Chances are that if you’ve been rooting for any team in North America, it has been threatened with relocation, contraction, or something else that would have taken it away. The idea of this happening to an MLS team isn’t even foreign, being that Chivas USA was contracted only a few years ago and the San Jose Earthquakes were relocated in 2005.

But Anthony Precourt’s threat to move the Columbus Crew feels different. This isn’t just one of the founding members of MLS or even just the first to build a soccer-specific stadium. The Crew aren’t leading any of the business metrics and may lose money, but they are still drawing more than 15,000 people per game, have added a bunch of sponsors over the last few years and by all outside appearances seem perfectly viable, if still having plenty of room for improvement.

So while MLS fans have somewhat come to accept that certain business decisions must be made, Precourt’s desire to move his team to Austin feels almost punitive. At the very least, it’s a message to all fans of MLS teams that as good as they may have it right now, all glory fades. Big crowds dwindle. New stadiums grow old. Dedicated owners don’t stay around forever. Nothing is stopping the Seattle Sounders from becoming the Columbus Crew in 20 years.

MLS fans are quickly starting to realize this, and that’s why Emerald City Supporters — knowing full well that Crew fans created ACES and harassed one of their own — penned this open letter to the current Sounders ownership, a message all MLS leaders need to hear: