[the Genral]

Soooo... Austin has a bunch of things no other major cities have; SXSW, ACL fest, Cota, Urban bat colony, State Capital, World Class indoor water park nearby, Kalahari, to name a few. A short drive to San Antonio gives us a very nice Zoo, as does Waco, a fun weekend getaway to miles of coastal beaches and an Aquarium at Corpus Christi that's amazing.
Three Basketball teams, Spurs, Mavs, Rockets, two NFL teams, two MLB teams, all within a few hours driving. Personally, I like to hop in the car and get away for a day or so. I like the opportunity to see something other than Austin once in a while and these things give me the opportunity. I somewhat disagree that MLS is not part of the other majors. It's not called NQMLS, (Not Quite Major League Soccer). It's relatively new and growing in popularity.
Where would we put a WC Zoo, Aquarium, Planetarium, Science Museum?
An Amusement Park worthy of noting could happen at COTA.
I think geographically Austin is in a good place to enjoy many venues and attractions and letting those other cities foot the bill. People are coming to Austin in droves to visit, and not having Professional Sports, Zoos, ect is not stopping them from coming. I'm not saying those things wouldn't be nice for us locals, but its not like we don't have access to those things in 4 hours or less.