Dave Checketts' son posts video of parents opening assignment to serve as mission president and companion

(by Morgan Jones deseretnews.com 12-29-17)

Dave Checketts’ name is easily recognizable in several communities, including among Mormons and in the world of professional sports. The former president and general manager of the Utah Jazz, former president of the New York Knicks and original owner of Real Salt Lake is also a former LDS stake president, and now, Checketts has been called to serve as a mission president, according to a video published to his son’s Instagram account on Friday.

The video shows Dave Checketts and his wife, Deb, opening their assignment to serve as mission president and companion in the England London Mission.

The Deseret News has previously reported two stories about Checketts’ efforts to minister as a stake president. In a story about Tom Christofferson earlier this year, the Deseret News reported that Checketts was influential in Christofferson’s return to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Together the two studied the scriptures and discussed gospel topics.

As Christofferson increased his church activity, Checketts invited him to his home periodically on Saturday mornings to study the scriptures and discuss gospel topics. Christofferson's genuine search for understanding the doctrine not only touched Checketts' heart, but inspired him as a church leader to incorporate some of the ideas they discovered into his vision for the stake, Checketts said.

Another example of Checketts’ service to members of his stake took place in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012 when Checketts cleared his business calendar to serve two new members of his stake, Robbie and Alyssa Parker, whose daughter Emilie was among those killed. While Checketts said that when he first learned of the news he didn’t know what to say, he later said of the tragedy, "What happened in Newtown is unthinkable, but little children are alive in Christ. Though the nature of the crime is the essence of evil, our faith tells us that these children burst into the presence of God and are safe in his arms."

Checketts was also featured in Jeff Benedict’s 2007 book, “The Mormon Way of Doing Business,” and on Friday, Benedict expressed his confidence that missionaries serving under Checketts will be in good hands.

“Dave’s exceptional character has been tested and seasoned by the rough-and-tumble world of professional sports and entertainment,” Benedict told the Deseret News. “Missionaries under his care will learn from a leader whose first instinct is compassion and whose broad shoulders have cleared many paths for the underdog.”

In “The Mormon Way of Doing Business,” Checketts explained how he balanced 15- to 18-hour workdays, six days a week, with being a husband and father.

“If my children call me during the day and leave a message, I return those calls first, not last,” Checketts said in the book.

Checketts will now devote 24 hours a day, seven days a week to serving the Lord and his missionaries for three years.

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https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865694528/Dave-Checketts-son-posts-video-of-parents-opening-assignment-to-serve-as-mission-president-and.html

Ohio's best chance to save the Crew is seizing the club via eminent domain

The government taking ownership of a sports team might sound weird, but it’s perfectly legal.

(by Gabe Lezra sbnation.com 12-21-17)

https://www.sbnation.com/soccer/2017/12/21/16805692/save-the-crew-columbus-modell-law-browns-eminent-domain

New York Cosmos stadium

From several years ago when the Cosmos thought they were going to take American soccer by storm and build a stadium at Belmont Park.

Sadly that did not happen, nor will this stadium.

Keeping tabs on Crew move? Logic simply doesn’t apply

(by Michael Arace 12-17-17)

 

For the past two months — or since Crew “investor-operator” Anthony Precourt announced he was thinking about taking his talents to Austin — this particular patch of newsprint has been used to document the many, um, oddities of the situation. A few days ago, J.D. Smith did the week’s work in the span of a few tweets.

 

“T-Bone” Smith co-hosts a sports-talk show at 97.1 The Fan. He is an ardent #SaveTheCrew supporter and a solid follow at @DegenerateTBone. His little tweetstorm focused on the four finalists for Major League Soccer expansion:

(Commissioner) Don Garber says, “Maybe Columbus should look at what Detroit and Nashville and Cincinnati and Sacramento are doing.” Let’s do just that …

First Detroit — They recently tabled their idea of building a soccer-specific stadium in favor of playing in the already built cavernous football stadium. So, the Crew should move back to Ohio Stadium. Got it.

 

Next, Nashville — They recently approved a stadium to be built on their fairgrounds, outside of their downtown. Columbus has already done that, but maybe he wants us to do it again?

 

Then, Cincinnati. They are currently selling season tickets for the 2018 season, the most expensive of which is $340 dollars. As the cheapest tickets Crew SC sells are $342 for a full season, that would indicate a drastic reduction in season ticket prices.

