Professional Soccer Comes to Austin With British Backing AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 23 -- Today heralds a groundbreaking day for sports in Austin with the news that the City will soon be home to its only professional soccer franchise. The new club, Austin Aztex, will play in the United Soccer Leagues (USL) First Division beginning in the 2009 season. The Aztex will play host to teams from all across North America, including Montreal, Atlanta, Minnesota, Vancouver and Miami. The new franchise has been acquired by Austin Football Holdings LLC, (AFH) under the ownership of British-born business entrepreneur Phil Rawlins. An Austin resident, Rawlins, is also an owner and director of Stoke City F.C., who play in the English Championship. He has held an ownership interest in Stoke City F.C. for more than seven years and brings a wealth of management experience in soccer operations. The Austin Aztex will have an official affiliation with Stoke City F.C. which will begin immediately. The affiliation will include the English club holding their summer training camp in Austin, scouting for talent both locally and across the US, exchanging players with the Aztex and sharing best practices between the two clubs. "I am delighted to have the opportunity to bring a top-class professional soccer franchise to Austin," said Rawlins. "Central Texas has long been a hot-bed of young soccer talent with over 35,000 kids playing the game locally. Today's announcement gives these youngsters and talented players throughout Texas something to aim for and the chance of playing soccer at the very highest level. I am very excited about the affiliation agreement with Stoke and the European exposure that gives both the Aztex and our players. My goal is to make the Aztex a community-based club that makes Austin proud." Stoke City Welcomes the Aztex Stoke City F.C. Chief Executive Tony Scholes welcomed the Austin Aztex with these words: "Working with someone that we know and respect like Phil Rawlins, in a booming soccer marketplace like the States, made our official affiliation an easy decision for Stoke City. We feel certain that the Aztex will be a major success both in Austin and across the U.S., and look forward to a long and mutually profitable relationship between Stoke City and the Austin Aztex." Austin Expansion Key to USL Plans "For the past few years, USL has been dedicated to expanding our relationships beyond the shores of North America and this announcement is another landmark moment in this quest," said USL Founder and President Francisco Marcos. "I firmly believe that Phil Rawlins understands, and is fully committed to, the concept of international relationships as the way to speed up American player development and to further the creation of thriving soccer culture in the US. Following in the footsteps of Crystal Palace Baltimore, who began play last season, and of our recently announced partnership with West Ham United, this is a significant moment in the history and growth of the USL First Division. This announcement of the USL First Division's return to Texas is also representative of the League's commitment for growth as we continue our discussions in multiple markets for additional expansion clubs west of the Mississippi." Coach to be Announced Soon The Austin Aztex will immediately begin their search for a club Head Coach. Parties interested in the position should hold a minimum of a UEFA "A" license or equivalent and have more than ten years of professional coaching experience. Applicants can send their resume to coaches@austinaztex.com. Acquisition As part of today's news, AFH also announced that it will be acquiring the controlling interest in the Austin Stampede, an expansion team in the USL Premier Development League (PDL). The Stampede will immediately become the Austin Aztex U23 team and will compete in the Southern Conference, Mid South Division in the 2008 season.
Here's their web site. http://www.austinaztex.com/ This is pretty big news. This is probably the city size that would be good for MLS. And with them taking over the new PDL team there, they will have a year to work at get everything in place while still having an active team to market.
Austin is a great city and with a permantently stable economy. If they market it right, they could get a fun Portland-type crowd. The name and logo seem a little AFL2 (I know I know... "Impact" isn't much better... but our logo's alright), but maybe they get the latter sorted out before they go live. Over all though, this is great news. I wonder where they'll play? 2009 is going to be an interesting year for USL1... maybe the best in a decade!
Holy Crap! Holy Crap! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEEEEEEEEEEEARGH! ...ok, calm down. seriously, Eric, calm down. It's going to take a lot for this to work. They have the same barriers that every other USL team has had -- a workable stadium. And this isn't '98. There's the Ice Bats, the Express, some basketball team, the indoor football team as well as the 9000 lb gorilla UT. Nevertheless, I'm really excited. It's going to take some time to process this. And read through all the information.
Violet, Didn't see this one coming...but can definitely see it going. Austin is a really hard market. A quick call to my soccer know-it-all friends in Austin...woke them up with this news...and all excitement faded. They looked at the contacts page and were shall we say less than impressed. They will have to update the front office asap or else this will crash fast. There are some very well known and respected soccer names in Austin. Someone introduce them to the owner and get this underway. Think San Antonio might overshadow Austin with an upcoming announcement of their own. Not that the league or owners or other is better or bigger, but that it will draw the Hispanic crowd in droves. Austin needs them to stay home to support this team. Also, owner better have some seriously deep pockets that he is willing to empty out to support the team especially with that travel schedule. Here's hoping all goes well. But, as you said, Austin only has one suitable stadium (UT) and the fans are pretty split up. Also, Austin is getting a higher level hockey team from one of the other forum pages if I remember correctly. Any hoot...best of luck.
