Sunday, December 31, 2017

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.

---------------------

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

Sunday, December 24, 2017

Friday, December 22, 2017

Thursday, December 21, 2017

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.

Wednesday, December 20, 2017

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
 
-------------------
 

A couple of photoshops of the Save the Crew Facebook page


Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

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.


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.

-------------------

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

Monday, December 11, 2017

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

Sunday, December 10, 2017

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..")
 
--------------------
 

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.

Saturday, December 9, 2017

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.

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

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.

Monday, December 4, 2017

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.

Friday, December 1, 2017

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.

------------------

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

1994 World Cup squad


Wednesday, November 29, 2017

We are all Columbus


Sending good chi Columbus' way



Good luck tonight in your battle for most precious metal where sun and grass meet.

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Stadiums

ElJefe - Oh yeah, the Hunts, Kroenke, and Hauptman have really distinguished themselves over the years with their brilliant marketing and outreach efforts, so it must be the suburban stadium, right?

BTW, answer me this: If suburban stadiums are "the problem," why does FC Dallas get more people now in their horrible suburban stadium (in one of the fast growing cities in the United States) than they did when they played two miles east of downtown Dallas?


MelbaToast - Yes, they know how to market their teams. We're talking about sports entertainment moguls. Their problems, however, are the product of the MLS 1.5 mindset.

The in vogue thing to do for such moguls in the times of MLS 1.5 was purchase one of ASG's many teams (the Hunts aside), acquire cheap land in a suburb, and place a below-grade, future-expansion-made-easy soccer/concert stadium there. For their desired demographic, they chose suburban Boomer and Gen-X soccer moms and their Millennial kids. The results were sterile, cookie-cutter "family friendly" atmospheres and a group of stadiums that weren't attractive to the less-than-desirables: the urbanites; the rowdy people who drink and swear and make a lot of noise; the people who, if they were too numerous, would surely scare off the precious suburbanites.

It was a marketing strategy that nearly killed the league. MLS 2.0 teams did better to attract the urbanite demographic, and MLS 3.0 teams have seized it.

Learn from history or...you know.

Now, have you asked yourself, 'Why are the business-people in Columbus suddenly so desperate to keep the team?' 5 years ago they couldn't have given less of a shit. The simple answer is: they now use the Crew to attract business and young employees. Likewise, the Crew enable the city to sell itself as progressive: the young demographic in this country is into soccer, thus having a soccer team is cool and attractive. What's cool and attractive to young people, is cool and attractive to businesses.

What would make things even sexier? "We have a downtown soccer stadium." Holy Millennial sploosh!

What would kill the vibe? Suburban shopping center soccer; a total Millennial cock-block.

Believe you me, Hunt, Kroenke, and Hauptman know they messed up by building in Frisco, Commerce City, and Bridgeview. There's nothing they can do now but sell (which they won't do) or wait until their stadiums need replacing. So, they're simply stuck biding their time another decade, at which time you'll see them and the league go into full-on stadium lobby mode. New stadiums in better locations will be built, and with them the whole "rebrand" thing. New crest, new digs, maybe new colors all to disassociate from the epic failures of MLS 1.0-1.5.

Dirty Rats


A fictitious team I think, or maybe a rec league team.

Cool logo nonetheless.

Sunday, November 26, 2017

How the Bundesliga puts the Premier League to shame

https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2010/apr/11/bundesliga-premier-league

Why are we talking about a new soccer stadium and not a new viaduct?

http://www.wcpo.com/news/insider/column-why-are-we-talking-about-a-new-soccer-stadium-and-not-a-new-viaduct

Best US cities for millennials are in the Midwest, South, says new study

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/18/best-u-s-cities-for-millennials-are-in-the-midwest-south-says-new-study.html

Deconstructing the American game and the problems so many thought never existed

(thesefootballtimes.co 10-30-17)

For the American game at large from every conceivable angle – nothing is what it seems. A diverse country with vast amounts of resources and a well-established sporting infrastructure has ensured these necessary elements – diversity and resource allocation – aren’t utilised to maximise the American game. From the outside, American football looks like a buzzing and thriving sport. In many ways, that is true. However, looking past the dog and pony show, unsettling elements are at play.

American football requires a shot of truth serum to make headway beyond merely being a participant in world football. That shot might as well be rattlesnake venom because American football is indeed snakebitten.

