Yeah the fact that he even bought the club when it was a well known fact we needed a new stadium (with HSG/mccullers even saying ours was temporary and the future would necessitate a new stadium)...was the biggest sign to me that he has the ability to get one built. I refuse to believe that he just threw down 60 mil for the team, assuming the city of columbus or the county would build a stadium for him. Anyone can think whatever but I'm still convinced he knew exactly what he was getting into and has a plan that he's executing in stages. It boils down to two scenarios as I see it. Like I said elsewhere, he's either just here to make some quick cash flipping the team like a house and selling it to the next prospective mega rich team owner who wants in to the league after every decent markets been grabbed up (which means were left with a new, more capable owner)...........or he, by himself has the ability to fund a new stadium, or perhaps with additional partners (which could exist and we don't know about them or maybe there's prospective partners down the road he is aware of). There's no way he's moving us. What vacant market exists that's for sure going to be a better bet than Columbus, that doesn't already have a prospective ownership group vying for it, ready to pay MLS 150-200 million dollars for it. San Francisco? Expensive as hell and SJ and Sac are nearby. Las Vegas? Thats not a proven sports market and if anyone's getting a team there it's probably the Raiders so they have someone to fill dates in their new stadium (think NE Revs). I don't think the league would let him move the team to any location that's actually worth the effort. Feel free to enlighten me to something definite about Precourt that I don't understand/see but I don't see concrete evidence that he doesn't have a vision or plan for this team. .....now on the on-field side of things, that's a different story. Fire Berhalter.
His plan for getting a new stadium might be to get a big slice of the league's expansion fee for Cincy. Lindner is much richer than Precourt and Cincy is currently part of our market. If Lindner has to pay 125 mil expansion fee with Precourt getting half, and the state/county/city matching, that's enough to build a new stadium, albeit not state of the art or with many frills.
While I've not had any connection with anyone in the FO outside of CSF for years (and not even that the past few), I can say that this was an issue back in the day. There were a number of local vendors who'd come up with products that they thought would sell. Magnetic car signs for one. It all had to go thru MLS Central. And they never got back with folks. FO was frustrated. Another example is the cool glass table upstairs (if anyone's ever seen it). Made as a sample--and they had orders. But MLS would not approve it. This was likely around the time when their website was run by MLB and they would not update weekend scores during the preseason because everyone had gone home for the weekend.....
You should see what MiLB stuff costs. Not cheap. I wanted a new Indy Indians hat when I was out there last month--over $25....
If we cannot fill the stands at these prices, what makes us think will do it when the prices are even higher. When I look at the prices for my club seats in other stadiums, they are 2-4 times what I pay.
My cousin has the same tickets for the Flyers as I do for the Jackets. He pays about twice as much.... So I get that.
Because if the new stadium is in a great location and provides a great gameday atmosphere, it'll be worth more than the current gameday atmosphere. As long as they don't put the stadium in an only marginally better location or spend only $100m (Avaya/BBVA cost $100m, SKC $200m, and the difference shows). It's not like it's unheard of to spend more than $30 on sporting event tickets. People do it for the Blue Jackets on a weeknight to sit in a 60% full arena.
I truly admire your optimism. That would be a great story. But contrary to your statement...show me one shred of evidence suggesting there is a plan? That he does have the $$? All of it is wishful thinking at best. My intuition tells me AP did think he could get city/county/taxpayers to pay for new stadium. Those days are gone in just about every city around country now. I don;t think he has deep enough pockets. I could easily see him waiting until expansion is tapped out and only way to get franchise is to buy existing. I suspect league will allow teams to move if they show not enough local support...hence not enough being done to get butts in seats. I know that's a bit conspiracy theorist but plausible.. no? Do I wish a new downtown stadium came to fruition..sure why not. But current site is easy for me. And I don't think it is all that expensive (even with parking). I go to 1-2 clippers games a year and 2-3 blue jackets games a year (more now that Pens are in same division). I use to go to 10-15 Blue jackets games and 5 or more Clippers games when I worked in the city. But now I tend to just stay in suburbs. Maybe Crew would draw me back down there - I don't know. Frankly I'd be content with a phased upgrade/overhaul to current site. If they could somehow get a bit of development around it to somehow tie more to 4th Street/Summit/Hudson bars that would be cool.
That's impossible. Have you ever been to the Fair or the Quarterhorse Congress? That field is there for a reason and it will NEVER be developed. NEVER.
So after a nice dinner my wife and I will walk through the muddy field to the game. It's just not possible.
I completely disagree. Very much possible. But probably not likely. Not sure who would invest in that area just to appease some craptastic soccer fans.
I'm a bit surprised those FREAKING AWESOME tables are still around, given the new logo and all...but what would they have done with it? Charity auction? You're completely right on the league controlling stuff. MLB controlling the website was an awful era...
Not that trip. Thought about it, but we were offered a behind the scenes tour with the penguins at the Indy Zoo (we are Nussbaum Society members) in the early afternoon which precluded that (it was a qualifying day, as I recall). It wasn't that crazy around town as it wasn't race day.
It's possible they may be gone. I've not been into that part of the office in a few years--probably since Robin left or the year after. But oh, yeah--those tables would be close to the Holy Grail of Crew memorabilia.
The development of the area off the fairgrounds is possible, it's the walking through the muddy field that would make that development irrelevant to the stadium.
60-something-Upper Arlington types sitting next to us at the Three Legged Mare were so so happy their son never played soccer. The fans are such jerks. And the game makes no sense. Glad he stuck with baseball. Oh and they mentioned how the Crew just lost to a minor league team. Why is attendance so bad in Columbus?
One of the official Crew viewing bars; there was supposed to be swag give-aways and I like free swag. And it is nice to get away for the echo chamber for a bit. And this is the mentality of regular folks in Columbus, who should be paying for tickets and going to games. If you can't get Yuppies in a city to go to a soccer game every once in a while, you will not be successful. Yuppies = Soccer in most cities.
Sorry if I am misinterpreting, but considering I haven't heard the term "yuppies" in about 20 years, does it really apply to people in their 60's? As my buddy Inigo would say, "I do not think it means what you think it means." Keep on with the anecdotal arguments though.