The soccer blogs and chatrooms have been alive over the past week with discussion of the entry of the Austin Aztex onto the stage of Professional Soccer in America. Here are a few of the things being said:
“As Americans are too busy buying Premier League teams, it’s been left to an Englishman, Phil Rawlins,
to launch the Aztex in Texas. … it’s hard to say a new team being placed in Texas is bad for soccer overall. Austin is a vibrant, growing city — if the Aztex can find and settle at a suitable stadium, it could be a success. There’s already talk on soccer forums of a supporters’ group being formed.
And the Aztex — despite the really forced way they’ve stuck “tex” in the name — can at least claim an actual local basis to their ownership, as Rawlins lives in the area. He also said all the right things, stating that “My goal is to make the Aztex a community-based club that the Austin area can be proud of.
Let’s hope so. What soccer needs here are more locally rooted clubs that stick around for a long time, not farm operations run for the benefit of foreign clubs.”
“MLS clearly will continue to be the American Premiership, for lack of a better term, but if there are fans, and you know there are many (you might even be one of them), of the whole relegation/promotion system who want it in the US, a strong USL can only help make the case.”
“Overall, this is an outstanding move by the USL. Austin is a large, second level market that is lacking in professional level sports. The team needs to figure out a stadium situation (the old PDL team played a distance away from the city center) and a few other issues, but if with the experience Rawlins brings, there is a great chance Austin could become a big USL town.
It will also be interesting to see if they try to have a ’Battle for Texas’ during spring training. They could invite FC Dallas and the Houston Dynamo to town to see who is the best in the lone star state.”
“YEEEEEEEEEEEARGH!
...ok, calm down.
seriously, xxx, 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.”
from chat on -
“I am happy and yet still concerned about the future professional soccer in Austin. At least now, we’ve got some British blood owning and running the new Austin Aztex team. The team isn’t put together yet as try outs haven’t even happened yet, so it’s still very early. Hopefully with owner, Phil Rawlins, and his experience he’ll be able to turn Austin pro soccer upside down and get it shaking. I really want a home team to root for, though I just realized the team initials is AA. I’m not really down with that.”
