I can understand if the City of Austin and Travis County would decide not to help pay for the construction of a new soccer specific stadium for the Aztex. But were they ever even asked??? As far as I can tell, the city and county were never asked! Was Phil Rawlins too embarrassed to ask the city and county for public money? I would like to hear Phil Rawlins answer that question. Dave Brett
The obsession in this country with SSSs has surely taken countless years off of countless people's lives through the needless pain and suffering it inflicts on owners and fans alike. It confuses means with ends to the detriment of any kind of logical, organic development of the sport.
Most stadiums in LatinAmerica are government owned. There's veeeeeeeery few teams that own their stadium.
I do believe Phil had discussions with the city in that direction; and I think there was some support on the City Council, at least, though it would've been a very difficult political sell. I'm more curious about the statements that he had been looking for investment locally, and couldn't find any. If he did have such feelers out, they were very, very low-key. I know there are some real-estate investment types who would've been interested in the discussion, had they known it might be on the table.
Barbaro, I really hope that you plan on addressing this in your blog in the Chronicle. This is worse than the Posse IMO.
Who told you that? Did Phil tell you that himself? I am not trying to be nosy. It's just that I never heard anything about that from anyone. And that makes me skeptical. Dave
There were discussions, informal or formal I don't know, with folks like Mayor Leffingwell (who stated Highland Park should be re-developed as SSS) and Mike Martinez. We also had a grass roots effort to discuss what this SSS would look like in Austin. There was talk that the 3 year contract the Aztex signed less than a month ago would end with us going into our own stadium. This is from the FO. Problem is, Phil Rawlins and co had already decided to make the move before then. Again, and example of the lies that had been pushed onto an unsuspecting supporter base.
We were privy to those discussions. I would imagine that there was openness from Austin to assist with funding. What I don't know is whether the discussions got to that point. Frankly, I doubt we'll ever know.
I will also offer that FO staff also mentioned Cedar Park showing interest in a SSS. I believe it would have been associated with the Cedar Park Center complex. I expressed displeasure with this suburban stadium (sounds like FCD's PHP problems), and was told that the team was planning on building in Austin city proper. (edit: By "planning on building", I mean "focusing on trying to build in Austin")
Seriously, Dave. How long have you lived in Austin? The last time any minor league team tried to build a stadium, it was shot down in flames. And that was for baseball - the Express. I don't remember the details, but I'm pretty sure all they needed was the right to build it plus infrastructure work, like any other development and similar to Houston's stadium for the Dynamo. And it was going to be out Mopac and Parmer, not in the middle of town, like the Aztex were talking about (and we all know would be much better for the team). Think about that. Nolan Ryan was shot down in flames. And he's *way* more politically connected, admired, and liked than Phil Rawlins. Even if the Aztex has made a more public, serious effort, it would've been shot down so fast you'd never even knew it happened. And that may be exactly what happened. Not that I want to give Phil any credit at this point, but if you know anything about Austin politics (I'm sure Nick will back me up on this), getting a soccer stadium in Austin would have been, and always will be, nearly impossible. It's why I was doubtful about the 'three years' comments that the team was making. I guess I didn't check the fine print closely enough. I guess they didn't mean here in Austin.
Yeah but, they were offered a stadium in Cedar Park by the local council, while its not the best location for Austinites its a bit closer than Orlando.
How much would it cost them to get that stadium? How much would it cost them to keep flying around the US? How much of an attendance boost can you *guarantee* after they get that stadium? (And, as a related item, how many Hispanics in South and East Austin will make the trip?) And are you willing to bet Phil's $30 million on it? And, probably most importantly, were they really offered a stadium in Cedar Park? Or was it just early discussions? Just reread my comments. I'm coming off a little bit pissy. Apologies if I'm coming off harshly. I'm still fuming about all this.
