By: Liz Farmer

D.C. United co-owner Victor MacFarlane announced today that he has sold his interest in the soccer club to his partner Will Chang, chairman of the global investment firm Westlake International Group.

The MacFarlane-Chang D.C. Soccer LLC venture still includes one of the owners of the San Francisco Giants, and no other changes in management have been made, a club news release states.

MacFarlane has long made it known that when a new stadium site was selected for the team, he would like his real estate investment firm, MacFarlane Partners, to develop the area around it. But that site selection process has been a two-year ordeal of burned bridges from D.C.’s Poplar Point to Prince George’s County this year.

The team is looking at surrounding counties and is still very much interested in moving out of RFK Stadium in the District (who wouldn’t be?), but the search for the right land and community to support a stadium development complete with retail, residential and office space has been an arduous journey for United’s ownership team.

I wonder if MacFarlane, who purchased the team with Chang from the Anschutz Entertainment Group in 2007, just got tired of waiting. Was United just a real estate opportunity that didn’t pan out, and he’s cutting his losses? If and when the team finally moves, who will MacFarlane Partners have to compete with to develop the surrounding land and do you think he made the right call here?