The prevailing perspective shouldn’t solely focus on the failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. Rather, American football must frame its expectations differently. The more apt conversation should be about why the US is not capable of challenging for the World Cup instead of merely not qualifying. That discussion requires addressing the plethora of issues and the lack of accountability from the top-down.

The US has coupled participation trophies as the ultimate reward instead of actual development in youth sports, mainly football, must own up to some unsettling realities. If qualifying for the World Cup out of CONCACAF, a region designed for the US and Mexico to emerge from, is a standard, then it’s clear mediocrity has become the standard.

It’s not enough to ask whether or not US Soccer – from a federation level – wants to merely participate or if it intends to actually compete on the world’s stage. Here’s why: for the last 25 years, American football fell into a cycle of congratulatory acclaim for triumphs on the men’s side of the game: hosting the 1994 World Cup, setting up Major League Soccer and keeping it afloat, and qualifying for seven consecutive World Cups since 1990. For all the good those milestones did, other countries within CONCACAF  improved too – largely due to the resources available within the US.

The American game finds itself at a crossroads whose intersection is the focal point where questions, accusations and troubling realisations have collided. For the first time in recent memory, issues that continue to hamper development now dominate all American football-centric discussions and debates.

Before change can occur, identifying the ills and shortcomings of the system must be addressed starting with the entities that dictate and run US Soccer, Major League Soccer, and Soccer United Marketing (SUM). This collection people and businesses controlling American soccer’s trajectory look determined to continue to resist the systemic reform and wholesale changes necessary to maximise the potential of American football.

Dissecting and analysing American football is an exercise in madness. Conversations and debates range from franchise models versus fan-owned clubs, playoffs versus single table league standings, promotion-relegation versus a closed system, and the type of athletes that play football to name a few. As relevant or idiotic as those arguments may or may not be, one element continues to be ignored: culture. Culture dictates everything when it comes to a sport like football. 

The United States has no shortage of resources, players, fields, minivans, orange slices and participants. What it doesn’t have is a true culture on a large-scale basis. Vital elements like self-play, recreation games, and street football are not woven into the fabric of society in ways that basketball, American football and baseball are.

From the earliest years, parents and coaches ensure any creativity is coached out of players. Youth tournaments are regionalised and nationalised when competition ought to be localised – an element that has turned a working-class, simple sport into a cash cow, money-fuelled business. By the time a youth player is established, the game functions like a chore or extracurricular activity more than it does a lifestyle. Parents demand results for monies paid to coaches with an eye on results over development.

Football is not part of the every day for enough of American society. Yes, there are pockets and players that live and breathe the game – and in many ways, they are the ones who lose out the most. Not enough kids dribble to the bus stop with a ball at their foot, nor do enough congregate at parks or in the cul-de-sacs across the country to play in unsupervised and unstructured environments. Where other countries have courts dedicated to and populated with aspiring players of all ages and ability levels living, breathing, and bleeding the game, the US continues to lock the gates, post the “stay off the field” signs, and ignore the fundamental aspect and form of football, which needs to start at home.

There is a curious culture associated with the American game. As trendy, enthusiastic, patriotic and hip as it may be, this culture is also misguided. The culture dominating football is a strange coalescence of jingoistic, beer-soaked support that is incredibly fervent. However, no matter how overzealous the pageantry and patriotism may be, the critical element of authenticity isn’t there. Instead, it’s a chop and drop job of ‘mockney’ and capo-led chants spliced with traditional American sports rallying calls shoehorned into the global game. Fans can proclaim their team name and add “till I die” all they want – the dominant culture still lacks the elements that make passion for the game a lifestyle, not a seasonal thing. 

Make no mistake, football is still regarded as a niche sport in the US – this is by design. One has to wonder what would happen football if casual attitudes and platitudes were deprioritised. Accountability – on and off the pitch – would reshape football from the top-down. As it stands, the accompanying media and pundit teams tasked with covering the sport is largely-compromised, fearful of losing access for asking the critical questions of Major League Soccer, the United States Soccer Federation (USSF), and really, of itself.

A lack of accountability and journalistic integrity has helped dictate the tone of a fanbase that is either conditioned to default to a just-be-grateful-football-exists-here stance, thus diverting and convoluting necessary elucidation of the system, national team programs, domestic leagues as outright attacks. It’s this misconception that has driven a pike into American’s fan base and history.

For some, football has always been part of the American sporting landscape with a rich history of the U.S. Open Cup and numerous friendlies, historic games and leagues that warred with other sports and football itself triggering the death knell for the game for extended periods of time. But for others, it truly began in 1994 with the World Cup in the US or perhaps in 1996 when Major League Soccer kicked-off. The disparate points of views are hot-button debates in any noted circle.

