Chris Bils tweeted this article in the Columbus Dispatch. Pretty hilarious that Crew fans will likely have less parking and walk further then Austin FC fans. The hue and cry from them about no parking at McKalla was fevered and how terrible it would be. Plus they will have to share the limited parking when the NHL team plays and other events to make it even worse. https://www.dispatch.com/news/20190...-crew-stadium-wont-come-with-much-new-parking
Ah, Jesus. No. The new stadium is being built in an already existing downtown arena/entertainment district. This article is non-news. In fact, when the city and county were voting their support for the project, one of the strengths stated by city planners was the existence of $15 million in already existing parking facilities in the area. The idea that - gasp - the stadium would not be surrounded by dedicated parking lots was a feature not a flaw of the project, you know, just like downtown stadiums everywhere. Of course there won't be a lot of new parking added. That was never the plan, shouldn't have been (it's a stupid idea) and anyone paying the merest attention at the Dispatch would have known this. Incidentally, the Dispatch and Statesman are owned by the same company; hence their identical websites. I don't know what Austinites think of the Statesman, but the Dispatch isn't one of America's great daily newspapers. But I digress. What Columbus will be losing is a tailgate culture associated with the Crew. That matters to some people, but what are you gonna do? True downtown stadiums aren't conducive to tailgating. They are, however, conductive to multimodal options for getting to/from the stadium, and lots of pre- and post-game entertainment options in the immediate area. Unlike at the Mapfre stadium site, I'll add. Personally, the way things stand today, I could either drive down to the Arena District and park in a garage, or take the number 2 bus down High St (the main N-S thoroughfare in the city). Easy peasy. Of course, the stadium won't be ready until sometime in 2021, so I'm really curious to see what plans develop to make ingress/egress as simple and flexible as possible. One low-cost, high payback option would be the construction of a pedestrian/bike bridge connecting the Scioto Peninsula with the Arena District. Such a bridge was part of the 2010 downtown strategic plan, but was one of the projects included in the plan that hasn't yet been built. The bridge would connect existing bike/pedestrian paths on two banks of the Scioto River and, hence, have constant use irrespective of whether or not there's a Crew game going on. But for fans like me, it would create a direct link from a burgeoning area with brewpubs (including one of the biggest Crew supporters bars; a mile as the crow flies from the new stadium site, via such a pedestrian bridge). The area (East Franklinton) will have several thousand new apartments and condos over the next 5-10 years, and already has a substantial amount of existing surface parking associated with the new national veterans museum and COSI museum (both of which close at 5pm on Saturdays). The bridge seems like a no-brained to me, especially since it's already part of a strategic plan. Then there are businesses (like Endeavor Brewing, Hofbrauhaus, etc) just to the west of the stadium site that could run shuttles to/from a new pedestrian bridge that's already part of the project and will be directly across the river from the stadium. It wouldn't make sense for fans to walk from those places to the new bridge, but it takes just a few minutes to get there on a shuttle. You see here's the thing: it's a downtown stadium in a fast growing city. You don't build new, pricey, dedicated parking for every damned downtown entertainment facility, like the author of that stupid article thick-heatedly implies. Good lord, the same general area has a large indoor/outdoor music venue, North Market, Nationwide Arena, Huntington Park and the convention center (which is hosting 22,000 athletes this weekend for a huge festival). They all don't have their own parking. There will be some new parking created adjacent to the stadium. But using existing parking in the area, supplemented by connections that open up access to nearby parking (and entertainment) in East Franklinton and directly across the river, west of the stadium site, would add thousands more already existing parking spaces to the nearby pool and be perfectly adequate. And again, the stadium is already near to the city's best serviced bus line. Oh, and, each July 4, this same area sees 500,000 head downtown to watch the Red, White & Boom fireworks display (not me; you could pay me to fight those kinds of crowds). Guess what. They all find places to park. Go figure. I currently walk about 15 minutes to Mapfre stadium from where I always park. It sucks. There's nothing in the area (besides a Lowe's) and most of the walk requires you to weave in and out of match day traffic. A 15-20 minute walk in an arena district filled with brewpubs, restaurants, lots of greenspace, bikepaths (even sidewalks!) sounds amazing by comparison.
Good post. Of course the parking will be pretty much a non issue (like McKalla) and it is in a downtown core which is frankly better. Just that the hue and cry surrounding the AFC site due to not close in parking from Crewsters was off the hook and to end up in the same boat was kinda kismet.
