Just days ahead of Columbus Crew SC’s season-opening match, ownership has their minds on Austin, Texas.
Anthony Precourt, chairman and CEO of club owner Precourt Sports Ventures, released a statement Tuesday—during the club’s kickoff party—indicating the search for a stadium site in Austin will continue. Precourt first announced plans for a potential club relocation last October.
“Precourt Sports Ventures continues to work with the Austin community to secure an appropriate urban core site for a soccer-specific stadium that will serve as the home of Austin’s first major league professional sports franchise,” the statement reads. “We announced our serious interest to work with Austin prior to the start of the 2017 playoffs, an announcement that embodied risk, urgency, and a genuine desire to work with Austin to find the right site.
“With the right site, we can build a world-class, privately financed $200 million soccer park and grounds. As we have said from the onset of this exploratory process, a location in the vibrant urban core where people live, work, and play is of paramount importance. This stadium location is a critical driver to the club’s long-term success.
“Based on the direction of the City of Austin Council and staff, we are conducting due diligence on a variety of sites, including city-owned parkland and city-owned land (non-parkland) suggested by the City on December 14, 2017 (Council Resolution No. 20171109-046). Independently, we also continue to explore a select list of privately held parcels.”
The full statement is available here.
Precourt’s first public statement since October comes just a day after the United Soccer League said it would move forward with a separate plan to bring soccer to Austin in 2019.
Crew SC opens its 2018 Major League Soccer season Saturday in Toronto.