re: Columbus Crew possibly moving to Austin, TX if a stadium deal can't be reached

I won't be surprised at all if this situation ends up playing out like San Jose did in 2005. A lot of people aren't aware of this, since MLS wasn't widely followed by the American soccer community at the time. (Admittedly, I didn't even care about the league myself until the 2013 season, but it's won me over and I watch as much of it as time permits.)

Basically, AEG, the owner San Jose Earthquakes, one of the ten 10 original teams in MLS, wanted a new soccer-specific stadium for the Earthquakes. They didn't get one, so after the 2005 season they moved the team to Houston. This is the expansion team we know as the Houston Dynamo today.

MLS wasn't happy about it, but legally it was within AEG's rights to do so. Don Garber declared the San Jose team to be in hiatus while negotiations with local interested ownership groups took place to bring back the team. The owners of the Oakland A's eventually secured a deal with MLS to bring back the Quakes. The team resumed play in 2008, and was allowed to keep all the records and accolades won before the move to Houston, as if nothing had happened. The Quakes even have a beautiful soccer-specific stadium now after years of playing in crappy stadiums.

I don't want it to go down like this, but this is exactly what I see happening again if Precourt is really determined to move the team. MLS would almost certainly declare the Columbus Crew to be in hiatus until a new ownership group took over (and it sounds like multiple groups are interested, it's just that Precourt doesn't want to sell) and the team would be allowed to re-enter the league immediately once ready, like San Jose did in 2008. The Austin team would technically be an expansion team, like the Dynamo were.

However, I see this move causing way, way more backlash than the AEG move back in 2005. With so many teams and cities looking to potentially join the league, they will not appreciate Austin cutting the line with this forced move. If a move really is happening, and that seems to be the case, Don Garber needs to clarify the league's long-term expansion policies immediately. I believe he is supposed to announce the next two expansion teams anyway in the next week or so, so he might as well address this issue now. I expected Cincinnati and Sacramento to be the two teams chosen, but now I'm not so sure it won't be Austin and Nashville, or something like that.