Columbus officials have requested in-person meetings with the owner of Columbus Crew SC and the commissioner of Major League Soccer to discuss options for keeping the soccer franchise in Columbus.

In a joint statement issued Tuesday morning, Mayor Andrew J. Ginther and Columbus Partnership CEO Alex Fischer said the team’s owner, Anthony Precourt, and MLS Commissioner Don Garber have agreed to take those meetings. They are expected “to occur over the coming weeks.”

Mayor Ginther & Alex Fischer, President and CEO of the Columbus Partnership, released this statement regarding @ColumbusCrewSC: pic.twitter.com/9veMJFuAOn

— Mayor Andrew Ginther (@MayorGinther) October 24, 2017

Last week, Precourt went public with his threat to move the team to Austin, Texas, if it did not get a Downtown stadium in Columbus. The Crew have played at Mapfre Stadium, formerly Crew Stadium, on the Ohio State Fairgrounds since 1999.

The stadium was the first in the country built specifically for an MLS franchise. Precourt bought the team and the stadium in 2013 for $68 million, according to Forbes.

Precourt openly flirted with Austin over the last week, including a trip to scout the city.

"Precourt Sports Ventures looks forward to having conversations alongside Major League Soccer, Mayor Ginther and the Columbus Partnership," according to a statement the company issued Tuesday afternoon. "As Mayor Ginther and the Columbus Partnership have mentioned, there will not be any further updates ahead of this dialogue."

Ginther's spokeswoman, Robin Davis, said she was unaware of whether the mayor and Fischer had a plan to keep the Crew in Columbus that they intend to present to Precourt and Garber.

“What they’re looking to do is have a face to face conversation about what both sides want and what some of the solutions may be," she said.

Fans in Columbus have organized a group called Save the Crew, which has held rallies and asked for support from other soccer franchises to keep the Crew in Columbus. On Sunday, about 2,000 fans showed up to a demonstration outside Columbus City Hall.

Two members of that group asked the Columbus City Council on Monday to support their cause. Council President Zach Klein told them the council would consider adopting a resolution at a future meeting.

It’s unclear what the city could do to keep the Crew in Columbus. Precourt has said he isn’t looking for a publicly funded stadium, and Ginther said last week “the city is not in the business of private soccer-stadium construction.”

Ginther said he helped drum up private-sector support to purchase the team and spend millions of dollars on corporate sponsorships, but Precourt apparently rejected those offers.

Voters have shot down plans in the past to publicly fund a Downtown soccer stadium. In 1997, a proposal that would have built both a soccer stadium and an arena were defeated at the ballot box.

The Crew's former owner, Lamar Hunt, organized private funding to build the stadium at the state fairgrounds under a 25-year lease with the Ohio Exposition Commission for the property where it sits. The lease requires the Crew to find another team to be the tenant at the stadium if it "terminates operations as a professional soccer team" and gives the state the option to require the team to remove the stadium from the property at the end of the agreement.

Experts have said the stadium has fallen behind the times in MLS, where modern stadiums can cost more than $200 million and more fan amenities. The stadium cost about $29 million to build.

“We are resolved to do our part to keep the Columbus Crew SC in Columbus,” Ginther and Fischer said in their joint statement. “Until those meetings take place, we don’t expect to have anything new to report. We will keep our public comments focused on cheering on our beloved Columbus Crew SC during the playoffs.”

rrouan@dispatch.com

@RickRouan