Presently, the state of American football should never have been defined by one game, but that’s exactly what happened. The fate or success of the game at-large shouldn’t rest on the shoulders of 11 players and a bullish manager that could not find a way to win when it mattered most, yet this is precisely what is happening.

Discussions revolving around this snapshot risk being disingenuous and ignoring the success and excellence of women’s football, which has been able to make winning a tradition and World Cup triumphs a standard. And there, too, the world is catching up.

Football hangs on tenterhooks as the philosophical clash between the status quo of American sporting ideologies that long baulked at a sport it deems foreign, soft and “un-American”. The complexity of the game is a frustrating case study of clashing philosophies gone awry in such bewildering and unnecessary ways.

There’s more to the American game than the USSF seems to recognise. The federation, with its surplus of funds, resources, labels and influence, governs a sport that is disjointed top-to-bottom. The lack of continuity between the federation and any feeder associations, clubs and leagues has shown that American football’s footprint is defined by warring factions and fiefdoms, all of which are looking out for their own business interests.

We indeed find ourselves in strange times.

The condition of the game has never been falsely greater than at the present. In many ways, the story of American football represents the parable of Daedalus and his ill-fated, arrogant son Icarus in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The wings Daedalus made for himself and Icarus represent the power that comes with harnessing their utility. The United States and the powers at be claim to have the knowledge, infrastructure and the power to be successful.

In the mythological story, the instructions for Icarus were simple: resist the urge to fly too high to avoid the heat of the sun from melting the waxed coated wings and not to allow his level fall too low lest the sea foam to soak the feathers rendering flight impossible. The men’s national team attempted to soar high while dropping its standards far too low. The result was arguably the most ridiculous collapse in American football history.

Peeling back the layers, the inconvenient truth is that the USSF and the men’s national team, composed mainly of players from Major League Soccer, played the tragic character whose hubris clung like a wet cape. The team’s concentration, partly-deterred by a coach’s arrogance before the match, didn’t compete and execute. In more metaphorical terms, it flew too close to the sun and, in so doing, melted the paraffin wax that held its meekly-constructed wings together. American football, not just the federation and the national team, got burned.

On that fateful night in Trinidad and Tobago, along with far too many other performances during this past World Cup qualification cycle, the team was disjointed, unmotivated and unwilling to take control of the contest. As such, the ascension of the American game, the progress of the domestic game and national program that Sunil Gulati, Bruce Arena, scores of MLS pundits and media members, and loyal, league-serving fans claim has reached great heights over the better part of 25 years, seems less impressive.

And so, a quarter of a century and some change after qualifying for the 1990 World Cup – against Trinidad and Tobago, no less – it is American football’s ascension that’s matched by its plummet back to earth in a sobering and shocking reality. The fiery re-entry into an unforgiving atmosphere stings. And this hangover is going to last as long as the behaviours that caused it in the first place persist.

American football is plagued by many things. Revisionist history, protectionist practices, relying on the next youngster to save the American game, depending on a system that makes it possible for predominately affluent families to excel in, are but a few of the myriad of systemic issues. The most egregious issue, however, may be allowing the game to remain in total control by monopolists asserting that the current closed system is the best way. Perhaps two decades ago, that may have been the case – but the times have changed. The football world has grown more intertwined with business, and a generation of Americans are waiting for and wanting for a new system.

As the election for president of US Soccer approaches, the waiting and wanting of a new system will not be enough if Americans are not willing to work for change. The prevailing attitude that the closed system works is not wrong. It does work as a monopolistic business model. As a football model, however, it continues to impose a ceiling on itself. The US game continues to handcuff itself by not prioritising systemic reform.

The inconvenient truth of American football is that it is fuelled by enablers lurking in the shadows. These enablers pounce on every success, taking credit when it’s convenient while masterfully having excuses at the ready for every shortcoming whether it be the “newness” of MLS and a stable league in the US compared to foreign leagues. Again, American football has a richer history than many care to acknowledge, allowing apologists for the current system to baulk at talk of reform.

Elements of Major League Soccer, from the media to messaging, is conciliatory, acting as an effective force channelling faux platitudes and pumping ridiculous narratives such as predicting MLS will be a ‘top five league by 2022’. Moreover, Major League Soccer and its messaging does a masterful job of convincing the casual American fan base that it must relent and submit to a totalitarian system built on centralised control — a bold triumvirate of the power structure of Major League Soccer, Soccer United Marketing (SUM) and the USSF.

