NEW YORK — Any time a struggling sports team is threatened with relocation over off-the-field issues, fans of other struggling teams look around and wonder whether their franchise could be next.
In Major League Soccer right now, the threatened team is the Columbus Crew. Their owner has been making very public and very loud overtures to Austin, Texas, unsettling one of the league’s original markets.
And those other struggling teams? Well, one of them is a state border and a turnpike away, at least when it comes to public perception. In addition to perennially spending less on players than their rivals, the Union have ranked toward the bottom of MLS average attendance for a few years.