Thursday, October 19, 2017

The Solution???

By: Vidda Grubin


Sure, there are people with lots of money in Columbus. Sure, maybe some of them are soccer fans. Sure, maybe those few people have tried/are trying to rip the Columbus Crew franchise out of Anthony Precourt's possession. But, why wait and hope someone else foots the bill?

The real solution is fan ownership. Do you know how Ohio Stadium came into being? Public funding, not tax dollars, private citizens pledging almost a million dollars in mostly small amounts.

Anthony Precourt, reportedly, paid $68 million for the Crew franchise. A fair return on his money would be a purchase price near $100 million.

There are approximately 20,000 seats in Mapfre stadium.

20,000 X $5,000 = $100,000,000

Want to get more people involved and get the ball rolling on a new stadium.

40,000 X $5,000 = $200,000,000

The Packers are fan owned. Some clubs in Europe are fan owned. Buy the team. Go find out how those entities function. Now the team is truly yours. No matter what league/division in which the Crew find themselves, they are The Columbus Crew.

No more business owner looking to move a franchise when the going gets rough or the whimsy of a new city strikes his fancy.

Make it happen, and support other cities/soccer fans in their push to bring the beautiful game to their own home towns. Stop parroting the talking points of the wealthy, you are not wealthy. You are fans of the beautiful game. The beautiful game is not wealthy, it's just...beautiful. And beauty knows no dollar amount.

P.S. (If Precourt moves the team, Columbus should have the right to an expansion franchise without franchise fee. Maybe this is the plan? Why would you move Columbus with the possibility of Cincinnati joining soon? Suddenly the league has another true rivalry on their hands, driving both teams' attendance and fan base)

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