American football is a paradoxical fabrication of a sporting ethos at war with itself. A partitioned ‘soccer-first culture’ is no longer silent; it’s aggressive in its expression of dissatisfaction. The overarching, general distaste for football by the mainstream public and media personalities continues to clash with dominant pockets of the game at odds with the stagnation and convolution of the domestic league structure and governance methods.

Many who grew up supporting MLS and football on every level – before the glitz and glamour, television deals, Eurocentric rebrands and a slew of other marketing strategies – have morphed into a subculture demanding change.

Today’s fan, player and coach has access to the global game and a higher standard of play. Where a generation or two ago young players could only dream of watching the best players and teams every weekend, today’s audience sees at a molecular level. The effect places pressure on the domestic leagues, especially MLS, to raise the quality of the product on the pitch.

The debate as to whether Americans like MLS or not is off the mark. Americans prefer foreign leagues over MLS and want the domestic product to maximise its potential and improve. Again, culture is everything. Young players grow up dreaming of playing abroad, not in the US. Ironically and predictably, this leads to a predictable us versus them narrative where MLS fans and the media have twisted the narrative to frame those who criticise MLS as agents that ‘aren’t helping the American game’.

In the US, people have mistaken participation in football for quality. The truth is that the current system isn’t constructed to produce the requisite talent to dominate on the global or regional stage frequently enough. Of course, there are outliers, but it can be argued that those players and coaches developed despite the system, not because of it.

American football is still too off-the-pace with the global standard and mired in false equivalencies to such an extent that its reality is skewed and full of misnomers. The term “academy” and the flippant use of labels creates a false sense of quality. Major League Soccer is not a major league. It’s not nearly competitive enough on the field with top club sides residing in CONCACAF let alone compared to top European and South American teams.

Young players grow up siloed in grandiose categories of lie-ridden semantics that define the cost-heavy family and player-funded youth system. Many actually believe if their club team is called elite, premier or select, that it is, which is not only an outright misappropriation of the perception and terms – it’s a marketing ploy to fuel the industry that is youth football.

Examining why on the men’s side the US failed to qualify for the last two Olympic cycles and the 2018 World Cup is essential and painstaking. Factors such as pay-to-play, affordable and available coaching education, the absence of an open and connected tiered professional system (promotion-relegation), the refusal of the USSF to incentivise and reward player development by way of solidarity payments and training compensation, the reliance of the restrictive collegiate system at a crucial age range, all play a pivotal role. Identifying and listing the obvious and not-so-obvious elements contributing the latest failure of the national team only tells part of the story.

There is enough blame to go around for failing to qualify for the World Cup in such a ridiculous manner. This latest fail point is merely a symptom of attempting to shoehorn a truly global game into a restrictive and Americanised schema. The outright refusal to pump more resources, focus attention, improve education and a put a substantive presence in the country’s underserved communities, be they rural or urban, has resulted in a dependence on the typecast suburban-centric archetype of the American player.

Furthermore, the type of player produced at the US Soccer Development Academy level is technically and arguably tactically more talented and superior than any preceding generation, yet that same type of player has neither the compete level nor the creativity to find a way to win, as evidenced by consecutive Olympic qualification cycles before crashing out against a Trinidad and Tobago team playing for pride.

This fault falls less on the players and more on the system by which these players were produced and promoted. Make no mistake, the system’s business motivations suppress the player and coaching development and total advancement of football on the field. The industry that is American football is predicated on appeasing cheque-signing parents, producing coaches that value results over development, and shielding the sport from true criticism.

Many are asking what is necessary to change the landscape and fortunes of American football and those involved are not asking the wrong questions – they are having the wrong conversation. There is unlikely to be a single solution that operates as a panacea for all the ills and deficiencies of the domestic game from the youth to professional levels. If there is one, it is a truly open system where player development becomes an industry. Where investment in all tiers of the game is not a Ponzi scheme but a truly open and free market. Additionally, incentivising player and coaching development must be key drivers. Creating and fostering football as a cultural pillar is paramount.

So, what does progress really look like?

Looking at Germany, Belgium and even Iceland’s reboots are helpful, and elements of those models can be implemented in the US, however, wholesale copy and paste comparisons will not work. Perhaps shifting expectations to more realistic levels is the first step forward. Instead of labelling anything related to American football as “world-class”, the USSF should aim to make the necessary reformation steps to help the current and future generations.