 

Finally, Sacramento, who recently announced they had secured deposits for 10k season tickets for next season. Seeing as how the Crew did this back in 1996, I would say job done there as well.
 

So to sum up, (Garber) wants Columbus to play in a cavernous football stadium, build a stadium at the fairgrounds, reduce ticket prices drastically, and secure 10k season ticket deposits. Do all of these things, Columbus, and maybe we can keep our team!

 

Crew supporters are at wit’s end trying to make sense of the senseless.

 

Columbus is second in national television ratings for ESPN’s MLS Cup playoff games. (Seattle, which won the title, is first.) The #SaveTheCrew movement snowballs with thousands of fans and hundreds of local businesses. It becomes clear that, as a 22-year-old soccer market, Columbus has held up extraordinarily well, and, with a new stadium, it will, indubitably, explode.

 

It also becomes clear that there is no such thing as “parallel paths.” Only one road has been marked, and it leads to Austin. Precourt has a legion of lobbyists and lawyers working back rooms in the Texas capital. There is none of that in Columbus, there is only a civic bashing (Garber calls the birthplace of American professional soccer “inconsequential”).

 

Can’t Precourt can sell the Crew to locals — eminently doable — with the promise that he’ll get an expansion team in Austin? There is no brooking of any such alternatives. Precourt and Garber want out, and they’re sprinting for the exit.

 

Those who hope their children and grandchildren will have an MLS team to root for in Columbus and who perceive the moral turpitude and calumny of what is being perpetuated on our city, try their best to bar the exit. They will have to stand with locked arms right through the holidays. It’s about to get real.

 

This week, the league is expected to announce which two cities will be awarded expansion franchises. If Cincinnati gets one, among the takeaways will be that the league is appeasing the state (goodbye lawsuit?) and greasing the tracks out of Columbus. Precourt is on record as saying he wants to choose an Austin site by Jan. 1, and he has eight plats for a stadium and/ or a practice facility from which to choose. Things may be well-settled by the time the Austin City Council votes on the matter in February.

 

#SaveTheCrew has done Columbus proud. Now is the time for that group, and for the mayor and other interested parties, to redouble their efforts. Is there a sugar daddy out there? Once MLS leaves, it’s not coming back. The departure is nigh. marace@dispatch.com @MichaelArace1

 

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http://digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODN/ColumbusDispatch/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TCD%2F2017%2F12%2F17&entity=Ar03303&sk=1209169C&mode=text

A couple of photoshops of the Save the Crew Facebook page

Relocate an original franchise? Expand the league? MLS mulls doing both at once

(by Geoff Baker seattletimes.com 12-10-17)

TORONTO – It was a scene typically not seen in professional sports.

Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber stood at the podium of a hotel ballroom giving his annual “State of the League’’ address Friday in which he simultaneously talked up an aggressive expansion path while defending the right to relocate a flagship franchise. Usually in pro sports, a league either busies itself trying to rectify weakness by relocating an existing team or it plays up its strengths by adding expansion franchises.

Leagues never do both at the same time, given the contradictory approaches and messages they would send.

But there’s nothing typical about MLS, its business model or the outcomes of its decisions to this point. It’s a league where television ratings have struggled to surpass even the WNBA’s, yet where stadium crowds rival the NFL in places. A league where franchise values continue to soar, despite the fact more Americans watch English Premier League television broadcasts than they do the domestic circuit.

 

By that standard, it was business as usual for MLS when, ahead of its showpiece championship, the assembled media wasn’t asking much about the finalist Sounders or Toronto FC squads. Instead, their questions to Garber were mostly about whether the Columbus Crew would be relocated to Austin, Texas, before the 2019 season.

“It’s not the league’s decision,’’ Garber told reporters. “It’s the league’s approval of an owner decision to determine whether or not moving out of Columbus is something that makes sense.’’

Crew owner Anthony Precourt bought the team from the Hunt family in 2013 and negotiated the right to relocate. After claiming losses of $40 million since, he began exploring relocation to Austin this year and talked openly about moving if a downtown-stadium solution in Columbus, Ohio, failed to materialize.

 

 

The whole thing has become a public-relations nightmare for the league. The Crew went on a playoff run and nearly upset Toronto to reach the final against Seattle before a late Jozy Altidore goal spared the league from further embarrassment ahead of its championship match.

