Columbus Crew using city to improve its new situation in Austin

The Columbus Crew’s ownership isn’t serious about staying, merely using the hypothetical situation as leverage in their negotiations with the city of Austin.

Make no mistake about it, the Columbus Crew are gone. The pretense of seeking a downtown stadium in Columbus is just using what leverage the franchise has to get the city of Austin to commit more public financing toward a new facility there.

According to Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated, a press conference on Tuesday will feature Crew owner Anthony Precourt announcing that unless the club gets a new stadium in downtown Columbus, he will take his ball and go to Austin. A larger consideration of the details of the situation point toward Precourt already being more than halfway gone, however.

All hope isn’t lost for the Crew staying, and actually, Precourt needs everyone involved to believe that he is open to interrupting relocation plans. Wahl’s article makes it clear that in either city, Precourt not only insists on a new facility, but is demanding public assistance in erecting that venue as well. Like MLS’ expansion bids, public financing is deemed necessary because the invested parties lack the capital to purchase land and build on it.

The situation could be read as Precourt using the threat of relocating his franchise to Austin to get the city’s government and voters to acquiesce to his requests, but other details create a narrative that is exactly the opposite story.

Wahl’s sources state that while the Crew have been seeing good returns on the pitch, the returns in a more important place are diminished. MLS franchises are businesses first and foremost, with a primary allegiance to profit. The bottom line has been hurting in Columbus, and it’s uncertain whether a new stadium alone could turn that around.

With that doubt in mind about the long-term feasibility of conducting business in Columbus, relocating to Austin becomes much more attractive even without the promise of a new stadium. There are still some unsettled matters there, however, and that’s why Columbus is the bargaining chip for negotiations in Austin, not the other way around.

The desired taxpayer funding for a new stadium is subject to not one but two public referendums in the city. It’s unclear whether the ballot measure has enough support to pass. Recent history hasn’t been kind to public referendums authorizing public assistance for the construction or renovation of sporting facilities.

If both/either of the referendums fail, the burden to try to work out a deal to bring the Crew to Austin could fall upon the city’s government. That’s who Precourt is targeting by maintaining the perception that he is indifferent to which city gives his franchise a new stadium, he is simply insisting on that provision.

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This isn’t a story about a franchise using the threat of relocation to get what it wants. This is a franchise that mentally has already moved on because it has soured on its current situation, and is merely using that situation as leverage to sweeten its deal in what it considers to be greener pastures.