Sports in Austin

[Novacek]

Originally Posted by ILUVSAT

Well, that's not going to happen. There are too many cities with deeper pockets and the league is already up to 29 teams (with the 2023 addition of St. Louis). I don't think they'll expand past 32 teams - leaving only 3 spots.

I'm not sure exactly what the natural/ideal number of teams for a league is. But it seems unlikely that it would/should be exactly the same for every sport.

NFL seems to have found their ideal number at 32. And with scheduling, their limited number of games per season, limited talent pool and their sheer revenue (adding more teams is unlikely the grow the pot more than it would be diminished by sharing it with a +1) they won't be increasing it.

For MLS, given the worldwide talent pool, fewer players per team, binational nature (Canadian teams), more games per season and search for additional national/international exposure I definitely could see them going to 34, 36 or so.


Still doesn't mean SA makes the cut, they'd need deep pockets to step up both privately and publicly.

[kingkirbythe....]

Originally Posted by drummer

...there's always Butler Shores. Would it be a problem if they replaced baseball fields with a baseball field?

Traffic studies! Now Butler Shores is probably one of the worst of places for a stadium in Austin. Traffic studies! Ingress and egress would be the mother of all cluster fucks. Traffics studies! It would be bad for Zilker Park. Traffic studies! The neighborhood associations would go ballistic. Traffic studies!

Its all academic anyways. Austin is not getting a baseball team (or football or hockey) anytime in the foreseeable future.

[gillynova]

Originally Posted by kingkirbythe....

Traffic studies! Now Butler Shores is probably one of the worst of places for a stadium in Austin. Traffic studies! Ingress and egress would be the mother of all cluster fucks. Traffics studies! It would be bad for Zilker Park. Traffic studies! The neighborhood associations would go ballistic. Traffic studies!

Its all academic anyways. Austin is not getting a baseball team (or football or hockey) anytime in the foreseeable future.

Hockey would've fit if they made Moody Center 18k+ capacity

[loonytoony]

Originally Posted by kingkirbythe....

Traffic studies! Now Butler Shores is probably one of the worst of places for a stadium in Austin. Traffic studies! Ingress and egress would be the mother of all cluster fucks. Traffics studies! It would be bad for Zilker Park. Traffic studies! The neighborhood associations would go ballistic. Traffic studies!

Its all academic anyways. Austin is not getting a baseball team (or football or hockey) anytime in the foreseeable future.

Ugh, you're bringing back memories of the MLS discussion. Those damned traffic studies!

[atxsnail]

Originally Posted by kingkirbythe....

Its all academic anyways. Austin is not getting a baseball team (or football or hockey) anytime in the foreseeable future.

The Angels are officially for sale... the Austin Angels wouldn't be the worst name in the world.

I don't really think an MLB team would do that great here though.

[Mopacs]

Originally Posted by atxsnail

The Angels are officially for sale... the Austin Angels wouldn't be the worst name in the world.

I don't really think an MLB team would do that great here though.

Maybe Elon will get into the game, buy a team and move it here . Got plenty of land! Of course he has enough on his plate to worry about these days.

[Novacek]

Originally Posted by Novacek

Austin identifies 8 sites for viable MLS stadium or practice facility

The McKalla site is interesting. I don't think it's what Precourt wants, but it's definitely got some promise. On the Red Line, potentially next to the station if they relocate it to south of Braker. Pretty close to the Domain and in the overall North Burnet Gateway.

It's not "urban core", but long term it'll be more urban than lots of what gets called the "core".

Blast from the past (I was revisiting the whole saga of posts after last night's game). I think this Statesman story was the first public mention of the McKalla option.

I have to say it's overwhelmingly succeeded. And we're just 2 years in (or 5 years from this idea). With the train station and all those planned adjacent towers yet to come.

Statesman changed their link, but the story is archived:
https://web.archive.org/web/20171214...tq6yJNHefJ87I/

[ATXboom]

Originally Posted by atxsnail

The Angels are officially for sale... the Austin Angels wouldn't be the worst name in the world.

I don't really think an MLB team would do that great here though.

RR express says hello.... think they consistently have the best minor league attendance. I bet MLB would do well near the domain to get the norther suburban families going.

[gillynova]

The Angels will NOT move here. I don't think the MLB wants to put 3 TEXAS teams in the same division lmao (Rangers and Astros are in the AL West)

I LOVE baseball and would love to see an MLB team here but it's very unlikely. The A's are most likely going to Las Vegas but I wish they picked Austin

[drummer]

Originally Posted by gillynova

The Angels will NOT move here. I don't think the MLB wants to put 3 TEXAS teams in the same division lmao (Rangers and Astros are in the AL West)

I LOVE baseball and would love to see an MLB team here but it's very unlikely. The A's are most likely going to Las Vegas but I wish they picked Austin

That's actually a good point - it would (possibly) make more sense to have an NL team here if we get a third in Texas.

