It’s a strange fate for D.C. United, the most successful club in the history of Major League Soccer, but the giant Anschutz Entertainment Group has now sold the MLS club to a group investors, who include several former Duke University basketball stars, of all people. The investors, who include a San Francisco real estate mogul and former Duke basketball stars Christian Laettner and Brian Davis, are paying AEG an estimated $33 million to take ownership of the team’s operating rights, as well as its plans to develop a new stadium and the land surrounding it. It’s really a mixed turn of events-and in a way it’s a shame-that the storied D.C. United has fallen into the hands of what is essentially a group of real estate developers, who sources say are clearly more interested in the mixed-use 27,000-seat stadium than the fortune of the soccer club. Pressing questions like will the private equity group put up money to help bring in stronger talent? now arise. A “high-level” D.C. government source told the Post that the group was interested in developing the area along the Anacostia River near a Poplar Point, to the southeast of the city, and across the river from the Washington National’s new baseball stadium. D.C. United president and CEO Kevin Payne and all other front-office staff will continue to run the day-to-day business of the team. Payne was part of D.C. United when it launched in 1996.