18 years after the Hunt family founded the Columbus Crew franchise they are now selling one of the founding franchises of Major League Soccer.
Clark Hunt, son of Crew founder Lamar Hunt Sr., announced on Tuesday that the Hunt family had agreed to sell the team to Precourt Sports Ventures, headed by Anthony Precourt.
“We’ve been in a process over the last couple of years to find a minority investor, or several minority investors, in the Crew. As part of that process we were introduced to Anthony Precourt,” Hunt said.
Although the process started as nothing more than selling a small part of the team, it later became clear that Anthony was interested in more than just a part ownership.
“Anthony came to us during the summer and said ‘you know what I’m not interested in just being a minority owner of the Columbus Crew, I want to own the whole team,” Hunt said.
Also on hand was Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman, who stated his gratitude for everything the Hunt family brought to Columbus with the Crew.
Mayor Coleman also welcomed Precourt to Columbus and met with him on Monday to discuss Columbus and the Crew.
“I’ve come to understand his passion for soccer,” said Mayor Coleman. “And he has a genuine interest and commitment to Columbus.”
Based in San Francisco, Precourt is the managing partner of Precourt Capital Management and Precourt Sports Ventures, the latter of which will be buying the Crew.
Although his history is not rooted in sports Precourt was clear that he was committed to bettering the Crew.
“Being here in Columbus as the new Crew chairman is a huge honor for me,” said Precourt in a statement. “It’s the fulfillment of a life-long dream, this club and any sports franchise should be a sacred community asset, that is how we are going to treat the Crew.”
One question on the minds of Crew fans was with new non-local ownership if the team was planning on staying in Columbus.
Mayor Coleman voiced this concern in previous discussions with Precourt.
“You know my first question was, is the Crew staying. He said ‘absolutely the Crew is in Columbus to stay.’”
