I updated with a quote. They're looking for investors to dilute his ownership stake to leave to his kids one day, and they ditched the PSV name for Two Oak Ventures LLC
Slowly slithering away from the Precourt name. Hopefully he goes away, never to be seen or heard from again. I wish I could see more of that article. The few quotes I was able to see before the preview went away... "We're a new club in a new city with a new agenda," Greeley said. "So it seemed to make a lot of sense to have a new parent company that would also represent the new ownership structure we're going to have." Terrible name-association for a few people, I suppose. "We want to find the right investors that have similar ideals and that can help us grow this club and the parent company," he added. "We want to create resources to win." The team that scores the most touchdowns.. Greeley said The Butler Bros designed the Two Oak Ventures brand, as they did for Austin FC and the 4ATXFoundation. He said the company name is "somewhat of a double entendre," reflecting the intertwining oak trees in the Austin FC logo as well as the company's dual-focus on sports and entertainment. He said double entendre. Gross. I need a shower.
Sorry I did a screen grab before the digiwall blocked it. Here's a nugget from Dave Greeley, still employed, proving why he get paid the big bucks. "We think good soccer leads to good business," he added. "In turn, we think good business leads to good soccer." I mean, that should be in biznis textbooks.
Awfully easy to change the company name when all it takes is updating the text on business cards for two people.
Is there a non paywall version somewhere? I refuse to willfully support Austin businesses outside of Tito's and Chuy's.
Business First is pretty effective in protecting subscription only content. But here's Kneepads' take: That Greeley quote at the end is classic. And I just can't wait for whatever the organization is called now to announce where their make-believe team will train.
PSV is out of money after they gave it all to that PR firm, Dave Greeley, Tyson Wahl, 2 of my former ticket reps, and ruffneck scarves. Jay, Jr's kids now have to share their inheritance with some VCs, who may or may not be from Austin. They are changing their name to distance themselves from AP.
It's always possible this is mere rebranding for PR purposes, and means almost nothing. I hope not, I wish Tony ill, together with his closest henchpersons, but I think there is some jumping to conclusions before all the facts are in going on here.
These two idiots are just INCAPABLE of buttoning their shirts normally aren’t they?!?! JFC Great meetings today at MLS HQ in NYC! # AustinFC pic.twitter.com/znHdvVGX6p— Anthony Precourt (@APrecourt) July 16, 2019
Certainly, but the story does emphasize the effort to bring on new investors. Truthfully, I don't know how common that is in MLS, but I've always believed that successful clubs have committed, deep-pocketed primary investors. We've always doubted Precourt's ability to actually pay for his promises in Austin, and this reinforces that conclusion. The Business First piece says this is a $475M project. Greeley talks about "local" investors. Uh-huh. Right now, there are zero other investors and one corporate partner, St. David's which will be the team's healthcare provider and bought naming rights to the training facility (which will cost $35M to build and for which no site has been identified yet). Precourt, to date, hasn't done much in the physical, tangible world in Austin. He's secured office space and hired a modest staff, some of which seem pretty unqualified for their positions. He's supposedly developed business relationships with other companies, some of which seem to exist mostly on paper. Ground breaking on the stadium is supposed to be later this year (i.e., hasn't happened yet). No physical progress has been made on a training center. And he - from somewhere - needs to come up with $475M to pull this off. The question is, then, how much in local investment is he seeking to raise? I may be wrong, but it sure as hell feels as though and answer is "a lot." Like many tens of millions of dollars. If that happens, maybe it'll all work out. But at some point, this feels as though it'll either become ownership by committee, or really just a short-term ownership scheme all designed to flip the franchise at a substantial profit based on the assumption that MLS franchises will always increase in value.
It's a good thing they'll be so far ahead of the curve, what with their ownership group, stadium, and market which so few other sports teams have. So many only have 2 of those three. An owner and a stadium, but no marketplace, or they have an owner and a marketplace but don't have a stadium to play in. You know how it is.
It's almost as if all of us saying Tony didn't have the money to run a successful top division sports franchise were right
Fratass looks like utter crap. I am glad he looks like this saga aged him by ten years, while the rest of us are tan and basking in the sunshine.
Also: - Precourt just cannot bring himself to wear a sports coat. He wore a freakin puffy jacket to his own team announcement and now he shows up at MLS HQ on 5th Ave. in New York in shirtsleeves. What a classy, classy guy. The other three guys wore suits. They may have had ties but took them off. Fratboy seems to be wearing Hushpuppies or something on his feet, like he was on his way to a swapmeet. (No comment on LaughLame's sunglasses. That's a look when you're meeting someone at the marina for lunch, not going into a serious business meeting. No. Just no.) When Arthur Blank or Jimmy Haslam show up for meetings looking like this, please let me know. - Looks like TwoChins needs to lay off the queso a little or we'll have to start calling him ThreeChins. Seehow his shirt buttons are straining to hold back the lard. Getting quite a gut there.