The American game has been found out. It needs less marketing and more implementation to correct the false sense of entitlement throughout the system. Results-wise, the American standard of play and player is falling behind at the senior level. At the youth levels, be it with the national team or at clubs, American players remain competitive until around the age of 17 or 18. Here, yet another imposed ceiling in the form of a restrictive collegiate system where little-to-no development can occur only hampers coaches and players. Without a cohesive nine-month college system, the 18 to 22 age range continues to be shanghaied.

The most obvious element is the scarcity of professional teams and a professional system that should have no fewer than four or five tiers covering the American landmass; it’s no surprise the American game is at risk of falling further behind.

For all the reported commercial success of Major League Soccer, the standard of play and the standard of the player produced has plateaued. MLS Commissioner, Don Garber, is on record stating that the league continues to lose money year after year. The league’s formation hinged upon many promises, one of them being the development and advancement of the American player and the men’s national team program.

MLS has marginalised the American player in a multitude of ways in the pursuit of commercial success and in an attempt to popularise itself to a subsection of new-to-football fans. For example, if a team had a $30 million payroll in MLS, it’s likely three well-known, ageing, domestic or international players are making $27 million while the rest make peanuts. As hyperbolic as that example may be, it’s what has happened.

Major League Soccer, the NASL, and USL, NPSL, and PDL levels require cohesion. There has to be a pathway between the professional and semi-professional levels for players to improve in. Reform is as necessary as it is unlikely with the current powers at be in place. Football in the United States is a business, and it has run amok.

Time will tell whether the American game can learn and evolve. The best case scenario is taking advantage of the time before the next cycle lest that time take advantage of US Soccer. From a leadership perspective, it must throw the ego out. American football has far too many con men operating as confidence men. The time for change is long overdue. The players, resources and potential exist. The task is recognising that problem exists and addressing it immediately, collaboratively and effectively.

https://thesefootballtimes.co/2017/10/30/deconstructing-the-american-game-and-the-problems-so-many-thought-never-existed/

Temecula FC



Temecula Football  Club is an American soccer club, based in Temecula, california that plays in the NPSL. Founded as Temecula Football Club August 2nd 2013 and plays it's home matches at Linfield Christian or Temecula Valley High School. Temecula Football Club inaugural season was 2014. Nicknamed the Quails. 

http://www.temeculafc.com/default.asp

Lionsbridge FC Named New PDL Club


Virginia-based announced as expansion team ahead of 2018 season

http://www.uslpdl.com/news_article/show/856025?referrer_id=2242498

Saturday, November 25, 2017

Still more good posts on BigSoccer

ManiacalClown - I'm just watching you put words in my mouth and laughing, mostly.

whereiend - Sorry, it's difficult to separate the few reasonable individual opinions from the chorus of blind emotional support for #savethecrew.

PodinCowtown - Our support for #savethecrew isn't blind. It's a combination of anger at being lied to so blatantly by Precourt with his assurances of his commitment to Columbus at the same time he was laying the groundwork for a move to Austin. And the puzzlement of moving to Austin, which isn't obviously a better market and where pro soccer has recently failed at the minor league level.

whiteonrice04 - And the league aiding in the lying to fans

AndyMead - Sports is emotional. Soccer doubly so. It's why any of us are still here on BigSoccer when everyone else has left for Twitter or Snapchat or whatever. We can't let go.

HailtotheKing - Here's my question, and it relates to a "belief" of the SupportersUnion:

They believe that OWNERSHIP GROUPS, not cities, submit expansion bids in order to place a team in a certain market ... to wit:

Why is it believed by Garber and Precourt that ATX is a good market when: NOBODY IN ATX DID?


AndyMead - They're smarter than other people?

There are a lot of reasons that second tier cities may not have a local rich guy interested in owning a professional sports team.

The two most successful soccer businessmen in America over the last 30 years live near me, and not once have they shown any interest in taking an ownership stake in any professional sports club - anywhere.

As much as people talk about ROI and "making money" - most people don't own sports teams to get rich. It's a terrible investment. It's important (as Horowitz and Checketts will attest) not to lose too much money, but it's mostly about ego and being an alpha dog.

The "smart money" doesn't buy sports teams. The idle rich, or the uber-rich with idle money, and an ego to feed buy sports teams.

