, his home town, and is in it for five million bucks or his own, not his Daddys', money.

He's going to launch his team and good for him.

The alternative for him is to either lose his franchise fee or set up someplace else. Nothing else is possible.

And yet that's exactly what some Austinites want him to do and are bitter about.He should eat his five million dollar franchise fee in order to clear a path for some lazy San Francisco jerkoff to maybe, someday, possibly, field an MLS team. Or not.

This anger at the man is totally misplaced. It's Precourt who has screwed this up. Epstein gave the guy a year to get his shit together, he has been unable to do so and now he's decided to go forward with his own plans.

As for the rest of this nonsense, it's all nothing but a wild conspiracy theory: Epstein is bankrolling dark forces to undermine Precourt, blah blah blah. The fact that there's little or no evidence to back it up is beside the point. It simply MUST be the evil jooo Epstein who is behind any screw up by PSV or piece of civic resistance to bending over and dropping trou for the San Francisco Fratboy.

Let me just repeat: Epsteins plans were already in place. Precourt made his move in order to stop Epstein from entering a USL team. And now you're blaming Epstein for trying to undermine Mr Daddy'sMoney.

It's ridiculous and - here's the thing - even if it wasn't, it would then be a case of what we call "competition". If Precourt and his slobbering lackeys down there are afraid of competing and want Austin to simply get in line, it's not Epstein that is the problem.

If Precourt was an actual businessman instead of an entitled brat who wants everything handed to him, we wouldn't be having this discussion. A guy like Blank (or Haslem) would rub his hands together and say "You wanna play? Great, bring it"

Precourt just sits down and whines.

Austin so deserves that little bitch.

 

I totally agree, but my response was more contra the idea that somehow MLS are just going to cut a major investor lose, blindsided.

In other words, PSV has to go somewhere and own something. Now they certainly could eventually try to fold him into a onwership group somewhere, but that doesn't seem to be the end game here. Austin is.

If they wanted to really cut him lose and abandon the the Austin push, they would have forced a sale so PSV gets out with financial renumeration and everyone is happy. That was my point.

Instead they get the best of both worlds. 150 million plus PSV expanding into Austin, which was what MLS wanted all along.

So now they sit back and see if PSV can get the job done in Austin, and if not, as you mention, he just sells the rights back to MLS or to another investor, but I doubt MLS will pass up the opportunity to get an expansion fee, so its more likely that they just buy out PSV at some point. But, right now that is not in the cards.

Yes, MLS just continues to run an economic shell game, but PSV is still very much a part of that. If they weren't the expansion flip switch, slight of hand wouldn't have been put on the table with out a fight from PSV.

 

You're forgetting San Antonio.That's the real goal.
Precourt will get nothing done in Austin.

 

Well until Garber comes out and says he is breaking up with Precourt, we are both speculating.

I agree some owners might now have liked the PSV model, but these are businessmen and they know how bend towards the prevailing winds. In the end, really MLS comes out with a win, win situation here. Keeping the team in Columbus with a better and local ownership group, probably getting a new stadium (of course it will be interesting to see how that all gets hashed out and if the new ownership group might be contigent on the stadium), and still being almost certain of a team in Austin.

MLS obviously wanted Austin as a serious option way back when PSV bought the team, and if anyone is to blame for egging PSV on, it would be MLS. So, while he might have botched some of it, and that is debateable of how much and how much was out of the hands of MLS, if this whole thing goes through, then well PSV comes out smelling like a rose and MLS as well.

I think you misjudge the patience that MLS has, and their long term commitment to the model they are working with... what are we on, like year 300 of the Beckham Miami experience... yet I have no doubt that they will get this done and if it is a massive failure they will find a way out of it.

We have seen missteps before, and horrible fan betrayals that played poorly in the world of public internet board opinions, yet MLS always finds a way to flip the script to a new begining . Garber is nothing but patient and dogged, so as he rallies the owners I doubt the pitchforks are out for a guy who possibly could get a deal done in Austin, because the narrative is always that MLS is committed to crossing its t's and dotting its i's on the long term growth and success of soccer in America.

And this is why, that while Columbus is safe and Austin is probably a go, it is only so much as long as in the next 20 years they grow the brand and are able to secure a new stadium that work within 25 years.

We will see what happens, I think you have some valid points, but its mainly from the view from the Nordecke, which while important and key to understanding the Columbus situation, is not the only perspective and is still limited in its scope.

Not trying to pick a fight here, just pointing out, there are going to be other interpretations of what will happen.

And I don't usually like to do this, but I did predict way back that this solution we see playing out was probably what was going to happen as long as MLS could find a legitimate buyer for the Crew. I thought the timeline would be flipped though... Crew getting back in in 2021, and Austin starting in 2019. But, MLS was always going to hold its timeline's losely depending on how quickly a buyer could show up in ratio to how quickly a stadium deal could get done in Austin.

 

Yes, and its becomes worthe even less if a downtown stadium deal gets done.

 

There are nights when I think Sal Paradise was right, boys and girls in America have such a sad time together

 

I had a similar conversation with someone last night and I'll ask you what I asked him:

If they handed the keys to MAPFRE Stadium to Jimmy Haslem at 9 AM this morning and he and his wife walked in to find that every last front office employee had moved to Austin just how long do you think it would take him to have a fully functional professional sports marketing and sales team up and running in that very office space? My guess is four hours, since his people would have to stop home to pack a few things and gas up the car.

It's not a problem.

 

Sure agreed. I really wouldn't be concerned with them finding front office employees.

What about a full competitive roster and an academy (I am just assuming Crew have one, I know no details of it) and minor league players?

I'm pretty sure Atlanta and LAFC spent a fair amount of money scouting and recruiting and building their rosters. That does not happen overnight.

Edit: Don't anybody say I am suggesting the team/roster should move to Austin. I am not. That would make no sense. The team belongs to Columbus. I am simply pointing out there is a money value and time value to having an existing team opposed to building one from scratch. To deny this is lunacy. Now how much is that value? I don't know. This is also probably all being worked out in the details. Am I concerned with AP being taken advantage of...HELL NO. I hope we never hear from him again. Just curious how it is all working behind the scenes.

 

I wonder about this. Garber hasn't worked for the NFL since, I think, 2002.

I don't think of him as an NFL guy with NFL connections like I did in, say, 2006. Nowadays, I'll bet he doesn't really know NFL owners who aren't in MLS. I'll bet he relied on those MLS/NFL owners to get a read on Haslam.

Just adding a touch of nuance to your post, not saying you're wrong.

 

Garber was with the NFL for 16 years. He's been commish of MLS for 19+. Ridiculous that people are still calling him a "NFL guy" at this point.

 

He became MLS commissioner in 1999, so I hope he hasn't worked for the NFL since 1999.

 

For everything I've been trying to read and understand about this (awesome) development in #SaveTheCrew, this part of your post was about the most helpful summary, if accurate. Though you make it sound kinda like the Haslam's courted MLS rather than the other way around. True?