Austin City Council delays MLS stadium vote

AUSTIN, Texas (AP):

Austin City Council put off until next week a vote on a stadium proposal that could trigger Major League Soccer's (MLS) Columbus Crew to move to Texas as early as the 2019 season.

The council met for several hours on Thursday night to vote on a plan to let Crew owner Anthony Precourt build a 20,000-seat, US$200-million privately fund stadium on city land.

Precourt has been exploring moving one of MLS's founding clubs to Austin since 2017. He earlier in the day urged council members to adopt what he called the "most favourable" stadium deal for any MLS city.

The Austin proposal is strongly supported by Mayor Steve Adler. But it has faced tough resistance from some council members who question whether the land could be better used for affordable housing or parks in Texas' booming capital city.

"We don't have very many events in this city that bring everybody together, that bring people of every walk of life together," Adler said. "That's a huge thing, a huge value for a city in desperate need of something like this. Not everything has to solve all of our problems."

Adler said he thought the plan had the votes to pass but agreed to delay action until August 15 after several council members said they wanted more time to review a flurry of late-filed amendments.

Austin City Council has been negotiating with Precourt for about 10 months. Richard Suttle, Precourt's lobbyist before the council, has said that any delay makes it more difficult to move in time for the 2019 season.

Suttle said he is optimistic the votes are lining up to support the plan despite the delay.