Why not just have MLS put on paper that Haslam has purchased the rights to the expansion team in Austin, then Precourt traded the Crew and all its glories for the expansion in Austin. Wouldn't this solve all legal issues and you could state that Precourt has the expansion team?
Brad Evans finished his career in Seattle with 200 appearances and 20 goals, according to Wikipedia. I must say, those numbers are incredibly satisfying. Also, I hate that we lost Brad Evans. MLS is stupid.
Except Austin isn't part of the expansion process. It's a relocation, so that incites the other expandion candidates that played by the rules.
I mean I get what it is and how its really working. I was just pointing out how stupid it is to structure it like that.
Ah, but is it a relocation or a transfer of operating rights from one city to another? If it's the latter, perhaps MLS can conjure up another kind of drafty thing that is just like an expansion draft but, well, different. According to what we know now, Austin MLS most certainly will not be called an expansion team (if it ever happens). And that does beg the question of how they'll build a roster.
What operating rights? Austin has none to transfer unless they relocate Crew or get an expansion team. When has either of those happened yet?
I remember finding the loss of Moffat and Brunner particularly galling. Moffat for that thunderbastard shot of his and penchant for straight reds, and Brunner because he was a local guy. In the end, Grabovoy and Evans were the much greater losses. Watching Moffat play for Sacramento against LAFC in the U.S. Open Cup this year hit me square in the feels.
Right so the only way this goes down is, Queso King relocates his operating rights to Austin. MLS sells expansion operating rights to Haslam. Part of Haslam's fee goes to QK for Mapfre, and perhaps name color and history or other incidentals. Haslam then trades expansion draft picks and Garber Bux for current Crew roster. I've been saying since May this is the only scenario I can see happening.
Going to get myself a Galleyboy for dinner. I just added Swenson's as a contact on my phone after confirming that @Ch(Elsey) 's preferred call ahead method takes about 10 minutes. Looking forward to it very much.
As much fun as this debate about ownership specifics, announcement dates, and innumerable what-if scenarios based primarily on bourbon-driven speculation is (and it's pretty effing boring, actually), I find myself going back to something mentioned in the hours immediately following the #STC news leaking out on Oct. 12: It's entirely possible that PSV no longer owns/operates shit in Columbus any more. MLS has been negotiating with Columbus interests for many months with, as far as anyone has reported, PSV playing no role whatsoever. Remember that PSV legal stooge in the court hearing? MLS's attorneys ignored him completely. I can't imagine a scenario in which PSV has any real leverage regarding what happens in Columbus, no matter what occurs (or doesn't) in Austin.
Anyone ever hear of Brian Auger's Oblivion Express? A seminal jazz fusion artist from the 70's. Incredible stuff. Connections with everybody from Mogul Thrush to AWB, and only hang and the enigmatic Eggy would understand any of that. Which is by way of pointing to his phenomenal mid-70's album "Closer to It" (which contained the legendary cut "Tryin' to make it real compared to what?") Precourt is not part of the deal. What he owns he's taking elsewhere at his own request by way of exercising an ostensible) contractual right.He is not owed anything for anything. (The stadium aside; that's outside the purview of MLS HQ but since Precourt will literally be abandoning it when he announces that he's taking his rights elsewhere, he's going to be owed nothing. Maybe someone will scrape up a face saving couple of bucks but the man is basically skipping town on the landlord. He doesn't get to demand some sort of payment from the next tenant.)
Well, if it were just me, I'd wait it out. It's a timing thing this evening. Getting some for my mother who is watching my children after school today and for my family. I'll be driving straight from work and then have to drop an order at my mother's when I pick up the kids and try and be home to meet my wife when she gets home. I can't wait 30 minutes or something if they're jammed at 6.
I get it that there's a technical meaning of the phrase, and that it is very rarely used. There's an interesting Merriam-Webster article about this that includes: They're referring to people like you, Timon. And Anyway, I used the phrase as it is commonly used and is defined as being acceptable by Merriam-Webster. I don't, therefore, concede the grammatical point. I do, however, feel bad for using what is a pretty hackneyed phrase in employing it at all. It's an example of lazy writing. For that, I apologize and promise to do better in the future.
Is it now commonly accepted that "raises the question" and "begs the question" mean the same thing? I disagree.
I think the specifics about ownership is only worth discussing because it shows how inept and insane this process has been and highlights how little the internal rules of MLS actually apply when push comes to shove. However it works on paper, I think what your describing is the practical reality. To Bill's point about the stadium, I am doubtful he even owns that. From what I can tell the entire original transaction from Hunts to PSV was done with MLS as the intermediary. This potentially included the stadium so its entirely possible that MLS is the actual owner of Mapfre. Maybe the purchase was routed through a legal entity like Stadium Co. but who owns that in the end? My guess is the dirty little secret of MLS that they wanted to keep out of discovery had nothing to do with salary caps or revenue sharing and everything to do with how all of MLS is structured as basically as massive series of shell games to pass profits from the teams to ownership with as little liability and oversight as possible.
John Wetton was in Mogul Thrush before Family, who remain possibly the most underrated band in rock history. After that he joined King Crimson in their classic mid 70s era. Wetton and Dr. Bill Bruford simply bringing it as rhythm section behind Robert Fripp. His work with Uriah Heep is “better left unsolved” but he ended up in UK with Bruford, Eddie Jobson, and Allan Holdsworth, a true guitarist’s guitarist. After that, Asia. Sigh. Asia being the music equivalent to MLS where talented Englishmen go to retire and earn a paycheck.