Thursday 16 Aug 2018

So the question in my mind now is this: does this bit of news now officially signal the end of the effort to save the Crew or have a local group buy out the team?

 

It depends on the Ohio court case or PSV taking a vastly inflated bid.

 

Omg , there is no local group ! There never has been a local group which is why Precort was able to buy the team and get the Austin option. The difference of how that city & county deal with the Crew as opposed to the NHL & triple a baseball bailouts are like night and day. The guys that control " Nationwide" always wanted the Crew out of the way, so their Bluejackets could succeed. Although with the help of 10-12 million a year in casino taxes and talk of a new tax for improvements to the bailed out Nationwide arena. The real villians are Nationwide Insurance and a weak bought for Columbus Mayor.

 

At this point I'm all for Precourt ramming the dregs of the Crew into the indifferent dirt of Austin. Watching in 3 years Garber "celebrate" attendance of 10,000 as a triumph for MLS, as Frat Tony hides his girth in the shadows, swilling and swining, is the kind of stenching Justice this pile of crapitude fully merits.

This whole event is to Garber and MLS' leadership what his endtimes at the Galaxy, and his second round with the USMNT, was to Arena and the USSF's leadership.

 

It's ok, those foolish Austinites believe that they are getting a ready made playoff team. Reality will set in when Berhalter leaves after the season to take either the USMNT job, or a job with US Soccer. After which likely half of the players will ask to be traded, or will walk after their contract runs out. Trapp and Meram will likely lobby for moves to FCC.

Seeing as Triple G runs the entire soccer side of the operation for Trust Fund Tony...........what are the odds of that blind squirrel finding another Diamond Nut?

 

Not until you see the tail lights.

RSL was this close to standing for Real St. Louis instead of Real Salt Lake.

In the immortal words of Curly Washburn, "The day ain't over yet..."

 

Yeah, just a different link: https://t.co/Dned0ituMm

— Jonathan Yardley (@jtyardley) August 16, 2018

 

I'll never stop laughing at people who predict lousy attendance in new markets. Gotta wonder how often these people need to be wrong before they stop making the same exact prediction over and over and over and over again.

 

How do you know it's the same people?

 

Dolphins/Ross bringing La Liga games to Hard Rock stadium in Miami. Now we know why this clown didn't want MLS in Miami. Claims to be helping spread development of the game , facts are it's a money grab to get renovation subsides from the county. He can join Micky Arison and Jeff Loria at the haters table.

 

Yup. Houston and Dallas are just so vibrant. You see, IT "there", Texas has a track record, and it should sober you up a little. If Garber bet his bucks he could break that skein he perhaps should have gone for a city that has shown a liking for the sport...such as San Antonio. He also should have followed MLS' own rules as to expansion; but I admit that if the point of being the King is to slobber out "L'Etat, C'est Moi!", then the point is certainly taken.

Sure, certain folks think if a place has a vague reputation as a hipsterish playground it translates into a vibratingly happening place just waiting its big soccer epiphany. That's why that swath from San Fran to San Jose' is blowing attendance out of the water. The league has had exactly two major surprises as to attendance. The first was the transformation of Kansas City from a failure to a hit as new owners funded the move from Arrowhead to its new stadium. The other was Atlanta, where Blank broke the pattern of NFL owners treating their MLS sides as afterthoughts. Notice that these two surprises have a very clear common element-- deeply invested ownership that commits its intelligence and character to see through to the success of their franchises. Exactly what evidence do you have, with anything whatseover in his life, of Frat Tony being intelligent, or a man of character, or deeply invested in the success of the team???

 

No, certainly not. If Austin had turned down Precourt, that would have strengthened our hand of course but not many expected that to happen.

 

Looks like Ruidiaz has avoided punishment...

Two changes to the XI from Saturday as Chris Pontius & Sebastian Lletget get the start → https://t.co/d7dHDIG1DH pic.twitter.com/LQdUFtPYmC

— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) August 15, 2018

One thing tho, the article does indicates that DisCo’s hands have been tied in a way.. The DisCo may not be in the somgle game red card business any longer. Now it is more than just whether a red card offense was missed, but whether it was a minimum of two missed games worthy. That might explain why instance like Martinez’s and, now, Ruidiaz’s have not resulted in a player suspension. The offenses may be reddable, just not 2 game missable.

 

No.

 

Don't disagree with the general point of your post, but some quibbles:

"That swath from San Fran to San Jose" is known locally as the Peninsula and its pretty much a hipster-free zone.

Toronto and Seattle were surprises to MLS, as well. So was Chivas USA, but not in a good way.

 

I was confused about that 2 game suspension guideline.

I thought the logic behind a two game suspension for a missed call was simply that you get one game because you should have sat out part of the game you committed the offense in and another game for the regular next game suspension from a typical red card.

Unless they mean if the action was worthy of more than the regular one game suspension.

 

Serie A and Ligue 1 teams are chasing Jozy Altidore according to ESPN.

 

They won't have to run very fast...

 

Lol! Post of the month!

 

Neither will Josy.

 

There's plenty of precedent this season for 2 game suspensions for significant strikes to the head. Headbutting is, by Law, a strike using the head instead of the arm.

It just doesn't make sense that they'd think either this or Josef Martinez's actions were worth red cards but NOT worth an extra game. I suspect they realized that they set a bad precedent with Martinez and are now reluctant to show bias by coming down on anyone else for similar acts. They'll make it a point of emphasis for next season, I bet.

 

Could be.. The fact that Maetinez’s headbutt happened against the Sounders may also had an impact. The outroar over Ruidiaz getting a suspension while they let Martinez off.

 

Absolutely. There are big-time politics at play when it comes to MLS discipline, and it's completely asinine.

 

Your fatal flaw is that you are comparing MLS 1.0 with MLS 3.0....which is dumb. People made the exact same argument before Orlando joined the league. Miami and Tampa folded, Floridians only care about football, blah, blah, blah, blah. Atlanta was a city that didn't like soccer and soccer couldn't survive in the south...blah, blah blah.

Expansion and relocation aren't synonyms. Here's a link if you need a reference. www.dictionary.com

MLS 1.0 vs. MLS 3.0. Still a dumb argument.

I would say that the addendum to the contract he signed when he first bought the Crew that stated that Austin was the only city he was allowed to relocate to is pretty solid evidence. It sure as shit doesn't make him popular, but it is plain as day that Austin is where Precourt wanted to be from day 1. Perhaps, and most Columbus fans will begrudgingly agree with me here, the apathy he showed in CBus was deliberate to drive down numbers and create an excuse to relocate the team.

I would also say that committing to pay 100% of construction costs in Austin is a pretty good indicator that he intends to invest more in the team moving forward.

But hey...rehashing tired arguments that have been proven wrong in every new market since Toronto joined the league is probably where the smart money is.