Hardly in the same boat, I'd say, but that doesnt matter anymore. As eloquently stated above, this stadium is a couple hundred feet from 2 stadia which serve 30,000 patrons (Baseball + hockey fans) and their cars in an entertainment district Yeah, another garage isnt appropriately going to be built. But that's not the same as a stadium built in an Industrial park and relying on existing spots at a nearby mall. (One thing I don't understand, yeah the Domain exists, and nevermind that you have to walk across a 6 lane road to get to McKalla, but do they expect people who want to go to Maggianos on a Saturday to just relent their parking to the soccer fans?) Our situations are no longer tethered, fortunately, and are in very much different boats. Any reason for this thread to exist anymore?
The Nationwide Arena website notes: I also tallied up the existing surface parking lots just across the the river in East Franklinton: about 1,500. Which would normally be all but empty on a Saturday night. All those spaces become convenient parking spots if the city moves ahead with that damned pedestrian bridge to the Arena District that I'm so obsessed about. One last parting shot about the location of our new home: https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2015/11/16/In-Depth/Arena-District.aspx From 2015 McKalla Place, it ain't. So forgive us if we're dismissive of a half-assed article in the local rag that wonders if those yokels in the Arena District have given any thought to parking. Yeah, I think they probably have. To be honest, I pay very little (if any) attention to this issue in most other MLS cities. You hear about situations that don't work well, like Bridgeview and West Chester, but it's not really my problem, personally (and there's a lot more wrong in those situations than transportation logistics). Obviously, we "care" about Austin for unusual circumstances. @110toyourleft notes the ways that Columbus and Austin differ as regards match day parking. But that's not even the issue for us. I have no doubt whatsoever that McKalla Place could work for a stadium. What I doubt is PSV's capacity to make it work, based on their performance here in Columbus. Because it won't be easy, and there are plenty of examples of arena developments that get the details wrong. Last I heard, "the plan" in Austin was to somehow gain use of spaces at The Domain and other nearby underutilized surface lots, right? Has there been any more progress made on developing the "Transportation and Parking Plan" that was referenced in last summer's ACC meetings? I see pieces like this: https://www.kvue.com/article/news/l...um-in-austin-where-would-i-park/269-565285573 Which aren't terribly in-depth. But nothing at all in the past 7-8 months. I am somewhat curious how PSV and the city will respond to this challenge. Not as curious as I am about that pedestrian bridge over the Scioto Rover, but curious, nonetheless.
I'm sincerely interested in hearing Austin fans' thoughts about this: How Mayor Steve Adler helped Austin crash MLS’s expansion party I found it pretty informative. It could also give Austin fans some insight into Crew fans' deep-seated, and what will be eternal hatred for Garber and your new owner.
Agreed that it's an informative article. It follows the timeline I already knew, but with new information. It's not surprising it went all the way back to 2016, but I didn't have the facts to back it up. Is there anything specific you'd like to know from an Austin fan perspective?
Not really, I suppose. I mean this sincerely when I say that it concerns me that Precourt comes across (to my reading anyway) as being so aloof and entitled in the article. Like here: And then Precuort says this to prove his, I don't know, his commitment to and knowledge of the Austin community? Wow, all the way back to October 2017. Pretty impressive. To his credit, Adler sounds like he stood his ground, and that Precourt blinked. Anyway, admittedly I'm biased, but he still sounds like the Jay Anthony Precourt we all know and despise here in Ohio. I sincerely don't think he can run a successful franchise if that remains the case. Maybe being forced to bend to the will of the ACC on the stadium deal will make him change his tune. Too early to tell, I suppose.
After my last post, I decided to re-read the article and pick out the things that stuck out to me, but I'll respond to your points first. I think he was ignorant of how insane our local politics is more than anything. I felt the same emotions as him at the time. I had some really tough conversations with some friends at the time who didn't want Butler Shores, Roy G. Guerrero, and not even McKalla. This is a very liberal/libertarian community that fights, and is already fatigued from the flood of immigrants and the strain it causes on our infrastructure (parks included). I bet he thought it was over. My assumption is that that statement was in direct response to Adler's comment: And if so, I don't think Precourt interpreted the question correctly, or at the very least, didn't respond appropriately. Adler's point was that if you truly want to be a part of this community, you need to embrace it fully, even the parts that are going to prevent you from building at your #1 location. I think that was a big lesson for him. Adler's one of the best. Your point about him bending and changing his tune fits in well with my point about him learning a lesson during the process. I'm not sure how your point about him not being able to run a successful franchise is related to the stadium missteps or an awkward statement in response to this article. I'm a Cowboys fan. They are consistently (and currently) the most valuable sports franchise in the world (valued at $4.8 billion as of last summer), ahead of Man U, Real Madrid, Barca, and the Yankees. Here's their owner: (if you watch the embedded clip, which ignores the timestamp in the URL, the action starts at 0:10) But if you are 100% true about his incompetence, then he was just a useful idiot. Austin FC is a thing now. There will