Austin FC are continuing to make plans for their expansion debut next season. The Texas-based club has the makings to be a truly brilliant expansion team.
While the current Major League Soccer season is on hold due to the coronavirus outbreak and all sport has taken a backseat to deal with the pandemic, the prior planned expansion and growth of the league is still on the table. And for them, the 30-day postponement of current play has little impact.
One of the announced expansion teams is Austin FC. The Texas-based organisation that sprung out of the Columbus Crew’s intention to move to Austin were formally announced as an expansion team last year and have already made great strides to becoming the latest newly assembled club to take MLS by storm.
Plans for a 20,500-seater stadium have already been formalised, a bold ‘Verde’ design has been completed, with a logo based on intertwined oaks that represent the bond between the club and the city, terrific corporate investment has arrived ahead of the construction of their training facilities, while there has been incredible amounts of interest off the pitch also.
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In June, Austin FC broke the MLS record for the most season-ticket deposits secured in a day with north of 30,000, which crashed their website, such was the avalanche of fans trying to secure preorders on 2021 season tickets. They also have over 20,000 followers on Twitter, which is just over half of Nashville SC who entered the league this year.
All in all, then, Austin FC has a soccer-specific stadium and training facilities under construction, an outrageous market that has already proven itself more than a year in advance, and the cash and financial power to invest heavily in future facilities and playing staff. It is the foundation of what could be an extremely successful expansion. As club president Andy Loughnane recently told mlssoccer.com:
"“Austin, simply put, is the highest-potential market right now in major league sports. And Major League Soccer is the highest-potential league in North American sports. And the combination thereof is a powerful duo.”"
Austin is the largest city in American without a professional sports team. This was one of the primary selling points of placing an MLS expansion team in the city. And as Loughanne explains, it is not just the size, development and absence of sports that make the city attractive to expansion teams:
"“As we think about the makeup of our city — multicultural, millennial and tech-savvy — historically those are important successful ingredients inside of a successful Major League Soccer market.”"
Austin FC have now surpassed 40,000 season-ticket deposits, have hired their head coach, sporting director, and chief scout, and are expected to attack the Latino market heavily in terms of player recruitment and fanbase — over 30% of Austin’s population is Latino or Hispanic. The city has also frequently ranked highly in TV ratings for World Cups, Women’s World Cups and MLS matches.
Consider Austin FC from whatever angle you wish. It all leads to the same conclusion: There is the makings for a very, very successful expansion team.