The Crew is building new team practice facilities adjacent to Mapfre Stadium on "state land it still doesn't control with a long-term lease," and as a result is "carrying the associated risk," according to Bill Bush of the COLUMBUS DISPATCH. Ohio Chamber of Commerce President & CEO Andrew Doehrel said that if a final, long-term lease "can't ultimately be struck between the Ohio Expositions Commission and the Crew, the team potentially could be forced in the future to tear down and remove its brand-new outdoor practice fields and other improvements and reconstruct the former parking lot." Bush notes almost two years after announcing the Mapfre redesign, "neither the team nor the city of Columbus has control of the needed property." And although the club's Mapfre facilities "currently are being constructed, the city's public portion of the project remains in limbo." Robin Davis, a spokesperson for Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther, last week said that the city's portion was "always planned to come after the team's were underway," but she acknowledged that "negotiations for the land continue, some 22 months on." Bush: "Exactly under what authority the team is currently building its new practice fields, to the west of Maprfe Stadium, and for how long those improvements are secure, is unclear: No one has yet produced a copy of the document allowing it" (COLUMBUS DISPATCH, 10/27).
