Columbus Partnership CEO Alex Fischer said the uncertainty around what Columbus Crew SC’s owner and Major League Soccer want make it impossible for Columbus to assemble an offer to keep the team in Ohio’s capital by the time the two sides sit down next week.

Fischer told the New Albany Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday that Crew investor-operator Anthony Precourt turned down an offer to purchase all or part of the team that would have given him “a great profit on his investment.”

Local investors, though, are more concerned with keeping the team as a community asset than on making money, he said.

“I’m not sure the MLS wants that,” he said. “I’m afraid the league is becoming like the NFL: billionaires trying to make a buck.”

Precourt has threatened to move the Crew to Austin if he doesn’t get a stadium near Downtown Columbus. Fischer and Mayor Andrew J. Ginther are scheduled to meet with Precourt and MLS Commissioner Don Garber on Nov. 15.

Fischer, though, expressed frustration with MLS and Precourt during a lunch-hour interview in front of about 50 chamber members Wednesday at the New Albany Country Club. But he said he still wants to make a deal to keep the Crew here.

“We’ve all said things or done things that in hindsight would have been better not to have. I don’t think anybody thinks any of the way this was handled by anybody was constructive,” Fischer said in a later interview with The Dispatch. “But I enter the meeting with the assumption that there’s an opportunity to think about what it takes to do this in Columbus.”

Fischer said he wants the two sides to “align interests” at the meeting. Local officials have said they don’t know what Columbus needs to do to keep the team, and Fischer said Wednesday that he hopes that will become clear during the meeting next week.

“We don’t want to be pitching ideas until we understand directly what the problems are,” he said. “I think the discussion starts off with both sides saying what the needs are. If they say the needs are X, Y and Z it’s from there that we determine whether there are opportunities.”

For instance, Columbus doesn’t know if Precourt and MLS need a piece of land, infrastructure for a piece of property, real estate development around a stadium or financing for a stadium, Fischer said.

“I can’t imagine we go into the meeting and come out with some magical solution," he said. "I think undoubtedly any solution is going to take many, many meetings and lots of time and effort. To me, this is a starting point.”

Ahead of the meeting, though, Austin is making progress toward identifying a site for a soccer stadium.

Austin’s City Council will vote Thursday on a resolution directing the city manager to examine city-owned sites in the "urban core," including underutilized parkland that might work for a soccer stadium. The resolution lists Dec. 7 as the due date for a report and recommendations from the city manager.

At least one Austin council member, Ann Kitchen, wants to broaden the city manager’s analysis of stadium sites to locations throughout Austin. Council member Alison Alter expressed concern with the possibility of the process resulting in a ground lease of parkland, which would circumvent a citywide vote on selection of a stadium site.

Bill Bunch, executive director of the Save Our Springs Alliance, an Austin-based nonprofit environmental organization, said a stadium on parkland would exacerbate what he sees as a shortage of such space in the city.

“We’re No. 46 on the Trust for Public Land’s park score compared to the top 100 cities, so we actually need more parkland, not less,” he said.

MLS2ATX, the Precourt Sports Ventures-created soccer campaign in Austin, has organized a rally for Thursday evening outside City Hall. In a statement Tuesday, one of Austin's biggest youth soccer associations, Lonestar, encouraged players and members to attend the rally.

rrouan@dispatch.com

@RickRouan