It hasn’t helped that the mayor of Columbus has stated MLS is hampering talks in that city by allowing Precourt to conduct simultaneous negotiations with a rival location.

And yet, the league continues to condone the situation despite the Crew being one of its 10 original franchises from 1996. It was also the first MLS team to have a soccer-specific stadium built for it and won an MLS Cup title in 2008 with a squad that included current Sounders Chad Marshall and Brad Evans.

Garber didn’t mince words when spelling out how the Columbus marketplace isn’t keeping up with the aggressive pace of MLS growth. Garber barely stopped short of calling Columbus a hick town.

“You need to be in a situation where you can be viable,’’ Garber said. “As we have new teams coming in that are deeply connected within the community, with dramatically more commercial revenue, higher fan bases, all the measures that matter, what we’ve been experiencing in Columbus for many years is … it is among the lowest teams — 20 out of 22 — in every measure that matters in pro sports.’’

Those measures, he added, include average ticket price, average attendance, average revenue, local-television numbers and TV revenue.

“So there’s a lot that needs to happen to address those situations,’’ he said.

Meanwhile, the league continues to expand. It added Atlanta and Minnesota this past season, will put a second Los Angeles squad in next year and possibly one in Miami at some point if legal entanglements over a stadium project get resolved.

But even as lawyers muddle through that one, the league recently interviewed four finalist groups for two expansion cities to be added in 2019.

And as wacky and careless as this expansion-relocation approach might seem on the surface, the bankers seem to agree it works.

The average MLS squad, according to Forbes, jumped 20 percent in value this year to $223 million. That’s a 275 percent growth rate from five years ago. The Sounders were bought for a $30 million expansion fee in 2007 and now are worth $295 million — nearly 10 times their original price.

And the league, which owns a piece of every franchise, is pouring gains back in to the product. Garber announced Friday that each MLS team can use more Targeted Allocation Money (TAM) beyond the salary cap in 2018 and 2019 to attract the above-average — but not superstar — players to bolster rosters.

The maximum a player can earn under MLS rules is $480,625. But teams receive an additional $1.2 million of TAM annually to lure top import and domestic players — as long as no more than $1 million is spent on each.

Starting next year, teams will have up to $2.8 million in additional “discretional” TAM money that can be spent annually out of their own funds. And the limit that can be spent on any one player will jump from $1 million to $1.5 million.

Raising those TAM limits betters the players brought in and improves the league’s overall quality. The Sounders, for instance, have used TAM in recent years to add Roman Torres, Kelvin Leerdam and Victor Rodriguez.

So, while a league that discusses relocating an original franchise in the same breath it keeps expanding might seem unorthodox, the MLS path seems to be working.

For years, folks complained the league was too rinky-dink. Now, it’s doing something about it by aiming higher, at bigger markets with bigger money. And it will keep on doing it — even if means some casualties along the way.

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https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/sounders/relocate-an-original-franchise-expand-the-league-mls-mulls-doing-both-at-once/

Power Ranking after 22 seasons

(adjustments coming soon to take the Canadian Cup into consideration)

LA Galaxy * 11 total points
International titles + 1
Supporters Shield + 4
MLS Cup + 5
US Open Cup + 2
Relegation boot - 1

DC United * 9 total points
International titles + 2
Supporters Shield + 4
MLS Cup + 4
US Open Cup + 3
Relegation boot - 4

Kansas City * 7 total points
Supporters Shield + 1
MLS Cup + 2
US Open Cup + 4

Seattle Sounders * 6 total points
Supporters Shield + 1
MLS Cup + 1
US Open Cup + 4

Columbus Crew * 4 total points
Supporters Shield + 3
MLS Cup + 1
US Open Cup + 1
Relegation boot - 1

Chicago Fire * 3 total points
Supporters Shield + 1
MLS Cup + 1
US Open Cup + 4
Relegation boot - 3

San Jose Earthquakes * 2 total points
Supporters Shield + 2
MLS Cup + 2
Relegation boot - 2

Dallas * 2 points
Supporters Shield + 1
US Open Cup + 2
Relegation boot - 1

Houston Dynamo * 2 total points
MLS Cup + 2

New England Revolution * 1 point
International titles + 1
US Open Cup + 1
Relegation boot - 1

