D.C. United and Kevin Payne decide to go in different directions after 18 years

Kevin Payne was in charge of D.C. United before Washington’s MLS team was even called D.C. United, launching the organization from scratch two years before the opening whistle in 1996 and then overseeing the rise of the league’s first dynasty.

“For me,” he said Tuesday after stepping down as club president, “D.C. United has been like my child.”

Payne raised United through infancy and some terrible teenage years, supervising a record four MLS Cup championship squads and helping wedge the sport back onto the city’s landscape after the North American Soccer League’s demise a decade earlier.

But with a new investment group looking to put its signature on the organization, Payne’s parenting was no longer wanted. He was not fired, several people with knowledge of the situation insisted, but he wasn’t embraced either.

Payne, 59, didn’t want to discuss his plans, but according to multiple people requesting anonymity, he has accepted a senior leadership role with Toronto FC. A formal announcement is expected this week.

“For some time, I have been thinking whether it was time to seek a new challenge and whether D.C. United’s interests could be better served by new thinking,” said Payne, who had an emotional meeting with employees on Tuesday.

Since its arrival in July, United’s investment team met with Payne several times to discuss the direction and philosophy of the organization. Said Jason Levien, United’s general partner and the face of the group, “As D.C. United begins a new chapter, Kevin’s leadership has helped to prepare us for this important and potential-filled inflection point in the club’s history.”

For years, United’s investors were largely uninvolved, deferring to Payne to run the club and speak on their behalf. He was, in essence, the team’s unofficial owner, as well as the point man for the still-unfulfilled effort to build a new stadium.

But this new group has taken a more active and visible role. Levien is spearheading talks with the city and developers on a stadium project at Buzzard Point in Southwest D.C., blocks from Nationals Park.

News of Payne’s departure came nine days after United was eliminated from the Eastern Conference finals, the club’s first playoff appearance in five years. The team had the third-highest point total during the regular season. Despite the on-field resurgence, investors concluded the business side “needs a lot of work,” a source said. While United was MLS’s model organization for years, the club suffered several setbacks.

Without enhanced revenue streams created by a new facility — RFK Stadium is owned by the city, which has a lease agreement with the team that runs through 2014 — United has been losing money since the inaugural season. Attendance at RFK Stadium this year fell to its lowest average in club history (13,846), the third-worst figure in MLS and a 34 percent decline since 2007.

The stadium outlook has improved since Erick Thohir, the son of an Indonesian billionaire, joined Levien in partnering with San Francisco-based executive Will Chang, who has held a stake in the team since 2007. Levien is planning to move to Washington from New York, a sign of deeper involvement with United.