Aren't these the kind of things a person with business savvy would ask before buying a team or most certainly before moving from PDL to USL1? This ain't his first rodeo so he can't say he didn't know those kinds of things would be important no matter what the field or level of team. Why not stay PDL and get a better feel for the city if you don't really have any idea of these things? Why have an office, use part of a soccer store or your home if you don't have funds....they can't constantly claim professionalism and then have food tents set up around the grounds and no advertising and just so many other things that don't make sense. Sorry but I am a huge skeptic of this junk league and have been burned by many owners in Houston so I question everything. But I do know about USL and there are always underhanded things going on in that league.
1,No idea 2,No idea, but much cheaper next season due to the teams leaving & adding San Antonio 3, There's not guarantee's in life, why would i a mere fan have to offer one. 4, The important question, According to both Phil & Adrian , YES they were offered a stadium,Both told me that personally on two seperate occasions but under what favorable terms only the ones involved really know that.
OK. That just pisses me off even more. Seriously. As much as I don't like the idea of having to go out to Cedar Park for a game, I think the odds are pretty good that me and every other member of Chantico's Army would take 'Stadium in Cedar Park' over 'No Team'. This really tells me that the stadium was a minor part of the issue. The real issue was the travel costs and, probably most importantly, the new part-owners that Phil got.
It cost Lamar Hunt 28.5 million dollars of his own money for Columbus Crew Stadium. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_Crew_Stadium Carolina Railhawks home cost 14.5 million http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WakeMed_Soccer_Park Charleston Battery's Stadium cost 5.1 million http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbaud_Stadium
I've been here 11 Years. If you look at the first sentence of this thread, I tried to convey my skepticism that public money could or would be obtained for a new stadium. But what I'm saying is that at least the team should have asked. If the city and the county want to reject a request for public financing, that's fine. But at the least the team should have tried to get it. Public funding for soccer stadiums in this country is not unheard of. Just look at the Chicago Fire's new stadium or the Rochester Rhinos new stadium. Those were public-private partnerships. If it happened there it could have happened here. It just turns out that we didn't have an owner who was committed to Austin. Dave
The stadium issue feels like a smokescreen to me. I can't believe they moved to Orlando because of the Orange Bowl. Even though they can sell beer, that place has got to cost a fortune to rent, in comparison to a high school stadium. DC United isn't exactly getting rich bringing in 15-20k fans into that huge baseball stadium (which has a capacity of 45k, versus the 60k capacity of the Orange Bowl). Are the Aztex (sorry, Orlando City) going to draw 15k fans next season? Or 2 years after that? (Red Bulls aren't averaging much more than that, this season, even with Henry et all.) I suppose it is possible, but it doesn't seem likely to me. I may be proven wrong.
Orlando and Central Florida won't support soccer but they probably mitigated some losses. Pretty sorry on the part of the Aztex organization, now I know how the Sonics fans feel. I moved to Kentucky for a year and still followed religiously. I was very excited to take my son to see his home town side. Who cares if the stadium was built in Bastrop,Lockhart,Cedar Park. It might make it tough to get to but it was doable. Last time I support any Austin pro team in soccer. Sorry fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me....this won't be a triology.
Here's the frustrating thing about that attitude, though: going at it that way, soccer is guaranteed to fail in Austin. Me, as much as I hate what happened, I'll support the next pro team that comes along, whenever it is. Even non-pro. Because my preference is that it succeed. And the only way for it to succeed is if it's supported.
Cedar Park is more than doable for hockey fans in the Austin area. Take a drive some night to watch the Texas Stars and see what a professionally run franchise looks like. A modern arena with full concessions, alchohol, corporate facilites. It reminds me of the Round Rock Express model. Sure people were sad to see the Ice Bats die but they had nowhere to play (sound familiar) and what replaced them was miles above the Ice Bats. So don't give up on Austin soccer just yet. The Aztex left such a bad taste in everyones mouth but you never know what may follow. I was surprised to learn on these threads that Cedar Park had talks with the Aztex. Does anyone know how far along they were?