Austin FC: Even with Anthony Precourt, there is hope
Austin FC have been officially unveiled as the 27th MLS expansion club. The franchise, owned by Anthony Precourt, has hope for a bright future, even with Precourt at the helm.
Austin FC are a professional MLS club. The announcement came on Tuesday afternoon, with MLS commissioner Don Garber clearly delighted to welcome the Texas-based organisation into the league as the 27th club.
Starting life in the league in 2021, Austin FC’s long and arduous journey to establishing entry into MLS is now at an end. Now, the real work starts.
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The good thing for Austin FC supporters is that everything is in place for the club to flourish. A new, purpose-built stadium that is expected to hold 20,000 will be erected between now and 2021. As has been proven by LAFC, Atlanta United and the difficulties of New York City FC, having a stadium designed for soccer really does make a major difference.
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But that is just part of the reason for hope. Austin is the biggest city in America without a professional sports organisation in a major sport. Austin FC will be the first. There is also a high Latino and Hispanic population in the city. According to a 2010 surplus, 35.1% of the city’s population were Latino or Hispanic. Naturally, that is a demographic that a soccer organisation is going to be popular among.
As Austin mayor Steve Adler stated on Tuesday, the club offers a chance for a more integrated community:
"“This is a historic day for Austin, as MLS becomes the first major league to plant roots in our beautiful city. We believe professional soccer will bring a great and especially needed benefit to our city. In two years, this team and an elite soccer stadium will bring together all kinds of people from all over Austin in a way that we do not gather today. This is one important way we become a more socially integrated community.”"
But there is a major catch among all this excitement for what is to come: Anthony Precourt. Precourt is Austin owner and is renowned as an infecting presence at an organisation. The former owner of the Columbus Crew, it was his desperate desire to move the Crew to Austin in the first place that led to the recent shake-up of the Crew staying in Ohio and Austin FC being announced as the next expansion club.
Can an organisation owned by Precourt be successful? Precourt has been questioned over his management of Crew, an MLS original franchise, local taxpayers have argued the controversial stadium plans put too much of a burden on them just so that Precourt can make a profit out of this venture, and the other bids for expansion teams 24 through 28 have been somewhat skipped over with this decision.
Precourt is not a popular man and his ability to lead a franchise for the benefit of the franchise and not for his own selfish gain has been questioned time and time again. Nevertheless, even with Precourt at the helm, there is enough for Austin supporters to be hopeful about.
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Everything is there for Austin FC to succeed. It is now up to Precourt and his team to put it into action.