Columbus Crew to Austin Texas?

Not to pick nits but you're one team short.

That team was an NBA original in Rochester. Hence the alliteration with Royals.

Their big rivals were the Syracuse nationals which moved to Philadelphia in the 60s and became the 76ers.

 

That was before my time.

 

Exactly. Don't get me wrong - I feel bad for Crew fans and I hope that, if the Crew do move, that they pressure Garber & MLS for an expansion team just as the Cleveland Browns did. If you can find local potential owners/investors, Columbus can try to poach an existing MLS team. And, by all means, do work a deal for your team name and colors to remain behind in Columbus. I can't defend the American tradition of shifting franchises to different cities depending upon stadium financing or the whim of a billionaire owner. But, that's how it is and I don't see why MLS will be different except for the very remote possibility that FIFA steps in.

Of all the major sports teams in the D.C. area, only the NHL Caps and MLS United are original expansion teams. The NFL Washington Redskins were originally the Boston Redskins, the MLB Washington Nationals were originally the Montreal Expos and the NBA Washington Bullets were originally the Baltimore Bullets. And, Washington lost two MLB teams - one to Minneapolis/St. Paul and the other to Dallas/Fort Worth. Washington also lost an ABA team to Tidewater Virginia. For that matter, both of Baltimore's major league teams were poached. The MLB Orioles were originally the St. Louis Browns and the NFL Ravens were originally the Cleveland Browns. That's the American way of major league sports, I suppose.

And, so it goes . . .

 

When I was in high school I attended a summer basketball camp run by Al Cervi.

Now I had no idea who this was - neither did anyone else there - and in truth I don't recall seeing him more than once or twice, just standing around. He looked like he was 100 years old.

He had played for the Royals in the 40s and 50s and although many years had gone by and the team was several moves in the past, the name still resonated with the locals.

The hold stars have on a community is amazing.

 

So is Precourt going to take the Columbus star and put it above Austin's crest?

 

Do the Houston Dynamo wear four stars?

 

Wasn't there a pre-arrangement to leave the Quakes name and trophies behind for the expansion Quakes? I haven't read of any such agreement pertaining to this move.

 

I'll buy that.
It's certainly not as great as advertised, which is why I moved to San Marcos.
The good news is it's still a hopping economy in Central Texas. I make nearly twice as much as I used to on the West Coast and I don't work harder.
If it weren't for that I'd probably move to Trinidad & Tobago.

 

For you and Coyote89.
I agree that this is the common model in US sports, but is it good? There are a lot of studies that say cities chasing teams with incentives like stadiums rarely work out for those cities. My guess is this is not going to work out well for Austin either. And as I said before if the MLS really wanted money they should have let the Crew fold, paid Precourt a small fee for the franchise and then sell it to the highest bidder like Chivas.

And there are two differences here. First there are the other 12 cities who went about getting a team the way they were told was the only way they could get one. Certainly not fair to them.
And most importantly football, baseball and to even hockey do not compete with the world in the World Cup (okay hockey maybe). If the US wants to be part of the World Cup, it can't be just about profit. It needs to be about development and growth.

I am not saying each owner should take a bath but moving teams around only leaves development academies and pissed off soccer fans. Oh and also companies and investors for those local teams.
Would you encourage your kid to join a development academy if it could announce a move tomorrow? Fans in the Chicago, NE, Colorado, Philly, FC Dallas, Houston, Chicago should be wondering right now about their team moving.

 

I am unaware of any cities bidding for MLS teams. There are twelve groups bidding for expansion teams, each of which has designated a city they hope to be able to land a stadium deal in.

It's an important distinction. While Columbus may end up being an aggrieved party in the end - as of right now there is little to indicate that Austin (city, government, population) has anything to do with this.

San Antonio is not bidding for an MLS Expansion team in the context of calling out Austin for not doing it the right way. San Antonio and Raleigh and Cincinnati and the others happen to be the markets that other bidders are working on.

Language matters, definitions matter. Colloquially, saying cities are bidding doesn't bother me. But your post seems to be veering a little to close to attaching some culpability on Austin here. In the end, it's not the cities.

 

me....i mean my friend.

 

Heck, the New York Yankees were originally the first Baltimore Orioles. Mind you that's well beyond the time of almost anyone living today. And the Colts were originally the first Dallas Texans.

 

Yet the Rochester Royals and the Syracuse Nats were in different divisions of the NBA. Rochester was in the West, Syracuse in the East. They could not meet in the playoffs unless it was the final round.
https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_1951_standings.html

 

That does not mean Precourt won't. It is a case by case situation when teams move whether they take the history with them or not.

 

The Colts history was a lot more complicated. The current NFL Colt incarnation has roots way before the Dallas Texans, who themselves were the former NY Yankees. Too complicated to state here, for those interested it is in here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indianapolis_Colts

 

And while I have no problem with fans of Columbus and other teams protesting and ignoring the club if it is relocated, I hope nobody hates on Austin fans for supporting a team that lands in their laps. I say this as a Carolina Hurricanes fan. Yep, the team is still owned by the carpet-bagger that ripped the team from Hartford. Hartford didn't deserve it. But I had nothing to do with any of that - and they are my local NHL team (for now, anyway). If the team moves, it's all on Precourt.

I'm also not particularly keen on purity tests. I, for one, have not been blocked by the Dark Clouds on Twitter.

 

Or as I heard once, "He just opens his mouth to change feet."

 

I am kind of surprised that someone buying a team and moving it has not really happened in MLS. It's happened in every American League, especially in the beginning. You can say the Dynamo fit the bill, but that was when AEG owned half the league.

I am sure the stadium deals with public money probably made it more difficult than in the past.

 

That might have been more meaningful if it had come from pretty much anyone else on the planet.

 

Translation: "Don't hate on the players because I'm an enormous dick."

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Pro pointy ball will never succeed in Dallas.

 

No, but it's a hit in Arlington.

 

Yup

 

According to to the article posted this morning: "Sources have told Massive Report that a $75 million bid was made to purchase just a half stake in the franchise. And was turned down. Precourt in his above quotes, denies this is the case."

https://www.massivereport.com/2017/...ting-with-the-media-columbus-crew-sc-mls-2017

 

You know, the Hurricane almost came to Columbus. They had partly worked out building a temporary rink in one of the old North American/Rockwell buildings at John Glenn Intl Airport (where some F86 Sabres and parts of the B1 were built, among other aircraft). Glad they didn't.