Bringing pro soccer team to Austin, building stadium may trigger vote

(by Philip Jankowski mystatesman.com 11-24-17)

While local soccer enthusiasts might be elated at the news that a Major League Soccer team is serious about making Austin its home, they might have to persuade Austin residents at large to approve bringing the city’s first professional sports franchise.

An election over bringing the Crew SC soccer team — currently based in Columbus, Ohio — to Austin for the 2019 season is becoming a growing possibility as parkland in the core of the city is emerging as a potential location for a stadium that would need to seat at least 20,000 people.

Such a drastic change to parkland would be reminiscent of an effort two years ago to build world-class golf courses in far East Austin, something that the city ultimately said would likely need an election.

While Crew SC owner Anthony Precourt has promised he won’t use taxpayer money to build a facility, the economics would make much more sense if the city were able to provide the land for it free of charge.

To that end, the Austin City Council has ordered the city to research what city-owned land could be used for a MLS stadium, including parkland. Several media reports show that Butler Shores Metropolitan Park has emerged as the most attractive location for Precourt.

The park sits in a choice spot along Lady Bird Lake, just behind the Zach Theatre where Barton Creek empties into the Lady Bird Lake. It also meets Precourt’s goal of having a stadium in the city’s core.

But repurposing the parkland would likely trigger a public election, something Precourt’s lobbyist Richard Suttle said Precourt’s company would prefer to avoid.

Suttle said the company has conducted surveys leading it to believe voters would approve a proposal to bring the team to Austin. But holding an election could threaten Precourt’s desired timeline for a move to Austin for the 2019 MLS season.

Precourt would like to have a site for a stadium picked by Jan. 1 and an agreement with the city in place by the summer. Meetings those deadlines would be difficult if the city held an election in either March or May, and outright impossible if a soccer election were held in November 2018.

“We are not afraid of an election on bringing in MLS to Austin,” Suttle told the American-Statesman. “The only concern I can think of is we have a finite amount of time to take advantage of this opportunity and we would have to evaluate whether an election scenario fits into the scheduling.”

Texas law states that no parkland can be sold at any price without voter approval. Austin’s city charter underlines the law, adding restrictions for leasing parkland as well. A drastic change in purpose for parkland would also trigger an election under state law.

But laws mandating an election are not entirely ironclad. Suttle said a stadium could be considered a parkland use. Concession contracts do permit government land to be used for private business purposes. The city also refused to give a definitive answer to whether an election would be necessary.

Council Member Kathie Tovo, who spearheaded a resolution to search for city-owned land as a possible home for a MLS stadium, said she sees similarities to a previous attempt to build a world-class golf course on parkland in 2015.

Tovo said that when the council was considering building the PGA-level golf courses at Walter E. Long Metropolitan Park, the contract before the council felt like “a way of skirting a vote.”

The plan had firm support from then-City Manager Marc Ott, but stalled after Ott signaled that having an election would likely be the best course of action. In the end, the council opted to request a new master plan for the entire park.

Voters also narrowly defeated a proposal to turn a portion of the park into a hotel and golf courses in 2000.

Tovo told the Statesman the city might be best served by holding an election if the council attempts a license agreement with Precourt for a stadium. She said her resolution asking the city’s staff to identify city-owned properties that could serve as a possible stadium location was a way for the city to get ahead of the likely large amounts of input it would receive if parkland is chosen.

“It was important to me that we approach any consideration of locating a soccer stadium in a way different from the Walter E. Long discussion several years ago,” she said. “I want to make sure that at the outset we discuss whether community benefits outweigh the loss of a public space.”

But Tovo said she wanted to hear what the city attorney’s office thinks about whether an election would be required.

Austin resident Bill Oakey, a retired accountant who blogs about affordability, has researched the laws and said that using parkland for a stadium would “absolutely” require an election. The scale of the project would move it beyond smaller concession contracts, and Oakey said he would support a large-scale, public-private partnership if it brought in revenue for the city’s parks.

“That would be a win-win, but it would have to come with an election,” he said.

And even with indications that voters might support it, Circuit of the Americas Chair Bobby Epstein, who is working to bring a minor league team from the United Soccer League to the track’s land in 2019, said there is always a risk when voters are involved.

“The more hurdles you have to jump over, certainly the more challenging the goal becomes,” Epstein said.

-------------------

http://www.mystatesman.com/news/local-govt--politics/bringing-pro-soccer-team-austin-building-stadium-may-trigger-vote/ymo5qgrdNMXBgebhMEvA6N/

Baltimore Bohemians and beer




(more to come)