MLS coming to Austin (Possibly)

5,692 Views | 64 Replies | Last: 5 yr ago by AustinAg2012
moneyag7
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According to Grant Wahl and Massive Report, the owner of Columbus Crew is set to move the team to Austin starting in 2019 if the team does not get a new downtown stadium built in Columbus.

Ongoing story with more news and updates to come but wanted to get this out here. Could be interesting to have 3 MLS teams in Texas. Not sure I agree with the move as I'm not sure the crowd for any of the teams would be great.
jeffk
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AG
So either Pflugerville or Round Rock then?
moneyag7
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That's what I was wondering. Haven't said either way yet and Grant hasn't released his article with more information yet. I think their big complaint about Columbus was an outdated stadium that isn't in downtown. Where the heck would they get that at in Austin?
PatAg
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moneyag7 said:

That's what I was wondering. Haven't said either way yet and Grant hasn't released his article with more information yet. I think their big complaint about Columbus was an outdated stadium that isn't in downtown. Where they heck would they get that at in Austin?
If it's actually a downtown Austin setting, that would be amazing.
Id love for FC Dallas to move to Dallas or Fort Worth downtown. I like the stadium we have in Frisco, it just sucks to go there. But I think we are stuck there.
who?mikejones
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Playing at ut to start, it appears.
MidTnAg
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Will come to Nashville before it goes to Austin.
who?mikejones
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Nope.

Quote:

But according to the Dispatch, the purchase agreement contained a promise to keep the team in Columbus for at least 10 years. Critically, it included an out clause in case Precourt wanted to move the team to Austin.
jckrjr7
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I just don't know where they will find the land downtown. I'm going to assume the Austin market is much more expensive than Columbus and I doubt the city would help pay for much.

With that said I live in Austin and if the stadium is close to downtown I'd go to as many games as possible.
titanmaster_race
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This sounds like a power play to get the Columbus taxpayers to pay for a new stadium for a garbage franchise.
Aston94
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titanmaster_race said:

This sounds like a power play to get the Columbus taxpayers to pay for a new stadium for a garbage franchise.


ding ding ding, we have a winner.
jay040
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I hate this for Columbus fans, and I hate this for San Antonio's chances of getting a MLS team. No chance if they move to Austin.
fig96
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jay040 said:

I hate this for Columbus fans, and I hate this for San Antonio's chances of getting a MLS team. No chance if they move to Austin.
Yeah, I was kinda surprised that SA wasn't the destination as they've been planning for a team for a while and already have an organization in place. Maybe already having that team was an issue?

I'm curious where they'd look to put the stadium as well, particularly as they've mentioned a "downtown" location. There's a small stadium that the Aztex played in until it had major flooding issues so they haven't played for a season or two, also interesting in relation to this fairly recent news:
http://www.mystatesman.com/sports/soccer/austin-pro-soccer-franchise-will-roll-2019-000-seat-cota-venue/yYB4EAQ56lWkGc4L9i9izI/

And here's the original story, since it wasn't posted:

AustinScubaAg
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Seems really odd to me. They do not sell out their first stadium.
fig96
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AustinScubaAg said:

Seems really odd to me. They do not sell out their first stadium.
Could be why they're looking to move, just don't have the support? Would be interesting to see how they went over in Austin.

This quote from the article has potential to be concerning though, depending where you place that responsibility:
Quote:

A source with knowledge of the situation said Columbus has been in the bottom three teams of nearly every MLS business metric for a decade.

fig96
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More info:

Exclusive: Precourt on Columbus Crew SC's possible move to Austin
Wrighty
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This is BS. The MLS owners have a monopoly on top flight soccer, which allows this owner to threaten the city with leaving unless the city coughs up a bunch of taxpayer funds! This is what happens when the owners look at the franchises like investments with no attachment to a city.

I bet if there was an opportunity for promotion (and the associated relegation), that cities like Austin (and San Antonio, Cincinatti, Nashville, etc etc) would already have strong division 2 teams with a regular attendance who would be more than ready to take Columbus place in the top league!
fig96
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Wrighty said:

This is BS. The MLS owners have a monopoly on top flight soccer, which allows this owner to threaten the city with leaving unless the city coughs up a bunch of taxpayer funds! This is what happens when the owners look at the franchises like investments with no attachment to a city.
Honest question: how is that really different than any other league? We see a new "moving cities" threat from the NFL every year, and they've done it several times.
ThunderCougarFalconBird
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Wrighty said:

I bet if there was an opportunity for promotion (and the associated relegation), that cities like Austin (and San Antonio, Cincinatti, Nashville, etc etc) would already have strong division 2 teams with a regular attendance who would be more than ready to take Columbus place in the top league!
This is the obvious draw of a promotion/relegation system. It keeps ownership's hands out of taxpayer's pockets. Want a new stadium? Raise funds and build a new stadium.