Miami Fusion * 1 point
Supporters Shield + 1

Real Salt Lake * 1 point
MLS Cup + 1

Portland Timbers * 1 point
MLS Cup + 1

Tampa Bay Mutiny * 0 points
Supporters Shield + 1
Relegation boot - 1

New York/New Jersey * 0 points
Supporters Shield + 2
Relegation boot - 2

Colorado Rapids * 0 points
MLS Cup + 1
Relegation boot - 1

Toronto FC * 0 points
Supporters Shield + 1
MLS Cup + 1
Relegation boot -2

NYC FC * 0 points

Orlando * 0 points

Minnesota United *0 points

Atlanta United *0 points

Chivas USA * - 1 point
Relegation boot - 1

Montreal Impact * - 1 point
Relegation boot - 1

Vancouver Whitecaps * - 1 point
Relegation boot - 1

Columbus Drops the Bomb on MLS, and Don's Dirty Hands

(by Bill Archer bigsoccer.com 12-7-17)

In a plot twist worthy of the the worst of novels, the 1996 theft of the Cleveland Browns by the universally detested Art Modell may end up making it impossible for Don Garber to steal the Columbus Crew.

Irony, thy name is SoccerDon.

There Garber was yesterday in his ultra-luxe suite high above fifth avenue in New York, whistling a happy tune, deciding between the scampi and the scallops for lunch and getting ready for the MLS Board of Governors meeting where he's going to give the increasingly impotent owners their marching orders on which two cities they will grant the high privilege of handing over, collectively, a $300 million payday.
Plus, with Columbus finally out of the playoffs he was finalizing his trip to Toronto to attend the MLS Cup game without having to decide between a) lying about being stuck in traffic and b) trying to pretend that he doesn't hear 22,000 people loudly suggesting he perform anatomically impossible acts on himself.

Then an obscure state legislator from Central Ohio named Mike Duffey (R - BiteMeDon) rolled a stink bomb into the Don's perfect day.

It seems that Duffey discovered an obscure law dating from the 1996 outrage over Modell's craven betrayal which may wreck Don and Tony's plans for being named Kings of the SXSW parade next year. It's a very short, concise law so I'll quote it in full:

Restrictions on owner of professional sports team that uses a tax-supported facility.

No owner of a professional sports team that uses a tax-supported facility for most of its home games and receives financial assistance from the state or a political subdivision thereof shall cease playing most of its home games at the facility and begin playing most of its home games elsewhere unless the owner either:

(A) Enters into an agreement with the political subdivision permitting the team to play most of its home games elsewhere;

(B) Gives the political subdivision in which the facility is located not less than six months' advance notice of the owner's intention to cease playing most of its home games at the facility and, during the six months after such notice, gives the political subdivision or any individual or group of individuals who reside in the area the opportunity to purchase the team.

Effective Date: 06-20-1996 .
(emphasis mine)

MAPFRE stadium sits on fully tax-abated land with well-below market rate rent and gleans considerable income from the state built and maintained paved parking lots surrounding the place. There's no question they're "tax-supported".

Since MLS has already turned down a very legitimate $150 million offer for the Crew, there's no question that Columbus is fully prepared to pony up the cash tomorrow and shortly thereafter build the downtown stadium which Garber and Precourt claim the Crew needs to meet whatever ethereal "business metrics" they demand.

However, as we all know, that's not what TheSoccerDon wants; he wants out of Columbus. Period.

Now in point of fact this law - which nobody knew about until just yesterday but which, in another signal achievement of Don Garber's tenure at the helm of MLS, if it sticks could quickly sweep the land from sea to shining taxpayer-funded stadium - has not, we're told by the legal types, been through the courts yet and nobody can say for sure how it will play out.

We can be fairly certain though that one of two things will happen here:

1) Various Ohio courts - tough luck on that one, eh? - will decide that the Crew will stay right where it is, thanks

2) An ugly, protracted legal battle which could take years to adjudicate will make a bunch of lawyers very rich and Don very unemployed.

Of course, as per usual, MLS has no comment whatsoever. Their media office has spent the last couple months refusing to answer the phone and that's likely to continue. They ought to let them spend the Winter in Florida.

