Crew release short statement; Schmid ponders his future

There are many articles out now about Sigi Schmid leaving the MLS Champion Columbus Crew. Most of them mention at some point that Schmid is looking towards Seattle. Only the Columbus Dispatch has reported any lingering issues with the Schmid departure, and a press release on the league website painted the Crew as wishing Schmid the best:

"Sigi Schmid has formally declined our last contract offer and will not be returning as head coach of the Columbus Crew. Sigi was the ideal person to turn around our competitive program and create a championship mentality within our club. As a result, we are well positioned moving forward and toward continued success. We respect his desire to seek the next challenge and wish him nothing but the best."


Schmid is quoted in a more recent story also on MLSnet.com:
"Obviously, everybody knows I had a visit to Seattle last week. Things are on hold there. Hopefully, we'll be able to move that forward in the next few days. I had come to the decision that I wasn't going to return here and I thought it was fair to let (the Crew) know so they can move forward. I was going to try and come to a decision on Monday. As it was related to me, I thought at that point in time the decision would be, 'OK, this or that. OK, I'm going to choose this,'" he said. "What it ended up coming down to was instead of this or that it was, 'Well, you either have this and maybe you'll have that. It's a little uncertain.' I decided I was going to deal with the uncertainty. So I came to that decision on Monday."

"If things work out as I hope they do and being on the West Coast or that possibility, it's easier on my family. That had a factor in it," he said. "Certainly finances had a factor in it. The negotiations length had a factor in it, definitely.

"Also, looking at everything else and what I mean by everything else is we haven't got an agreement yet here in Columbus on a training site. In this economic climate is that going to happen now? It was definitely hard -- a hard decision. It's not easy."