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| R.I.P. 2008 - 2010 |
On Friday, upon returning home from work, I was reading up on soccer news from my Twitter feed when I started reading frantic "tweets" from many of my Austin soccer friends. Inside Minnesota Soccer had broken the news that my local club, the Austin Aztex, were packing up and moving to Orlando, Florida. Today, the news was confirmed in a press conference held by the Aztex's owner, Phil Rawlins.
The news, seemingly out of nowhere, was, need-less-to-say, a complete shock to me.
Near the end of September I attended, along with a few thousand of my closest friends, the home finale of the Aztex as they defeated AC St. Louis, 4-2. It's with bitter irony that, at the time, we members of the Austin supporters group, Chantico's Army, chanted "Happy trails to you, we'll never meet again" to the AC players, mocking their clubs' endless financial problems and the possibility that their club would fail in the off-season.
How tragic that the pie was actually on our faces.
This is the frailty of soccer in America.
To see a franchise in American soccer fail is not surprising. In Major League Soccer, the domestic top-flight went through a series of painful contractions shedding teams in weak markets (two in Florida interestingly enough) in order to save the rest of the ship. In the second division of U.S. soccer club failures are more common, even expected, as 75% of teams have failed. The story of the Aztex is not one of failure, though.
The Austin soccer community is vibrant. The metropolitan area is home to nearly 1.75 million people, the 35th largest metro-area in the nation and nearly 40,000 youth soccer players. The population boasts countless young professionals, college students, families, and Latinos all demographically strong soccer fans. In fact, Austin had the seventh largest television audience for the 2010 World Cup. A recent article in the Austin Business Journal said that the economic climate in the city was suitable for a "tier 1" sports franchise.
The support for the Aztex has been nothing short of stable and growing. The team played only two years in the second division and averaged 3,733 people per game (sixth out of twelve teams) during the 2010 season. But the real surprise was that attendance figures rose 25% from 2009 making it the team with the greatest growth in the league. The supporters group, Chantico's Army, was one of the better organized, rowdy, and sizeable in the league.
If soccer can't succeed in a city like Austin and an atmosphere of support like what was seen at House Park then is anywhere in America safe for soccer?
The truth of the matter is that owner Phil Rawlins (a man who I've met, talked to, had many beers with, and enjoyed as a human being and a great fan of the game) and the next set of partners in this Orlando endeavor made a cold, economic decision about the fate of soccer in Austin for 2011 and maybe forever. It just didn't work.
Speaking today at a press conference in Orlando Rawlins said:
“I know the new investors very well -- they are football people and have been interested in working with us for some time. They like what we have achieved on the field and in the community,” he continued. “However, they made it very clear that their investment was contingent upon the team relocating, citing Austin’s lack of a soccer specific stadium with any corporate facilities, the inability to sell alcohol at games and the geographical isolation of the team within the new USL-Pro League. In short, they didn’t see Central Texas as the right market for the team and their future plans.”
It didn't make enough money. Now anyone who's getting into the "soccer in America" business today should know that this isn't a profit-making enterprise. Even in MLS only two of the 16 clubs finished in the black. Mr. Rawlins knew that for sure. And he knew this: investing in soccer in America isn't a get-rich-quick-scheme, it is a down payment on the future of the sport.
At the founding of the team, back in 2008, he even stated he was in it for the long-haul, "My goal is to make the Aztex a community-based club that the Austin area can be proud of."
Their website stated: "The Austin Aztex mission is to help grow the beautiful game of soccer in the greater Austin area."
So where did everything go wrong? How did signing a renewing a three-year lease at House Park (the Austin school district football field the Aztex played at) turn into a jump to Orlando? How did a rumored search to build a modest soccer specific stadium lead to packing up the moving truck? How did one owner's commitment to soccer in Austin, for the long-term, end up as hollow words?
So soccer in America hangs by a thread. Major League Soccer sports many sizable and stable teams in its league. Now in it's 16th season it looks as though MLS will survive and not go the way of the original North American Soccer League and the dodo bird. But several teams hang on through the benevolence of their owners. FC Dallas and New England Revolution, despite the successes of today and yesterday, respectively, throw up pathetic attendance numbers and are most certainly hemorrhaging cash for their owners Clark Hunt and Robert Kraft. How long will they continue to lose money?
The loss of countless numbers of soccer teams and leagues in the United States throughout the sport's history in this country continued to re-enforce the idea that American soccer continues to live on the razor's edge.
If there's one silver lining to this whole debacle it's that it makes what we do here at the Free Beer Movement all the more important. Do I consider the failure of the Aztex and indictment of our efforts here in Austin? Certainly not, but it re-enforces the idea that if we're not careful and out there constantly fighting for this sport that we all love and want to see grow in our backyards then other fans may suffer the same fate as we have.
This frailty of American soccer makes it certain that if you truly love soccer and are living in the United States YOU HAVE AN ABSOLUTELY OBLIGATION TO SUPPORT IT IN ANY FORM, ANYWHERE. If you're in a city that sports a professional franchise, a semi-pro team, or even a college squad what's you excuse, as a soccer fan in America for not supporting the game that is LIVE and LOCAL?
Buy some tickets. Drag a few friends. Make it an event. And why not follow the "Free Beer Movement philosophy" while you're at it?
We cannot sit by idle as our local clubs either fold up or pack up for (supposed) greener pastures. We cannot allow the naysayers to be proven right; that this isn't a soccer nation or that your city isn't a soccer city.
Because it is. Because it is a nation that is captivated by European soccer and Mexican soccer and South American soccer and World Cup soccer, and, over time, increasingly, American soccer.
It may be too late for Austin, but this doesn't have to be the fate of any more soccer teams in the United States.