be a stadium and players and coaches and the Crew will play us one day. The city will take care of its team, regardless of how he plays out. Honestly, I'm cautious optimistic with Loughnane in charge, and am willing to give Precourt the benefit of the doubt. Now, on to the points that I took from the article: Adler is an amazing mayor and advocate for our city I liked him before this all happened. I'm now completely behind Mayor Adler. He's a fantastic mayor and is a pro at taking command of the dais. MLS really wanted to be in Austin This isn't new information to me, but it's clear, given how much effort went into this from all sides, that MLS coveted Austin. I wouldn't even be surprised if the move was a directive from the top. “I don’t know what they were expecting. Everyone wants to be in Austin. Cool, you want to be here? Great. Get in line. If you just want to piss people off, keep doing what you’re doing.” I think this relates to some of Precourt's ignorance. I think he thought that the city would fawn at the idea of savior Precourt bringing soccer from above. Not that there wasn't significant desire to have a team here by many, but there's a reality here that the city is growing like mad and that we can be choosy about who we let in (see: our fairly cold Amazon HQ2 bid relative to some of the shit other cities were doing). I give Precourt credit for embracing McKalla. The stadium needed to be in the north of the city, even if it's not as sexy as a downtown location. I think still McKalla has a chance to be something great, despite the talking points I may receive in response to this statement. ″(Precourt) could have gone to any of the expansion cities and struck a better deal,” Adler said, reflecting upon his feelings at the time. “But Austin would be true to who it was.” Not sure what's going on in the final part of that Adler quote. Either way, I think the first part is true. Precourt could have easily, IMO, joined the Sac group, as he would be the final piece to get them across the line. But he didn't. And MLS didn't try to convince him to, even though it would have been the easier route to moving the team, in theory. The league reached a deal to keep the Crew in Columbus, while also allowing Precourt to start anew in Austin. Rather than rush a relocation, the franchise is expected to open play in 2021 at the new stadium. Conversations that day with Austin FC leadership indicate that the mayor received the news before they did. MLS wanted to be in Austin, regardless of the owner. Garber told Adler before Precourt. ″(Adler) truly is a guy that I would get in front of a storming train for,” Garber told the crowd. “A special, special guy. We would not be here if not for you, Steve.” And it's due to having people like Steve in this city that I'm not worried about the future of our team, regardless of how Precourt turns out to be as an owner. As someone who's involved in the background on the SG side, it's amazing how much work we're already doing to ensure the success of our club. You'll see.
For as much as we shit on Precourt for his incompetence, Loughne is equally bad at his job. I'm fairly certain part of push for move was because Andy couldn't hit his metrics on business side and blamed everyone but himself and he convinced his boss it wasn't him it was us. Early indications have already proven that to be false and was one of main talking points of STC. On top of those two dopes, the third amigo - Dave Greeley is a bonafide proven failure at every step of his career. You don;t want him anywhere near your franchise. Just ask the Bears and the Fire. His ineptness is well documented. Best case scenario for Austin is probably if Tony two chins brings in other investors who take reigns and he slides into obscurity or flat out sells out. Then new owners can bring in competent people to steward the team properly.
I'm beginning to think the gentleman didn't actually want to hear an Austin take on the article. I read elsewhere he got "bored" of the topic.
But in your echo chamber of hate you present my argument as if I had said that Steve alone would make up for Precourt's alleged incompetence. And everyone over there falls for it. Go figure.
How will anyone in the city other than the owner ensure that the club is well run? 'People like Steve' means what, exactly? The mayor and who else? PSV ran the team into the ground in Columbus, and there was nothing our elected officials or other local business or civic leaders could do about it. How possibly would that dynamic differ in Austin or any other MLS city? I don't have to hate Austin to make that observation. It's just common sense. I will say that Adler, or someone like Alex Fischer in Columbus (the praise that Garber heaped on Adler was very similar to what he said about Fischer), can be increadibly influential in lining up new ownership (if PSV or the league supported that kind of move), assisting with stadium projects or, with good ownership, helping to build local corporate support. That kind of thing. But in terms of day to day operational decision making, they're irrelevant.
It was a general comment on the nature of the people of this city. I think lots of other teams would prefer to have their team "run into the ground by PSV" vs. the lack of success they're experiencing now under uninterested owners. In any case, you seem to have a very narrow scope of things, referring literally to only elected officials or business/civic leaders as a means for holding an ownership group's feet to the fire. I think you undervalue the differences between cities. Columbus is not Austin, no more than Ohio is Texas.
They could have, you know, spent 50 million dollars to buy land for a new stadium and build "Infrastructure", like they ended up doing anyways. Infrastructure is in quotes because there is no actual binding contract.
This might interest everyone. I was online looking at site plan applications and Team Columbus Soccer LLC is being billed for the Austin FC application fees. We can speculate, but I wouldn't think too hard about it.