Is the sponsor going to be a certain Pontiac car? http://blog.cardomain.com/blog/2008/01/poor-aztec-only.html Why not the Austin Stokers? Just a thought ...
That's exactly why I'm trying to stay rational. Hard to, as I've felt Austin deserved USL-1 for some time. I sent an email to the Stampede back when I heard about them, did a little research on their ownership team, and when I discovered that the Operations VP was the same guy as did Operations for the previous PDL team, that pretty much killed my confidence in the group despite their assurances that they had exciting things planned. It's frustrating to see people try over and over again, and ignore the experience of those that went before. Probably the biggest thing missing in the Stampede that I could see was people with serious sports business experience. I was hoping that the Stoke team might bring that, but from your info, it sounds like they're not. Maybe they're hoping that, with San Antonio included, the travel will be mitigated some. But, yeah, it's a long way to anywhere from here. They need some really deep pockets to pull this one off. Hope they don't drag Stoke down in the process! Yeah, someone mentioned in the San Antonio MLS expansion thread that the Ice Bats were looking at moving up. And Austin has a number of acceptable stadiums. House Park, while not as wide as I'd like, has been a fabulously intimate place for games and holds 6,000. There are a number of HS football stadiums that have worked nicely enough. The consistent problem has been that the school districts get flaky about their pretty green grass and not wanting it messed up for the football players. That's a sore spot with me (I was a Lone Stars volunteer back in the day, so I have a long story about that). Upshot -- these guys have the following choices: UT soccer stadium (good luck even getting in the door to talk to them. Gotta hope there's a connected alum somewhere within reach). AISD (House, Burger Center, not remembering them all). Need to get an unbreakable contract with them so they don't get booted halfway or even before the season starts. Probably will require some sort of "Aztex will replace the grass" item in the agreement. Pflugerville. Pretty much in the middle of things up north now. The stadium looked pretty good when it hosted the statewide soccer finals a few years ago. Other school districts? Round Rock? Del Valle (though that's probably still too far out. Playing out there is what killed the Lone Stars). I don't know the suburbs at all. And, of course, the dream of building a stadium. Clearly not in these guy's minds. Always in mine, as a fantasy.
It has more than that. Round Rock Stadium 11,000 Pros: Wide enough Cons: Not grass House Park 6,000 Pros: Grass Cons: Questionable width, parking There are others, but they have tracks. Obviously Myers Stadium at UT is the best of the lot though.
please stay out of round rock, georgetown, whatever. inside the city (UT campus), would be amazing for the support.
Violet, Unfortunately, a quick check shows that the same three that owned the Stampede are now on the contacts list (board??) of the new USL 1 team. I would say from what you've said about lack of soccer experience and knowledge of VP of Ops and what my contacts said about VP of Ops, this could take a lot of work from people outside to get this to work. I think they will have a hard time getting more than about 1,500 to each game. Friends with MLS contacts say that the MLS friendlies played there don't draw too well either. Hard to say...Austin is a fun town and does have plenty other to do.
The only issue I have with UT is the 8-lane track. Otherwise the stadium and location are class. But will people be put off by that track?
Hm. I can' only remember 2 MLS friendlies. One back when MLS started, Dallas vs. Austin Lone Stars. Drew pretty well from my memory. I probably have something somewhere with the number, but I don't remember. The only other friendly was... Colorado Rapids against... Houston? No, I think it was longer ago than that. And it was FLIPPING FREEZING that night. That was more recent. And though I went, I don't know the number. I know that I was impressed with how many came out considering the weather. Re: the contacts list/board. Yeah, I just followed the same path you did. On the plus side, there's a Marketing person. So that gives me some hope. It'll tell me a lot if they have a press conference and/or if this news makes the media here in any way. I'm not expecting it to. Doing some web searches, Phil Rawlins at least has connections. Saw him listed in some local charity events with former NFL players, and also as a friend of someone at a British solicitors firm with a nice website. But it does give me pause seeing his wife listed as the Community Relations person. Not that it's necessarily bad. Wolfgang's wife Monika did a great job running the Lone Stars (with what she had).
I don't think so. Not if the team is decent and well-marketed. The only issue I have with UT is if they could even rent it. UT would probably charge an exorbitant fee or otherwise work it so that it's not a worthwhile deal. I'm expecting them to end up in the usual USL runaround to AISD, then Pflugerville, then Round Rock or Westlake or worse. I sure hope Rawlins has good connections.
i would absolutely love to see an offseason Texas open cup. hou, atx, dal, hou (pdl), el paso, dfw, even the teams from our universities could have a play in. anyway, thats my fantasy.
I don't know much about Austin or the area where House Park is in Austin, but I always thought with some money put in it it'd make a nice little soccer stadium. You could expand the stands the length of the touchline on the east side, and to the end zone on the west side, add a north stand and have a nice little 10,500 seater.
