Arace Article: Crew Sale Would Be First Step To Las Vegas

Mike Arace is a kick ass, sportswriter for the Dispatch.

All I have to say is the beers our on the Nordecke for Arace this Saturday(his picture is above for easy identification on who we give the beers to). He hit the Las Vegas group right on the nail in this article. LINK HERE.

His commentary: "Hard-core Crew supporters have taken to calling their team "Massive," as in, "Did you see Massive drill the Revolution last night?" One fan wrote to explain: "We Crew fans love to refer to our team as Massive because even though our own league is against us, they still cannot keep us down."

The paranoia is well-founded. Major League Soccer really is after them. In fact, by all appearances, the league is going to take their team and move it to Las Vegas.

Sports Business Journal on Monday reported that a group fronted by California businessman Mark Noorzai is negotiating to purchase a piece of the Crew from Hunt Sports Group. Paul Caligiuri, spokesman for the Noorzai group, indicated a deal is close. Yes, this is the same Caligiuri who in 1996 sued the league to be removed from Columbus and placed in Los Angeles.

Caligiuri is among America's most decorated soccer players and has lent his name to a purchasing group that is said to be worth billions. That group has been attempting to land an MLS expansion franchise, with the aim of placing it in a $500 million Las Vegas complex with a retractable-roof stadium and a casino hotel. The complex is a mere blueprint right now, but the way it has been portrayed, it can spring up from the desert next week, if need be.

Caligiuri said the prospective new investors would not move the Crew and that the pursuit of an expansion franchise for Las Vegas would continue. Crew general manager Mark McCullers and Hunt Sports Group president John Wagner each told The Dispatch yesterday that the team is not moving to Las Vegas.

But the facts aren't fitting together. And the current confusion will pale in comparison to what is to come when the deal to buy the Crew is consummated. That is when a smoke screen, to cover the crating and removal of the team to Vegas, will thicken.

A message will be tailored to sucker patrons into buying tickets from a lame-duck franchise. It'll be a simple bait and switch. Two years down the line, when the stadium complex is finished in Vegas, the new owners will say they're still losing money in Columbus (most MLS owners are losing money). They will say they haven't been able to secure an expansion team (Vegas is far down a nine-team list). They will say the only thing left to do is move the Crew.

The Hunts threw in $5 million to get the Crew started 13 years ago. There was at least one subsequent cash call by the league. They spent another $28 million to build Columbus Crew Stadium, the nation's first soccer-specific stadium. Ultimately, when they sell off the whole of their shares, they will still make a tidy profit. The Hunts have been civic-minded in the past, but I don't think their hearts are bleeding for Columbus' future. This isn't Kansas City.

Look at the evidence and follow the money:

The late Lamar Hunt made the Crew a model franchise during the league's nascent years. Hunt died in 2006, but his disconnect from Columbus dates to 1997 or 1998, when he was cut out of the city's bid to land an NHL expansion team. Hunt sued John H. McConnell over the matter, and the action was tantamount to divorcing the corporate elite of Columbus.

In a very real sense, then, there was a wall built between the Crew's owners and the people most likely to provide big-ticket sponsorship. Potentially lucrative endeavors, such as selling naming rights to the stadium and lining up an underwriter for a local television contract, became more difficult.

The inherent irony is the Crew has some of the best fans in the league. Until the team slid into abject mediocrity three years ago, it had a tradition of rabid support and a healthy gate. And that was despite a growing wariness about the way their team was treated by both MLS and Hunt Sports Group, which are part and parcel.

Crew fans feel the league has not given them a fair shake in most player transactions. The fact that the Hunts are absentee owners, and the perception that they are tight-fisted, has given rise to conspiracy theories. The least of these theories is that the league caters to its major markets and leaves the Crew to wither. This theory, taken to its conclusion, has the Crew on a track to leave Columbus.

This season, the Crew has been rebuilt to the point of dominance. The architect of the resurrection, coach Sigi Schmid, is in the last year of his contract -- and there is no extension in sight. Club management says it doesn't want Schmid's negotiations to be a distraction, yet the Hunts refuse to deal with Schmid's agent.

The team's new training facility remains in limbo. It was supposed to be under construction by now, but the project isn't even at the point where a site has been identified.

Now, with the economy careening toward a deep recession, in swoops a well-heeled group angling to buy a piece of the team. The group has plans for an opulent sports-and-gaming complex in Las Vegas. The group's spokesman is a former Crew player who used litigation to flee Columbus.

Meanwhile, the MLS shrugs.

League commissioner Don Garber has named Las Vegas as a potential expansion site, but he will not comment on the potential of a Crew move because "it's not league business."

What?

Garber has said the league wants its owners to control one team, not multiple teams. That means a divestment of the Crew by the Hunts, who also own FC Dallas. At the same time, the league is giving its blessing to a Vegas group that wants to buy into the Crew and, at the same time, pursue an expansion team for Las Vegas. Was Garber for a one-owner league before he was against it?

On the field, the Crew has never had a stronger side. In the stands, attendance is rebounding, and support has never been so vociferous. Schmid's plan is coming together. Something special is in the air. It is going to be a wonderful autumn, but winter still looms, ominously. Either local owners step into the breech, or a piece of the team, and ultimately all of it, goes to Vegas. That would be a Massive disappointment for Crew fans, the only reliable group in this whole stinking scenario."