And as much as it pains me to say this, given what transpired yesterday, for the sake of American soccer, I hope that the newly minted Orlando City Soccer Club is successful. I want Orlando and its soccer fans to prove that the game can be supported there.
Support the Movement. Get the Free Beer Movement T-Shirt. Only from Objectivo.com
I'll take the counterpoint.
ReplyDeleteWhy should we, as American fans, get invested when this happens? If the failure rate in a D2 team, or a USL PRO team, or a PDL squad is 75%. Why should we support this? We don't have the resources to keep a team going or found one that'll compete at a high level.
And it's easy to watch better, more stable football on a variety of channels. So why go through the heartbreak?
As a lover of American soccer, but also as an Aztex supporter and member of Chantico's Army, then may I say that I hope Orlando crashes, burns, falls into the sea, and is never seen again. Sorry Orlandinians - I'd love you to have a team, just not with those EXPLETIVEs at the helm.
ReplyDeleteLiving in St. Louis, and knowing that we could be losing our team as well really sucks, but at least we have a couple other options, the St. Louis Lions of the PDL and the Saint Louis University Billikens.
ReplyDeleteHaving seen teams, in several sports and leagues, come and go...it never stops hurting.
Not to be the anal retentive fact checker, but two Florida MLS teams were actually contracted, I don't recall if they were both in the same year or not. Both the Miami Fusion and the Tampa Bay Mutiny have not been able to make it work in MLS, and both teams had Carlos Valderrama at one point in time. So I don't know why the Aztex owners think they can make a D2 team work in Florida when El Pibe couldn't....sad day for Austin Fans.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it was all fun and games when it looked like it might be somebody else losing their team, huh? Now that it's YOUR team, suddenly it's a major disaster for American soccer. Funny how that works.
ReplyDelete@Southsidered - Maybe a little credit for coming around. Yeah, it was fun and games, but maybe, just maybe it was more of a realization of how it all is just a crappy situation for everyone involved. It took losing my own team for that to sink in that it's a fundamental and institutional problem in all of American soccer.
ReplyDeleteIt's not the loss of the Aztex specifically, but the loss of all these teams from the sporting landscape.
So forgive me for missing the point early on, but coming to the right conclusion.
@Austinposse -
ReplyDeleteI'd say in another counter-point because all of those team that we (including us) watch on TV started out right where we are in American soccer.
We want to have that here and it's going to take fits and starts and failures along the way, but we need to support these local clubs and American soccer rather than making failure the expectation for local soccer.
We love these big name, overseas clubs, but isn't it time that we make that a reality here?
great article. You are spot on. Soccer is beautiful on every level, and if we want to see it succeed as it succeeds in other countries then it is our obligation to support it on every level.
ReplyDeletewhy do you keep saying that theirs a problem with soccer in America?
ReplyDelete"We love these big name, overseas clubs, but isn't it time that we make that a reality here?"
Yes we love the overseas clubs but how many people really support lower league football?
You think people go out in masses to check out Ligue 2 games? lol
You really wanna help support soccer in the US? support an MLS team.
@Nick MLS didn't necessarily fail in either Tampa or Miami. Pro soccer in the past has been a great success in Tampa with the original Rowdies. The Mutiny, despite not having an owner, had a solid 11k average fan base that at the time wasn't even bottom 3 in the league.
ReplyDeleteThe truth is that MLS couldn't attract an investor for the team and that was thanks in large part to the role that local power mongers like the Glazers played in making an investment in the Mutiny as financially unappealing as possible.
Facts are facts and if San Jose, the worst supported and financially weakest team in the league up until then, hadn't won the championship that year they very likely would have been chopped instead of either Tampa or Miami. MLS just wasn't going to contract their newest champion. Talk about bad press.
I'm not sold on Orlando either. But they do have less competition than either Tampa or Miami as far as sports teams go. We'll see.
@FBM So do we start going to watch St. Edwards playing South Austin? They are doing pretty good in Div II. They just drew against Midwestern State from Wichita Falls, TX. They are ranked #2 in DIV II nationally.
ReplyDeleteOMG, has it really come to this? I left LA, where I lived only 7 miles from the HDC, and found solace in the fact that I at least had the Aztex when I moved to Austin. Now I'm going to a Div II Catholic School to watch local soccer. Next thing you know, I'll be organizing a local AYSO supporters group, drinking beer, and chanting expletives at 12 year olds down at the local community football pitch.
for clarity, Midwestern State is #2, not St Edwards.
ReplyDeleteI live in Austin and find this to be sad news. The Aztex were are only dose of amateur soccer to be found. UT doesn't field a men's soccer team. Their excuse? Not enough money. This coming from the University that might as well be colored green instead of burnt orange. So when we landed the Aztex, we usurped the college landscape for something better. Real players that had a chance to make it as professionals. And we progressed, the quality of the team, the support of the fans in equal parts. All we needed were owners with a bit of vision, and optimism, and that took them to... Orlando?
ReplyDeleteI'm no Economics major, but certainly Austin had to have some acreage suitable for a proper venue? Pricing and space downtown may have been an issue as our local politicians like to stamp our real estate with New York price tags. But Pflugerville? Round Rock? North Austin? South Austin? These are some ridiculously populated (and growing beyond capacity) idealistic soccer venues not to be missed. The owners were looking for beer drinkers. Are you kidding me? Orlando versus Austin in beer drinking is a joke. We have about 300 bars in a 10 block radius downtown. And avid supporters? I think only Las Vegas surpasses us in expansion and population growth these days. You could barely find a spot in any sports bar downtown to watch the World Cup.
Good luck prying grandma and grandpa away from Mickey for a festive night out on your hard steel bleachers every week. And while you're at it, please change the team name. You don't deserve the Aztex, you deserve the Titanics.
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