Council puts off stadium site talks

Mayor’s office: Discussion has been postponed.

Soccer will not be part of the conversation when the Austin City Council meets Thursday.

Item 19, which involves discussion and possible action on Major League Soccer stadium sites, remains on the agenda but will be postponed, according to the mayor’s office.

The city staff has withdrawn the soccer agenda item, and Mayor Steve Adler will announce that at the beginning of the meeting, said Jason Stanford, Adler’s communications director. “No chance of it coming up for discussion that we can see,” Stanford said.

Precourt Sports Ventures, owners of Columbus Crew SC, is not ready to have that discussion since it has yet to identify stadium site preferences to the city after its scuttled pursuit of Butler Shores Metropolitan Park.

“We do not expect any soccer talk Thursday,” said Richard Suttle, an Austin MLS lobbyist who works for PSV. “We are still finishing our analysis of the remaining sites. We will have to move this forward soon. There is a finite amount of time in order to get the team here by next January.”

Roy G. Guerrero Colorado River Park in Southeast Austin and McKalla Place, a city-owned public property near the Domain, are the two known stadium sites in contention. PSV officials have mentioned that undisclosed private sites could come into play as well.

After Thursday, the City Council’s next meetings are March 1 and March 8.

“We can probably put together a meeting to talk about soccer in early March” Suttle said.

Acting Parks and Recreation Director Kimberly McNeeley put out a memorandum Feb. 2 requesting indefinite postponement of the Feb. 15 agenda item until there’s a consensus on the sites between city officials and Precourt.

“Moving forward, communication is going to be a little more robust between our group and the city,” Suttle said.