City Council tables MLS stadium discussion

In a surprise move, Austin City Council tabled the big Major League Soccer stadium discussion around 11 p.m. last night (8/10). They'll pick it back up again on August 15 in a special called meeting. The concern now among soccer fans is whether or not MLS can wait that long for approval.

Precourt Sports has been hoping to bring the Columbus Crew MLS team to Austin and foot the bill for a $200 million stadium on city owned land near The Domain.

However some in the community and on the Austin City Council feel the deal is a bad one. Those who have spoken out against it are calling it a "boondoggle" and a "massive giveaway".

Last night when the council began digging into the details of the term sheet, the discussion was contentious at times and at one point a man walked up to the front and shouted expletives at Precourt attorney Richard Suttle.

With numerous amendments that would have extended the discussion beyond midnight cutoff time that council committed to they decided to pick up the soccer issue again at the special meeting.

Suttle told the council that MLS already gave his client an extension to get the Columbus Crew a new home and it's not clear if they'll grant another extension to August 15.

Mayor Adler, who called many of the amendments "poison pills" to just make the deal unfeasible, told council he felt the votes were there to approve the soccer stadium last night but ultimately he told Suttle that "we need more time."