I don't think Phil Rawlins is super-super rich (personal fortune said to be about $65m) But he's a shrewd businessman, and a good guy. His 'head of overseas development', Gary Mellor, is a pretty well-known soccer agent in the English Midlands. -- Sunday Times Soccer Rich List After leaving college Rawlins and a colleague set up a business from home, The Sales Consultancy, which offered sales training for hi-tech firms. The company went global and they sold the business to a major software company in America for $260,000,000. His shares stand at around £32,000,000 and his 10% stake in The Potters gives him another £1,500,000. --
Violet, There will be a press release you can bet on it. Probably have the twig from USL front office in town as well. He loves to see himself in print. He's been trying to sell franchises to anyone who will listen in Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado and I'm sure others. Since he's been baiting them all telling them that he is close with so many other area franchises, he really needs for Austin to make a splash. I hope it works out...not for his satisfaction....but, for the city and then maybe, just maybe the rest of Texas will join and we can have some real soccer for a change! Or, I'll take the Mexican league option...I just want something besides PDL>
Smack dab in the middle of town. You can see the Capitol dome nicely from the west stands. Yeah, I've had mental plans for pushing the east stands into the basketball building for some time. I think there's enough room. Only need a couple yards! House park is the best place. And with it's age, it's probably due for remodeling, anyway! Now, if Mr. Rawlins has deep enough pockets to offer the money to AISD... Damn you HSEUPASSION! My imagination is running away with me again.
Well, if things keep going the way they are with our economy, the £ vs. $ will keep him in good stead over here, at least! I hope he's found the right people to run this thing. I have my doubts. But if he's as shrewd as you suggest, he'll find the right people. This is getting interesting!
If they are looking to the school district for a stadium, I heard from some guys last year that some groups (as in plural) were going to sue the school district for discrimination for not allowing them to use the stadium facilities also. So, I don't know a lot about legal junk, but apparently they were allowing some to use the fields and not others and some lawyer was considering taking the cases. Did anything come of that do you know?
I forgot one thing that my friends mentioned this morning and I guess at the time it didn't really dawn on me what they were talking about. Why are all the USL teams affiliating with British/European teams? I have nothing against them, but why not try to affiliate with MLS teams? There has to be a reason the MLS does not want to affiliate with USL> Supposedly, the USL is helping to identify and develop players for the next level. Wouldn't it make sense that they would want to help develop the pro league here in the states as opposed to overseas...not that they need developing, but rather feeding them players. The MLS will never get better as long as the USL keeps trying to undermine it by affiliating with overseas' teams. I simply do not understand why the USL would want to do that. It makes a lot of sense for the foreign teams...they can come in cheaply to a loosely regulated league and scout for potential talent. Now that I think about it...this is really bothering me. We are undermining our own pro league and wondering why it is not getting better. HHHHmmmm...I"ll have to think on that one for a while.
This took me by surprise. The previous owners of the Lightning were very unpopular and not easy to work with. They sold a small interest to 3 folks who thought they could help - but their hands were tied due a lack of funds and bad decisions by the majority owners. The Lightning's PDL franchise rights were revoked due to violations of league policy and the 3 previous minority owners bid and were awarded the PDL franchise rights. And I guess they sold rights to this Stoke guy.
NS, I've heard about 10 different versions of the story. Don't really care how it came about.....truth is probably somewhere in between about 4 of those stories. Not my business. Just wondering if this new USL 1 team has thought everything through and has the right people in the front office. My conclusions had nothing to do with the previous team...before the Stampede. I don't know any of them...my friends' knew one of the guys (the Aztex Game Day Ops) and it had nothing to do with the previous team....I believe it is through the youth and/or non soccer stuff.
Congrats to Austin... As for why USL are getting partnerships with overseas clubs is hardly rocket science, MSL are single entity so they can hardly form partnerships with anything but other leagues really..Not if players comes into the picture. That said it´s hardly a bad thing for USL really.
And I don't think it's a bad thing for MLS either. It's very quickly reaching the point where we are producing way more soccer players that MLS could possibly scout and manage. I wouldn't be shocked to quickly find ourselves in Brazil's situation -- being able to field two or three equally good national teams. I'm not suggesting that they'd be at Brazil's level. Just that we'll have a crapload of players, any 11 of which would be as good as any other 11. While MLS is working on creating youth teams and solid reserve sides, there's plenty of room for a support structure. MLS is working on taking care of itself financially. It's in better shape than it was, but it's no where near ready to do all the work that's still to be done in developing US players. If other teams around the world want to come in and do it, well, the more the merrier I say. They'll find that, as with the NASL, it's no picnic. I'll bet that (as with Alaves in SF -- I have that right, don't I?), many will quickly pack up and go home. Some will succeed, though, and that's great for soccer in the US at all levels.