Jay Anthony Precourt Jr. (born 1969–70) is an American investor and sports team owner. He is the CEO of Two Oak Ventures (formerly Precourt Sports Ventures), a group that owns

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

club

Austin FC Austin FC is an American professional soccer club based in Austin, Texas. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. Founded in 2018, the club began play in the 2021 season. Their home stadium is Q2 ...

and formerly owned the

Columbus Crew The Columbus Crew, formerly known as Columbus Crew SC, is an American professional soccer club based in Columbus, Ohio. The Crew competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference and began play in 1996 as one ...

. He is also a managing partner of Precourt Capital Management, a private investment management firm based in San Francisco, California.

Education and career

Precourt was raised in

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, Colorado, and went to high school in

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

. He graduated from

Pepperdine University Pepperdine University () is a private research university affiliated with the Churches of Christ with its main campus in Los Angeles County, California. Pepperdine's main campus consists of 830 acres (340 ha) overlooking the Pacific Ocean and t ...

with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in political science and from the

Tuck School of Business The Tuck School of Business (also known as Tuck, and formally known as the Amos Tuck School of Administration and Finance) is the graduate business school of Dartmouth College, a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Founded ...

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

with a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

. Precourt entered the

corporate finance Corporate finance is the area of finance that deals with the sources of funding, the capital structure of corporations, the actions that managers take to increase the Value investing, value of the firm to the shareholders, and the tools and anal ...

business with stints at

Merrill Lynch Merrill (officially Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated), previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investment bank ...

, Alex. Brown & Sons, and

WHV Investment Management WHV may refer to: * Warner Home Video, the home video distribution division of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group, itself part of Warner Media * Wilhelmshaven, code used on German vehicle registration plates See also * Woodchuck hepatitis virus ...

. He then started his own private equity firm, Precourt Capital Management, in 2008, focusing on the energy sector.

MLS ownership

Precourt, who had a stated interest in soccer, formed Precourt Sports Ventures LLC in 2012 and looked to invest in

. The firm bought the

Columbus Crew SC The Columbus Crew, formerly known as Columbus Crew SC, is an American professional soccer club based in Columbus, Ohio. The Crew competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference and began play in 1996 as one ...

from

Clark Hunt Clark Knobel Hunt (born February 19, 1965) is part owner, chairman and CEO of the National Football League's Kansas City Chiefs and a founding investor-owner in Major League Soccer. Hunt is chairman of Hunt Sports Group, where he oversees the ope ...

for $68 million, then a record for a MLS franchise. At the first Crew match he attended, several months before the sale was finalized, the scoreboard at

Mapfre Stadium Historic Crew Stadium, previously known as Columbus Crew Stadium and Mapfre Stadium, is a soccer-specific stadium in Columbus, Ohio, United States. It primarily served as the home stadium of the Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer from 1999 u ...

caught fire and delayed kickoff for hours. Under Precourt's ownership, the Crew hired

Gregg Berhalter Gregg Matthew Berhalter (, ; born August 1, 1973) is an American soccer coach and former player. He is also the current head coach of the United States men's national soccer team. Berhalter previously coached Columbus Crew SC in Major League Soc ...

as its manager and first sporting director; and unveiled an updated brand identity that included a new logo and name with the suffix "SC". On October 17, 2017, Precourt Sports Ventures announced that it was considering moving the franchise in 2019 to

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

. The move came as a surprise to Columbus leaders and fans. After offering an apology on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, Precourt was the focus of anger from the team's supporters, culminating in the establishment of the Save the Crew movement. In December 2018, Precourt Sports Ventures announced they had negotiated an agreement with the City of Austin to build a $242 million stadium on public land at 10414 McKalla Place, following an evaluation of several other city-owned properties. Construction began in 2019, and

Q2 Stadium The Q2 Stadium is a soccer-specific stadium located in the North Burnet section of North Austin, Texas, United States. It is the home of Austin FC, a Major League Soccer (MLS) team that began play in 2021. The stadium hosted its first event on J ...

opened in 2021, hosting its first soccer match on June 16, 2021. On January 1, 2019, ownership of Crew SC was preliminarily transferred from Precourt Sports Ventures to a group composed of Dee and

Jimmy Haslam James Arthur Haslam III (born March 9, 1954) is an American businessman and sports executive. He is the chairman of the board of the Pilot Flying J truck stop chain. He and his wife Dee own the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League ...

and Dr. Pete Edwards, who pledged to keep the Crew in Columbus and build a new stadium in downtown Columbus.

was officially announced as the 27th MLS franchise on January 15, 2019 and is set to begin play in 2021. Precourt Sports Ventures was rebranded as Two Oak Ventures in July 2019, with Precourt remaining as CEO, and six Austin-based owners were added the following month.

Personal life

Precourt lives in

, with his wife Agatha and three children. His father is Jay Precourt, a former oil executive.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Precourt, Anthony Living people Austin FC owners Columbus Crew Businesspeople from San Francisco Pepperdine University alumni American soccer chairmen and investors Major League Soccer owners Dartmouth College alumni Year of birth missing (living people)