Butler Shores dropped as possible soccer stadium site

A plan to build a Major League Soccer stadium at Butler Shores plan, city parkland located on the south shore of Lady Bird Lake in Central Austin, has been dropped. Precourt Sports Ventures, which owns the Ohio MLS club that’s considering a relocation to Austin, announced Friday on its MLS2ATX website that it is “longer exploring [the] location and are continuing our due diligence on other possible locations in the urban core” due to community and neighborhood concerns about the location.

PSV had been pushing hard for a stadium its use to be built on Butler Shores, just south of the river on Toomey Road, but received pushback from both the Zilker Neighborhood Association and members of the Austin City Council.

On Thursday, Council Member Ann Kitchen issued a resolution to remove the two any city park sites from consideration for the stadium and to take a closer look at previously proposed McKalla Place in North Austin near the Domain. The resolution was co-sponsored by council Members Alison Alter, Jimmy Flannigan, and Leslie Pool.

On Friday, the Austin American-Statesman reported Kitchen withdrew that proposal after Precourt’s announcement that it would not pursue the Butler Shores site, which is in the council member’s district. That, of course, put he possibility of pursuing Guerrero Park, another city site originally under consideration, as well as the McKanna site, privately owned land in North Austin, back on the table.

The daily also reported that PSV CEO Anthony Precourt had reopened discussion of keeping Columbus crew, the Ohio franchise Precourt is considering relocating to Austin, where it is.

• Crew ownership backs away from Butler Shores as Austin stadium site [AAS]