Want to move the team? Fine. Move. Your strongest supporters aren't moving with you.

There is a great example of this in the English league right now. AFC Wimbledon. In the early 2000s, the old Wimbledon FC was given permission to move 56 miles away to Milton Keynes. Their supporters were outraged and obviously their support didn't follow. Instead, they founded their own grassroots club. It started in the 9th or 10th level in the English football league pyramid and through dedicated quality leadership (club chairman makes 1 guinea per year), good management decisions, and rabid support from their longtime fans, they now play in League One (third tier on pyramid; fully professional; players make ~ what MLS players make).

Having teams here grow up on a more grass-roots basis would be great, but who knows whether American sports fans are willing to handle their teams successes and failures tied to their actual support.
Wrighty
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fig96 said:

Wrighty said:

This is BS. The MLS owners have a monopoly on top flight soccer, which allows this owner to threaten the city with leaving unless the city coughs up a bunch of taxpayer funds! This is what happens when the owners look at the franchises like investments with no attachment to a city.
Honest question: how is that really different than any other league? We see a new "moving cities" threat from the NFL every year, and they've done it several times.
Good question. I guess the answer is that "its the same" in that the city and people get screwed in this process. The reason I think its BS is that taxpayer money is involved in funding something that a private person (rich old guy) is going to profit from.

With the NFL, you kind of expect it, because thats just how it is.

But with MLS, you can see a different model over the pond and see how it is better from a fan and city perspective. Imagine if Newcastle decided they were going to move to London in order to make more money. There would be a massive fan backlash and they would play in an empty stadium in London given that fans already have their hometown team(s).

I recognize the benefits of not having a relegation system (owners have a more secure investment making it more likely to invest), but I also get pissed off whenever I see the downsides of it.
Dre_00
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Wrighty said:



I recognize the benefits of not having a relegation system (owners have a more secure investment making it more likely to invest), but I also get pissed off whenever I see the downsides of it.

And that benefit is diminishing greatly as time passes. It was a huge benefit when the league was struggling and needed to attract investors. Single entity and no pro/rel ensured owners would make out as well as they could given the financial viability of the league as a whole. If you're team is struggling and no one is showing up, no problem as long as people are showing up somewhere...and MLS is willing to give you a cut of that marketing money to make you whole again.

But now? It's just a crutch. And there have been more than a few whispers from the more ambitious owners that they'd like to see a little more financial freedom and ability to invest in their team rather than in the league.

And yes, I know that relegation and single entity aren't the same thing but they are very much intertwined.
nereus
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AustinScubaAg said:

Seems really odd to me. They do not sell out their first stadium.

Just a guess, but reading about all of these new stadiums, it seems to me that the money is in the suites and not butts in the seats. I'm not that familiar with Columbus's business prospects, but Austin definitely has plenty of local corporations that can buy suites and use them to wine customers and employee perks when they don't have customers in town. That seems to be the big motivation in all of the new stadiums. That was a big draw of building the new cowboy's stadium, renovating Kyle Field, renovating Olsen Field, new A&M Softball Stadium has suites, etc. I haven't read anything about this for the new Rangers stadium, but my guess is that even though there are less total seats there are more high dollar suites. They have figured out that for their bottom line it matters less how many people are in the stadium as opposed to how many suites you can sell and for how high of a price.

Maybe Columbus has an equivalent number of major corporations as Austin does and this is just a bad decision by the owner; I haven't really researched it. My guess, however, is that the ownership is betting that even if they don't draw better than they do in Columbus, they still have the ability to make more money.
fig96
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I think it's a really interesting discussion as to whether promotion/relegation could work here.

We have the beginnings of a system in place that could support it, but there's a lot of MLS clubs that I both think would be relegated and most likely wouldn't financially survive it.

Sidenote: A friend of mine in Cincinnati is very excited about the potential for Columbus to leave as they feel that helps clear the way for FC Cincinnati.
fig96
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Houston's attendance supports this theory, sold out most games but not nearly that many butts in seats.

Would be interesting to see if the tech crowd embraced an MLS team here. Also, a coworker of mine noted that building a stadium on the east side would be interesting.
TXAggie2011
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Quote:

This is the obvious draw of a promotion/relegation system. It keeps ownership's hands out of taxpayer's pockets. Want a new stadium? Raise funds and build a new stadium.
Or move to a publicly financed stadium like Manchester City, West Ham, etc. have done.

There is public money tied up in stadiums all over Europe. Some places more than others.

The big difference is the difference in tax systems and regulation (i.e. intra-national and national governments have stepped in forbid public financing or otherwise curbed it).

Absent changing our tax systems and regulations, you'll still see owners find ways to extract public money. You don't have to threaten to move across the country to get public money here. So much as moving 5 minutes down the highway to another town can get you plenty of public money. Hell, you don't have to threaten anything and you can get public money in the United States.
heddleston
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From what ive read around on r/mls the Crew do little to no marketing to the rest of Ohio outside of Columbus, so beyond diehards and tOSU students they arent on anyone's radar unless theyre really good. If they were moving to Miami it would basically be exactly like Major League
fig96
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On the negative side, they're apparently screwing their season ticket holders.

The deadline for season ticket deposits was apparently two days ago, then yesterday they announced the potential move and as the owner is in Austin today it's pretty clear which direction he's thinking.

The kicker: they won't give any refunds on those deposits.
TXAggie2011
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fig96 said:

On the negative side, they're apparently screwing their season ticket holders.

The deadline for season ticket deposits was apparently two days ago, then yesterday they announced the potential move and as the owner is in Austin today it's pretty clear which direction he's thinking.

The kicker: they won't give any refunds on those deposits.


If Columbus moves and doesn't refund deposits, I imagine there will be a lawsuit from an enterprising attorney that leads to Columbus paying back the deposits.
fig96
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TXAggie2011 said:

fig96 said:

On the negative side, they're apparently screwing their season ticket holders.

The deadline for season ticket deposits was apparently two days ago, then yesterday they announced the potential move and as the owner is in Austin today it's pretty clear which direction he's thinking.

The kicker: they won't give any refunds on those deposits.

If Columbus moves and doesn't refund deposits, I imagine there will be a lawsuit from an enterprising attorney that leads to Columbus paying back the deposits.
Not sure, this is for 2018 tickets. They'll still be playing there for that season.
Mike Elko
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As an Austin resident:

http://gph.is/1Eo4CCa
nereus
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heddleston said:

From what ive read around on r/mls the Crew do little to no marketing to the rest of Ohio outside of Columbus, so beyond diehards and tOSU students they arent on anyone's radar unless theyre really good. If they were moving to Miami it would basically be exactly like Major League
Do other clubs advertise outside of their metro area? I've never seen an FC Dallas or Houston Dynamo ad outside of either of their respective metro areas. Would Houston advertise in B/CS? Would FC Dallas advertise in Waco? Those are both about the same distances as Cincinnati and Cleveland. I don't know the answer to these questions; maybe they already do.

It is about 2 hours away according to google maps to both Cincinnati and Cleveland. That seems right on the edge to me. Maybe the fans have a point about the ownership intentionally trying to sabotage attendance by not advertising or maybe the cost of advertising outweigh the benefits.
HTownAg98
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Unless someone is willing to pony up $100 per square foot for the dirt for something that is near downtown Austin (and not in the downtown core), a stadium will be built in the burbs somewhere.
FincAggie06
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Does IBM still own enough land around the Domain to sell for a stadium? Would be walk-able from one of the metro stops as well.
atm0812
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In a similar vein to FincAggie,

What type of space surrounds the ut women's soccer stadium? Could they enter a partnership with the university to pay for the upgrades to create a top notch facility that the school still gets to use, without paying for the land?
moneyag7
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atm0812 said:

In a similar vein to FincAggie,

What type of space surrounds the ut women's soccer stadium? Could they enter a partnership with the university to pay for the upgrades to create a top notch facility that the school still gets to use, without paying for the land?
They play at Mike A. Myers stadium that is right beside DKR. This stadium has a track around it, and only has bleachers on the touchline. One side is double stacked, but the track would kill all atmosphere due to the fact that the closest a support section could seat would be in at the corner flag.

Can't get rid of the track without UT building a new one elsewhere. The track is used by their track team, a track club in town, and hosts the UIL track finals in May.

TXAggie2011
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I'm not sure of the exact timeline but I presume they'll tear down the current basketball arena when they build the new arena on campus.

But not sure what the plan is for the Erwin Center space or if you can squeeze a soccer stadium there. Might be a little small.

Otherwise, land in central Austin will be tough to come by. Only other candidate off the top of my head would be the park space on the downtown side of the river near Austin High School.
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