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Columbus Crew Owner Anthony Precourt has announced the MLS team will be moving to Austin for the 2019 season, if plans for a downtown stadium in Columbus are not approved within the next 12 months. Columbus has struggled financially, finishing in the bottom 3 of every MLS business metric for a decade, as stadium amenities lag far behind league standards. Team President Alex Fischer said Precourt has turned down offers to sell the team to investors who wish like to keep the franchise in Columbus.
Howie Long-Short: Same story, different city/franchise. Precourt wants a public subsidy for his private business and since Columbus hasn’t been willing to give it to him, he will go to Austin to get it. Stadium deals are never a good investment for taxpayer funding. The taxes collected on any hypothetical “economic growth” will never off-set the upfront funding spent.
Fan Marino: Precourt has no intention of staying in Columbus, even if they were to approve public financing for a new stadium. Any pretense of staying in Columbus is about squeezing more money out of Austin. That’s a shame. The Crew are an original MLS franchise and had the league’s first soccer-specific stadium. They’re also having a good season on the pitch, qualifying for the 2017 playoffs. It’s always the fans that lose in these negotiations.
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