Austin MLS Done Deal? (Houston, San Antonio: spring break, house, camps)

[CT_ATX]

Originally Posted by centralaustinite

But it includes ZERO parking! Zero. They tell us that the surrounding area has 3000 street spots but as someone who is in that area nearly every day -- those spots are highly used! Already getting to TRC, Zach, anything on Toomey, that west end of the trail, everything on the east end of Lake Austin Blvd, anything near Lamar/Barton Springs is very hard. And then we are supposed to just add 20,000 soccer fans?

Don't 3 times as many cram into Zilker for ACL? That's kind of the point of putting it near downtown I assume, so you can just walk up and check it out.

[centralaustinite]

Originally Posted by CT_ATX

Don't 3 times as many cram into Zilker for ACL? That's kind of the point of putting it near downtown I assume, so you can just walk up and check it out.

ACL is two weekends a year, SXSW is a full month. During both my everyday life of trying to get kids to school, activities, the Y, my usual coffeeshop, and local restaurants is disrupted. ACL is barable, SXSW is maddening.

How many MLS games are we talking about? It seems to sound great to people who don't live in the area and who are trying to have ordinary lives. I really don't want Austin to become Aspen or Disneyland, a fake place for only the visiting rich tourists. I've seen sales pitches for MLS saying that it will bring regular people and particularly Hispanics to downtown which is great but where is the infrastructure?

Shuttles run every 10 minutes from two locations for UT games, I want to see details on how they plan to move people. ACL and SxSW are NOT models for running this.

I like the rodeo grounds idea better.

[gdu]

Originally Posted by centralaustinite

ACL is two weekends a year, SXSW is a full month. During both my everyday life of trying to get kids to school, activities, the Y, my usual coffeeshop, and local restaurants is disrupted. ACL is barable, SXSW is maddening.

How many MLS games are we talking about? It seems to sound great to people who don't live in the area and who are trying to have ordinary lives. I really don't want Austin to become Aspen or Disneyland, a fake place for only the visiting rich tourists. I've seen sales pitches for MLS saying that it will bring regular people and particularly Hispanics to downtown which is great but where is the infrastructure?

Shuttles run every 10 minutes from two locations for UT games, I want to see details on how they plan to move people. ACL and SxSW are NOT models for running this.

I like the rodeo grounds idea better.

The whole reason the team is considering moving to Austin is because MLS stadiums in locations like the EXPO center don't work.

I can't wait to go to games if they build the stadium at Butler. I would go to 1-2 games/year max at COTA or the EXPO center.

[centralaustinite]

Originally Posted by gdu

The whole reason the team is considering moving to Austin is because MLS stadiums in locations like the EXPO center don't work.

I can't wait to go to games if they build the stadium at Butler. I would go to 1-2 games/year max at COTA or the EXPO center.

They have plenty of parking at their current location in Columbus.

So how do you plan to get to a Butler location? I do appreciate that they are looking at a 8 pm start time.

[CT_ATX]

Originally Posted by centralaustinite

ACL is two weekends a year, SXSW is a full month. During both my everyday life of trying to get kids to school, activities, the Y, my usual coffeeshop, and local restaurants is disrupted. ACL is barable, SXSW is maddening.

How many MLS games are we talking about? It seems to sound great to people who don't live in the area and who are trying to have ordinary lives. I really don't want Austin to become Aspen or Disneyland, a fake place for only the visiting rich tourists. I've seen sales pitches for MLS saying that it will bring regular people and particularly Hispanics to downtown which is great but where is the infrastructure?

Shuttles run every 10 minutes from two locations for UT games, I want to see details on how they plan to move people. ACL and SxSW are NOT models for running this.

I like the rodeo grounds idea better.

It looks like they play 17 home games a season. It doesn't seem like Disneyland. It is more just normal city stuff to catch a bus or train downtown and go see a game. I'd probably never go if they built it by the rodeo because then I'd have to drive. I appreciate the hassle of having it in your neighborhood, although I'd probably welcome it in my neighborhood.

[A-Tex]

The city owns 20 centrally located and easily accessed acres at the former Home Depot location at I-35 and St Johns. That was supposed to have a police station built there if I recall correctly, and it's been vacant and unused for maybe a decade or so. In my view, that's a perfect spot for a stadium.

[centralaustinite]

Originally Posted by A-Tex

The city owns 20 centrally located and easily accessed acres at the former Home Depot location at I-35 and St Johns. That was supposed to have a police station built there if I recall correctly, and it's been vacant and unused for maybe a decade or so. In my view, that's a perfect spot for a stadium.

It was supposed to become the new municipal court! Not sure what happened. It is at nearly the perfect center of Austin's population.

[JH6]

I do not watch soccer and don't really care too much either way.

Do americans really care about soccer? The only people I know in my age group (35 years old) who watch soccer regularly are foreign born, either from Europe or Mexico.

I noticed the MLS season is from March until October.

Will people want to sit in an outdoor venue when its 100+ degrees outside?

Also no parking, so maybe I should ride my bicycle from Round Rock to the venue.

[CT_ATX]

Originally Posted by JH6

I do not watch soccer and don't really care too much either way.

Do americans really care about soccer? The only people I know in my age group (35 years old) who watch soccer regularly are foreign born, either from Europe or Mexico.

I noticed the MLS season is from March until October.

Will people want to sit in an outdoor venue when its 100+ degrees outside?

Also no parking, so maybe I should ride my bicycle from Round Rock to the venue.

I thought all sports were an excuse to drink beer and yell loud.

[Austinite101]

As previous posters pointed out, the article states they’d try for late evening games at 8pm rather than butt up against the hell that is rush hour. That puts to rest the “it’s too hot to go” and the “how will I get home from work/pick up my kids from school” arguments.

Anecdotally, many people in this city really want a professional sports team and don’t care how it was acquired. It could be an interesting experiment as well, as I don’t think there are many, if any, examples of a city as large as Austin starting their venture into professional sports with a soccer team as opposed to NFL or NBA.