Murstein interviewed on sports radio in Kansas City earlier today revealed he is no longer in the running for buying the Wizards. Apparently, he also ragged on the Wizards' attendance and their lack of hosting international games. This is second hand information per the threads in the Wizards forum. For background, the following article appeared in yesterday's Kansas City Star (note that MLS had "muzzled" Murstein -- I guess the "muzzling" period ended this afternoon ). http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/12061509.htm
He's now apparently keenly interested in bringing an Arena Football team to Kansas City, which tells me of a few possibilities: a. He was vetted by the MLS league investors and they found something that they don't like, and he sees the AFL as being a little bit looser with their entry requirements for prospective owners. (Witness the yearly relocation and contraction of AFL teams.) 2. He's all talk and no action when it comes to buying sports teams. I mean, it's easy to say that you're going to buy a sports team. It's another thing to actually buy one. Maybe his quest for an AFL team will somehow end without actually owning one. 3. all of the above. The funny thing is that if he wants to buy an AFL team, it's going to need a venue. Currently, Kansas City has Kemper Arena, which locals readily acknowledge is a dump, and the under-construction Sprint Center, which will be a lot nicer. Thing about the Sprint Center is that it will controlled by Anschutz Entertainment Group, so with the way he's running his mouth and burning his bridges, I wouldn't bank on a Murstein-owned AFL team in Kansas City.
maybe he was only really interested in MLs in the sweetheart deal they thought they had from San Antonio?
Yeah, sounds like he didn't feel keeping the team in KC was viable economically with no currently approved SSS plans and, with no place for him to move the Wizards in 2006, he might as well wait for 2007 and a less expensive $10 million expansion franchise fee.
I wonder if MLS didnt want this guy. He obviously has the capital to buy a team. If you look at MLS every team is getting to the point where they are accounted for. Apparently AEG wants to keep LA, Chicago, and NY. Hunt wants to keep Dallas and Columbus. Kroenke has Colorado. Vergara has Chivas. Kraft has New England. The Payne led group is buying DC. checketts has SLC. Really the only 2 teams left are KC and SJ. Everyone else seems to be accounted for long term. Probably by the end of the year every team in MLS will have a solid ownership situation. I'd love to see AEG and Hunt get down to only one team but I guess thats still quite a bit away.
I said at the time I had a bad vibe about the guy. He may still end up as an MLS owner, but I'm even less certain of that now than when he first surfaced. And trashing a product you chose not to buy doesn't strike me as the high road, either.
Did he also mention he was dropping out because he thought KCW were boring? I mean.... someone had to say it regardless of whether one thinks this statemnet is true or not
Well, they want to keep LA. Chicago and NY are both unofficially on the market. HSG will sell Columbus in the near future (next 3-4 years). Once Lamar has passed, Clark has made no secret of the fact that he wants out of everywhere but Dallas. And frankly, Lamar may not make it to the end of the season.
Oh, and Murstein spewed bullsh!t throughout that entire interview this afternoon. 1) He supposedly pissed off the higher-ups at MLS and HSG (with all of his public statements) and was shut out of negotiations. 2) He knows full well that there is serious discussion of building a stadium in Kansas City. He just wasn't involved in any of them (and wasn't going to be) so he pulled out. 3) He ragged on KC having "2k" fans in the stadium... which is blatantly untrue. He knows that HSG hasn't spent shi!t on the team and marketing this year. The HSG firesale hasn't exactly helped attendance this season.
Yeah, but sadly true. While I may not agree with the way he's run his MLS franchises of late, he really is (along with Saint Phil) one of the saviors of soccer in the US. Unfortunately, I don't think he's got much longer. And his family/organization seems to be making adjustments to prepare for that to happen. Wasn't trying to be morbid. Was just pointing out the situation.
That used to be true when Kemper was managed by the city. For the last year Kemper has been run by a private management group. When I attended the first hockey game of the season last fall I was amazed at how good Kemper looked. It was spotless and staffed by friendly, helpful people rather than the city employed mopes who used to "work" there. It's a 30 year old building but it's no longer accurate to call it a dump. Badly located with a dearth of luxury boxes and restrooms and too narrow concourses - yes. But a dump - no.
People who went to the FC Dallas luncheon yesterday afternoon said that Lamar was looking great....perhaps the preperations that HSG is making is just the singular sign of HSG's good common sense that we've never seen before and not some harbinger of death.
Its kind of a red herring.....pretty much every team can be described as being "unofficially on the market". If someone calls up AEG today and offers them $50 million for the Galaxy, do you think they hang up on them?
Every team in Major League Soccer is on the market, just as almost every sports team in North America is on the market. If Tom Hicks (to pull a name out of the hat just for the sake of discussion) walks into HSG's offices Monday morning and offers them $50 million for FC Dallas, they'll sell.
I doubt AEG would turn away money because Murstein bad-mouthed MLS and a non-AEG owned team. AEG is about making money and if Murstein is going to make them money by leasing out the Sprint Center for x number of days a year than they will do the deal.
Oh yes, they would lease out the Sprint Center to a Murstein-owned AFL team. Of this, I have no doubt. However, if Murstein were looking for more favorable lease terms that would allow him to, you know, perhaps make money, then maybe burning his bridges was not a good idea. Of course, I think that the AFL idea is just as much hot air as his MLS idea.
Didn't he also try unsuccesfully to buy a hockey team and a basketball team in the past. Seems like he's making a hobby out of this failure to purchase a sports team thing.
Today's article in KC Star about Murstein. Guys sounds like he has real class and tact. http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/12080051.htm