WASHINGTON - D.C. United opened a new chapter in its proud history on Monday morning, unveiling a diverse new ownership group that was welcomed by a constellation of local political heavyweights in an opulent hotel ballroom just a stone's throw from the White House.
The upbeat event marked a dramatic turnabout from just one year ago, when the club was lamenting the collapse of a $26 million agreement with Northern Virginia real estate firm Global Development Partners to replace the Anschutz Entertainment Group's five-year stewardship with local owners for an MLS-record price.
But United President and CEO Kevin Payne and his staff went back to the drawing board and came up with an even better deal. The club's long-awaited sale features a $33 million price tag and an unprecedented "majority-minority" ownership group that is eager to make the club's Poplar Point stadium project a reality.
"Unfortunately that first attempt didn't work, and actually in the long run it was fortunate - we're in a much better place today than we would have been," said Payne afterwards. "Some of the folks in this [group] are a little more public, a little easier to know that they're real."
The principal figure in the group is San Francisco-based real estate magnate Victor MacFarlane, who will represent United in league matters. MacFarlane has already earned a trailblazing reputation as a leading promoter of inner-city redevelopment projects across the nation, and is doing so once again as the head of D.C United Holdings, Major League Soccer's first-ever minority-led ownership group.
"Soccer is the No. 1 sport for people of color around the world, but not here in the U.S. - yet. We want to be part of the change that is now on the horizon," he said. "We believe our best investment was not just buying any team, but the premier team in the league, D.C. United, in the premier host city in the league, Washington, D.C."
MacFarlane revealed that his interest in the sport was stoked by his son Paul, a player who spent time at the IMG Academy's residential program in Bradenton, Fla. and accompanied his father to several late-round World Cup matches in Germany last summer.
"For a father-son experience, it was the best I've ever had," said MacFarlane.
MacFarlane is joined by Asian-American investor Will Chang and former Duke University basketball star Brian Davis, a Washington native who turned to real estate development after concluding his professional playing career.
"We began talking with Brian and Victor sort of independently at first, right around the same time, just about a year ago," said Payne. "I introduced them to one another, probably in the spring, and we recognized that we could prospectively put together a phenomenal ownership group that would really reflect the city, have great capacity, a real breadth of knowledge of the business world. ... It's been a long process but it's come to the right end."
A partnership with his old teammate Christian Laettner, Davis' Blue Devil Ventures has prospered thanks to successful urban revitalization initiatives in Durham, N.C. and figures to be prominently involved with the plans for Poplar Point, where a soccer-specific stadium would anchor a mixed-use development project on the southern banks of the Anacostia River.
Club officials know that complex undertaking will require a careful negotiation of the city's unique political environment. United's new owners were hailed by recently inaugurated D.C. mayor Adrian Fenty and several of the District's leading city council members, as well as Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C.'s Congressional representative.
"This diverse ownership group is not only going to show that Major League Soccer is serious about diversity, but by doing it here in the nation's capital, I think it expresses a great role model for the rest of the country," said Fenty.
In a similar vein, all present paid tribute to former mayor Marion Barry, the D.C. legend who now represents Ward 8, the area where the Poplar Point site is located.
"We are very much looking forward to being neighbors and being great contributors to that very vital portion of our city," said Payne. "When we visited with Marion, I promised him that we would put together a new ownership group that would look like the District of Columbia, and I'm very, very proud of the fact that that is exactly the kind of group of people that has come together now to become the next stewards for D.C. United."
Charles Boehm is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