However, from whatever bunker Fratass Tony is cowering in came this dispatch, without a header or a signature:

“Precourt Sports Ventures has seen the public remarks made by State Rep. Mike Duffey and PSV will not have further comment at this time."
Now in truth it would be hard to match Garber's craven public act of cowardice from last week's Eastern Conference semi-final match in Toronto when, after promising FoxSports that he would appear for a pregame interview with Alexi Lalas and "extensively" deal with questions surrounding the Crew, he then had his people tell them that he was "stuck in traffic" and wouldn't be appearing.

(Their eyerolls were, however, well worth tuning in for)

Apparently he was still "stuck in traffic" at halftime and during the postgame as well. Hell, Lalas would have gladly met him in the parking lot or the hotel bar or the SkyLounge at Toronto Pearson. Say what you want but Roger Goodell or Adam Silver or Rob Manfred, as arrogant as they are wouldn't dare pull a stunt like that.

The problem may have been that, earlier that day, the Mayor of the City of Columbus sent Garber and Precourt a very nice letter offering various routes to a stadium solution and inviting them to talk with him. MLS/PSV sent an insulting one sentence response - without header or signature - basically inviting His Honor to F*ck himself and possibly that didn't fit DonnyG's carefully vetted "extensively" prepared comments.

Who knows.

One other result of Rep. Duffey's letter to the Ohio AG will almost certainly be the torpedoing of Cincinnati's shot at being named one of the two expansion teams to be announced next week.

It looked very much like they were a front-runner, but a big part of that was always going to be a tacit statement about replacing Columbus with another Ohio team, thus proving that it's not about flyover country but "business metrics". However, with the Columbus legal issues up in the air it says here they're not going to give Cincy a damned thing.

In addition, they're going to want to take a serious look at locating a team in a state where it appears the law says they can never be removed. That takes away a big chunk of the league's (read: Garber's) power over a team, something they're not likely to cede without serious thought.

So unless the league is going to change their minds about not wanting to play at cavernous Ford Field in Detroit, this likely means "Welcome to MLS, Sacramento".

We'll look forward to seeing you play the Crew for many years to come.

Over the past few weeks I've heard the same question from a number of people which, to summarize, goes something like: "Archer, you ignorant slut, why do you keep blaming Garber for this mess? Isn't it really Precourt doing all of this?"

By way of an answer:

In Austin Texas there's a lawyer named Richard Suttle and I'll let the Austin Chronicle describe who he is in a 2010 article entitled "Suttle as a kick in the head":

Better count your chickens, Austinites, because Richard Suttle is loose in the henhouse again. Everyone's favorite developers' attorney is at City Council today ...

Now, the very fact that Richard Suttle is involved in this project should give everyone pause. He's the developers' equivalent of criminal attorney Roy Minton: the guy you go to when you're guilty, when you want to get something approved or subsidized that you really don't deserve."

This is the guy who appeared before Austin City Council last month getting them to agree to do an "inventory" of city parks to see which ones might have enough space for a soccer stadium.

Now in most places, if City officials want to know something like this, they call up the Parks Commissioner and ask him to fax over a list. Maybe 20 minutes, tops.

But apparently not in Austin. In Austin they need to send scout cars up and down the streets, tracking down signs that say "City Park" on them because, apparently, the Parks Department doesn't have a sheet of paper which lists, you know, City Parks.

The question is, who does Suttle work for down there? Well, here's a letter from Don:

 

 

Garber himself says that Suttle works for him. Precourt, PSV and the Crew are not mentioned.

And here, via the Austin City Clerk's office, and the indispensable Massive Report, is a list of registered lobbyists working in that city, all of whom are employed by Suttle's law firm - Armbrust & Brown - and all of whom report that they are working on behalf of "Major League Soccer, 450 Fifth Ave. New York:

 

 

 

There's lots more, like the PR firm Elizabeth Christian Public Relations, which has been retained to represent this whole charade down there - they admit to having hosted a series of "get acquainted meetings" for city officials and soccer reps, although the real question, as posed by Massive report is:

Does MLS have similar operations in any of the 12 expansion candidate cities?

And the answer of course is no. None at all. 12 other cities are knocking themselves out, spending significant amounts of money and time and other resources in an effort to land an MLS team. Meanwhile, Austin Texas is doing nothing, asking for nothing and contributing nothing: Don Garber is spending large amounts of league money and time trying to force the Columbus Crew down their throats.

It's insane.

However, the really instructive point is the date on Garber's letter: August 7.

