#SavetheCrew

But we had SSV with our own Don Gagliardi and Colin McCarthy working tirelessly as well. I am sure they can fill us in better as I can’t recall every detail but I believe we had a city council meeting and many fans showed up but it didn’t keep the team from moving.

If in fact their actions paid off , we still had to start over two seasons later with an expansion team.

Sadly , judging by last seasons record, we are in still in worse expansion shape than we were in 2008

 

I don't think Lew/Fisher were ready to invest yet. They would have had to have put forth some stadium plan. Quite convenient how they popped up right after the team left with a low buy in option.

 

San Jose had the same thing in SSV. Columbus had the advantage of better municipal support and a a viable ownership group come forth. You can laud the Crew fans all you want, but, it would have never happened without serious money.

 

Yeah maybe. I just remembered Garber saying he team would start again in 2007 but instead, they announced the revival that summer.

 

What SSV did was also laudable. If not for them, I assume MLS would not have allowed a reboot in San Jose.

Social media was probably the key difference. Not only could fans across the country get involved and voice support, but it also made it far easier to organize and mobilize the Crew fan base. I'm not downgrading what SSV did here. But I followed #SaveTheCrew from the beginning and I couldn't believe how hard they were working. They basically made Saving the Crew a business. I am sure it was a 20-40 hour per week job for quite a few of those people, and it went on for what, the entire 2018 season? I really feel what they did was monumental in modern American sports history and American corporate culture.

 

Thinking it over more, whether they were ready to go through with their Quakes investment or not, I don't believe AEG really ever had much intention to sell to Lew & Fisher. They basically inherited the team for peanuts and I don't think they ever paid for it. I remember Tim Leiweke complaining or at least making noise at the AEG Bay Area Bike Race in early December 2005 and how they spent $20 million (bla bla bla) on the Quakes and that they didn't intend to lose anymore. Of course he failed to mention how he stole or got LAndy free of charge gaining two championships in the meantime.

In 2008, AEG sold 50% of the Dynamo to Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions and in December , 2015, they sold the other half of the team to Gabriel Brenner. Of course terms of both agreements were never disclosed but I'm betting they ended up making $150 million if not more. This isn't even counting what they made by owning the Dynamo and their MLS CUPS....

That's not bad considering they got the team for nothing.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...rew-texas-move-austin-fan-campaign-mls-soccer

 

Au contraire, i think you misread his point. Prof Bank wrote it was "a happy ending" that "legally-speaking" left the Modell Law largely unresolved. I took that to mean that the lawsuit achieved what it needed to do. But obviously, should such a situation occur again, i.e. scumbag owner wants to move the team after using public resources, the whole process will have to be stepped through again.

I've been following @ProfBank for quite awhile and find his tweets very illuminating, and he comes across as warm and genuine. Not like a lawyer. hahahaha. He's just like you, Don!

He referees AYSO in I assume Beverly Hills, cuz sometimes he runs into Will Ferrell on the fields. If you can't trust an AYSO referee, who can you trust?

 

uh yeah i remember that story. I didn't reread it, but I remember thinking that the guy was really burned out.
And just to clarify, the story is not about @ProfBank

 

hahaha i immediately thought Earthshaker wrote that.

 

Good for the fans in Austin, but terrible for the league, and screw Precourt. What a scum.

Could make for some intersting tifo though, especially when Austin visits Columbus.

Go Quakes!!
Go Crew!!

- Mark

 

So what was Austin’s legendary announcement?
Team up for sale?

 

Interesting find. The quoted referee commissioner is a college friend of mine. Will Ferrell and his wife are indeed involved with this league, but apparently are quite personable and not at all like the stereotype of many “entitled” soccer parents.

 

There's too many teams already. I follow MLS less and less the bigger it's gotten.

 

I hope that Precourt develops a nasty wasting disease that eats him from the inside slowly. Then after he's dead, I'll go pee on his grave.