[paul78701]

Originally Posted by gillynova

The Angels will NOT move here. I don't think the MLB wants to put 3 TEXAS teams in the same division lmao (Rangers and Astros are in the AL West)

I LOVE baseball and would love to see an MLB team here but it's very unlikely. The A's are most likely going to Las Vegas but I wish they picked Austin

There's no reason to believe the Angels will be moving here, but that said, division alignment would not be a deciding factor in any team relocations. Even so, MLB has shown that division/league movement are no longer an issue for them. It wasn't that long ago that they moved Houston from the NL to the AL and moved Milwaukee from the AL to the NL.

[freerover]

Originally Posted by freerover

Here is a breakdown of the stadium sites from the city report if anyone is interested.

St. John’s (Home Depot/Chrysler) Property
Owner: Office of Real Estate Services
Address: 7211 N IH35 Austin, TX 78752
Acres: 19




McKalla Lane Property (Site near domain directly on Red Line)
Owner: Austin Water Utility
Address: 10414 McKalla Lane Austin, Texas 78758
Acreage: 24 acres


Exposition Center Property
Owner: Travis County/City of Austin
Address: 7311 Decker Ln, Austin, TX 78724
Acreage: 127 acres
Utilization: Tier 2



Roy G. Guerrero Park
Owner: Austin Parks and Recreation Department
Address: 400 Grove Blvd, Austin, TX 78741
Acreage: 339 acres
Utilization: Tier 2



Toomey Road and Lamar Property (Butler Shores)
Owner: Austin Parks and Recreation Department
Address: 1501 Toomey Rd, Austin, TX 78704
Acreage: 16 acres
Utilization: Tier 3



I'm starting to like the location near the Domain a lot considering it's slowly turning into a 2nd Downtown. I just wish the Red Line actually went through the domain. The Red Line will be able to run every 15 minutes when the stadium opens but they only hold 200 people including stadium room only. I don't think it's really a huge help public transit wise. It also has the 803 Metro Rapid bus which runs from South Lamar to the Domain.

Guerrero park would have been interesting but I think all the retail space near q2 has proved to be a massive win. Good times.

[drummer]

Originally Posted by freerover

Guerrero park would have been interesting but I think all the retail space near q2 has proved to be a massive win. Good times.

Definitely.

[papertowelroll]

Guerrero would have been tough logistically IMO. It's worse than Q2's location transit, freeway access, and parking and is just way more remote within the metro overall. Butler Shores would have been challenging in some ways but amazing in others. Of the sites looked at for Q2 I think it's the only one that might have been slightly better.

Way back when, the Austin Aztex ownership wanted to do a stadium at Highland mall, and I think that could have worked, though it wouldn't have been much, if any better than the location we have. Additionally, there was another potential ownership group (I want to say Bobby Epstein, but not 100% sure) that apparently liked the idea of a stadium in East Austin at the Cap Metro facility at 5th and Pleasant Valley. That could have been interesting as well, though I'm not sure whether or not it was actually possible to use that site.

[ATX2030]

2023 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play to be last in Austin

https://www.kxan.com/sports/2023-wgc...ast-in-austin/

[Geckos_Rule]

Originally Posted by ATX2030

2023 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play to be last in Austin

https://www.kxan.com/sports/2023-wgc...ast-in-austin/

That's a shame, as Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio all have ongoing PGA tournaments as well. Only Houston's (the Shell Open) is a bigger draw that the Match Play is.

Hopefully we will see this come back or resume in a similar form, either at ACC or another Austin course.

[GoldenBoot]

Originally Posted by Geckos_Rule

Hopefully we will see this come back or resume in a similar form, either at ACC or another Austin course.

I think Austin will secure another PGA even in the future. But, I have serious doubts that it will be held at ACC.

The majority membership of ACC were the ones who killed this tournament. And too late in the game, they saw the error in their negotiating ways and tried to beg the PGA to reconsider. However, the PGA, at that point, basically said: screw you.

This really sucks. Very few PGA courses look so good on TV. I loved seeing the hills and Pennybacker in so many wide shots.

Having said all that, the tournaments in Dallas, Houston and SA are all played on courses designed to host tournaments. Obviously, ACC is not. And, I don't think there is one in Austin. I'd like for a TPC-type development pop up in western Travis county. Have it nestled in the hills and maybe along lakefront.

[Tyrone Shoes]

Originally Posted by Geckos_Rule

That's a shame, as Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio all have ongoing PGA tournaments as well. Only Houston's (the Shell Open) is a bigger draw that the Match Play is.

Hopefully we will see this come back or resume in a similar form, either at ACC or another Austin course.

2024 LIV-Dell Technologies Match Play,
Austin

LIV is looking for a way into the US and Austin has proven it's a cool venue with the current match play a successful format.

[SproutingTowers]

The Omni Barton Creek Resort could be a nice venue.

[ILUVSAT]

Originally Posted by SproutingTowers

The Omni Barton Creek Resort could be a nice venue.

Those are beautiful courses. However, they are "too easy" for the PGA and/or LIV Tours. In contrast, ACC is one of the hardest courses in Austin.