Note that the MLS Board of Governors met at the All Star Game on August 2, and within a week MLS, in addition to giving Suttle what amounts to MLS credentials also registered two proposed team names including the monumentally unique and exciting "Austin FC". Meanwhile, PSV started the "MLS2ATX" website ("a community of supporters working together to bring Major League Soccer to Austin, TX.") and at least two astroturf twitter accounts purporting to be run by grassroots supporters.

(Deadspin called these astroturfing efforts "oafish" and I can't top that so I won't try, except to note that, since the people running them apparently didn't know how to turn "location" off on a Twitter, everyone saw that they were all being run out of Columbus Ohio, unquestionably by Crew employees working at MAPFRE Stadium offices.)

As I said, all this and much more happened immediately after the August 2 BoG meeting, making it appear very much like something was decided then that gave Precourt the green light.

So today as the suddenly gutless, suspiciously silent owners gather in Toronto - I hope someone makes sure Don gets there in time - they're going to get to review the fruits of that decision.

Now there's a wall well-worth being a fly on.


* BigSoccer Commandatore @Smithsoccer1721 informs me that an unknown local citizen was the one who told Rep, Duffey about the law.

(*UPDATE* Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine says that after a review of the applicable law,
"should ownership of the Columbus Crew initiate a move of the team without complying with Ohio law, I am prepared to take the necessary legal action under this law to protect the interests of the state of Ohio..")

 

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http://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/columbus-drops-the-bomb-on-mls-and-dons-dirty-hands.2079587/

BigSoccer comments after Garber's halftime comments

jayd8888 - Dons halftime comments made me sick.

Blong - What was it?

jayd8888 - Something other than, "We are doing our best to ensure that the Crew will stay in Columbus."

Yoshou - Garber pretty much threw Columbus’s business community under the bus.

He said that the league has reached a stage in its growth that it can’t really stay in markets whose business communities don’t embrace the team and that if Columbus’s business community had embraced the Crew before the potential move was announced like they are now, then the Crew wouldn’t be moving... He basically absolved the Crew’s ownership groups of any of the blame for failing to engage the business community..

MelbaToast - He's also blatantly lying. The business community has been trying to get involved with the Crew for a few years.

This is personal for Garber. I dont5know why he's made it his mission to get the Crew out of Columbus but it's clear to me this is vindictive.

kgilbert78 - I have a funny feeling someone (and perhaps more than one) in Columbus didn't "kiss his ring" at some point--perhaps when the ALL Star game was here or in 2008. He's ex-NFL and I wonder if some expectations came with that. But we may never know.

Supporters Shield winner

League Best

1996: Tampa Bay Mutiny
1997: D.C. United
1998: Los Angeles Galaxy
1999: D.C. United
2000: Kansas City Wizards
2001: Miami Fusion FC
2002: Los Angeles Galaxy
2003: Chicago Fire
2004: Columbus Crew
2005: San Jose Earthquakes
2006: D.C. United
2007: D.C. United
2008: Columbus Crew
2009: Columbus Crew
2010: Los Angeles Galaxy
2011: Los Angeles Galaxy
2012: San Jose Earthquakes
2013: New York Red Bulls
2014: Seattle Sounders FC
2015: New York Red Bulls
2016: FC Dallas
2017: Toronto FC

MLS Cup winners

1996: D.C. United
1997: D.C. United
1998: Chicago Fire
1999: DC United
2000: Kansas City Wizards
2001: San Jose Earthquakes
2002: Los Angeles Galaxy
2003: San Jose Earthquakes
2004: D.C. United
2005: Los Angeles Galaxy
2006: Houston Dynamo
2007: Houston Dynamo
2008: Columbus Crew
2009: Real Salt Lake
2010: Colorado Rapids
2011: Los Angeles Galaxy
2012: Los Angeles Galaxy
2013: Sporting Kansas City
2014: Los Angeles Galaxy
2015: Portland Timbers
2016: Seattle Sounders FC
2017: Toronto FC

US Open cup winners

1996: D.C. United
1997: Dallas Burn
1998: Chicago Fire
1999: Rochester Raging Rhinos
2000: Chicago Fire
2001: Los Angeles Galaxy
2002: Columbus Crew
2003: Chicago Fire
2004: Kansas City Wizards
2005: Los Angeles Galaxy
2006: Chicago Fire
2007: New England Revolution
2008: D.C. United
2009: Seattle Sounders FC
2010: Seattle Sounders FC
2011: Seattle Sounders FC
2012: Sporting Kansas City
2013: D.C. United
2014: Seattle Sounders FC
2015: Sporting Kansas City
2016: FC Dallas
2017: Sporting Kansas City

International Titles

1998 Concacaf Champions' Cup: D.C.United

1998 Inter-American Cup: D.C.United

2000 Concacaf Champions' Cup: Los Angeles Galaxy

2008 SuperLiga Champions: New England Revolution

2011 Emirates Cup: New York Red Bulls

MLS Relegation Boot

League worst

1996: Colorado Rapids
1997: San Jose Clash
1998: New England Revolution
1999: MetroStars
2000: San Jose Earthquakes
2001: Tampa Bay Mutiny
2002: D.C. United
2003: Dallas Burn
2004: Chicago Fire
2005: CD Chivas USA
2006: Columbus Crew
2007: Toronto FC
2008: Los Angles Galaxy
2009: New York Red Bulls
2010: D.C. United
2011: Vancouver Whitecaps
2012: Toronto FC
2013: D.C. United
2014: Montreal Impact
2015: Chicago Fire
2016: Chicago Fire
2017: DC United

MLS Super Cup

Supporter Shield winner vs. MLS Cup winner from previous year

1997: DC United
1998: DC United *
1999: Chicago Fire
2000: DC United *
2001: Kansas City Wizards *
2002: -not contested-
2003: Los Angeles Galaxy *
2004: Chicago Fire
2005: DC United
2006: -not contested-
2007: DC United
2008: Houston Dynamo
2009: Columbus Crew *
2010: Columbus Crew
2011: Los Angeles Galaxy
2012: Los Angeles Galaxy *
2013: San Jose Earthquakes
2014: New York Red Bulls
2015: Los Angeles Galaxy
2016: -no winner-
2017: Seattle Sounders FC
2018: Toronto FC*

(* title was undisputed)

Supporters supporting supporters

whereiend - So where is it that you are finding all the assholes from Austin? I think there has been like maybe 2 or 3 posters from Austin on this entire thread, and all we've done is take shit for saying anything not in alignment with #savethecrew. This isn't even a story in Austin until something that is actually concrete comes out. It seems like the people most interested in moving the Crew are Atlanta fans.

Crewmudgeon - My impression too. Seems like the new cool kids in burnt atlanta and bleeding kansas bring the most shade.

The true Crew haters in DC and Chicago want the Crew to contunue so they can keep hating. I respect that.

There once was a time when supporters supported supporters.

Built Not Bought

Crew tifo I'm assuming on the team's 20th anniversary.

"Built Not Bought" is being thrown around a lot lately in US soccer.

What the

Ughh.....

I used to like Rob Stone back in the day when he did his World Wide Soccer show.

Now I want to punch him in the face.

Bring your hammers

Fan proposed update to Crew stadium

artwork by Eric Nicodemus

Proudly made in Columbus

 

RSL's women's pro team to be named Utah Royals FC

(by Josh Furlong ksl.com 12-1-17)

Utah’s newest professional soccer team, Real Salt Lake’s National Women’s Soccer League, has a new name: Utah Royals FC.

The name, which was announced early Friday morning by RSL, is the final piece to the puzzle for the new women’s team, who earlier in the week named their head coach Laura Harvey. The name and its logo hints to several aspects of the RSL identity.  The logo, which continues with the club’s Claret Red, Cobalt Blue and Victory Gold colors, features the lioness with a crown and Utah’s Delicate Arch.  The club said its inaugural home and away NIKE jerseys will be released in the coming weeks, prior to the Jan. 18 NWSL college draft. The names of front office personnel will also be released at this time. T-shirts with the new logo will be available at both RSL team stores Saturday, Dec. 2 at 10 a.m. The Utah Royals FC will open up its season on Saturday, April 14 at Rio Tinto Stadium in the NWSL’s sixth season. The NWSL is a ten-team women’s professional soccer league, including teams Boston Breakers, Chicago Red Stars, Houston Dash, North Carolina Courage, Orlando Pride, Portland Thorns FC, Seattle Reign FC, Sky Blue FC and the Washington Spirit.

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https://www.ksl.com/?sid=46208902&nid=857&title=rsls-womens-pro-team-to-be-named-utah-royals-fc

1994 World Cup squad