After spending Thursday in Austin, Texas, meeting with city officials about moving the team there, Crew SC owner Anthony Precourt took to Twitter to empathize with fans in Columbus and ask them to support the team in the postseason.

Precourt said this week that he is considering moving the team to Austin since he has been unable to get a plan started to replace 18-year-old Mapfre Stadium, a surprise announcement that has left fans in shock and spurred a "SaveTheCrew" movement on social media.

"I really do feel for you Crew fans," Precourt wrote. "It's an uncertain time, I recognize, and I take full responsibility for the situation I have put us in," later sending a second tweet to clarify "put you all in, not us."

I really do feel for you Crew fans. Its an uncertain time I recognize, and I take full responsibility for the situation I have put us in.

— Anthony Precourt (@APrecourt) October 19, 2017

Crew supporter groups have organized a rally at City Hall at noon Sunday. In response to one fan who said Precourt had told him that he would never move the team, he wrote, "I understand your disappointment."

The Crew concludes the regular season Sunday at New York City FC and opens the Major League Soccer playoffs next week. The Crew currently does not sit high enough in the Eastern Conference to play at home in the first round, although that could change based on Sunday's leaguewide results.

"The players and coaches and staff deserve your support as they make a run for an MLS Cup," Precourt wrote. "They have nothing to do with ownership’s decisions."

The Crew also is drawing heat for not allowing fans who purchased 2018 season tickets before the Austin announcement to receive refunds. That came from one of most familiar faces in U.S. soccer, former MLS and men's national team star Alexi Lalas, now a television analyst.

"If it’s true (the Crew) is not offering refunds on 2018 season tix purchased before news of potential move," he wrote on Twitter, "then that is despicable."

bhofmann@dispatch.com

@BrianHofmann