Soccer is the largest sport in the world, with the most heavily attended games of any sport. Over 30 billion viewers watched the World Cup matches in Germany in 2006. The sport is booming in North America with close to 14 million young athletes under the age of 18 playing soccer every week.
The Austin area has over 35,000 young people playing the sport (Source - Capitol Area Youth Soccer Association). And over 8,000 adults playing organized soccer.
The Austin Aztex will play in the United Soccer Leagues (USL) structure. The USL has been in place for over 20 years, providing a mix of top quality professional, U23, womens and youth soccer leagues across North America. The League currently has clubs that operate in over 100 cities in the US & Canada.
The Austin Aztex will play in the USL First Division, the Leagues highest level of professional soccer. The Aztex will be the only USL First Division club based in the Southwestern United States.
USL First Division games are carried on the FOX Soccer Channel
The USL First Division has teams including Atlanta Silverbacks, Miami F.C. Blues, Montreal Impact, Seattle Sounders, and more. These are some of the cities who will be sending players and fans to Austin for games in 2009.
Part of the attraction of new players to our team is the solid coaching they will get, the opportunity to be associated with a club that includes a Pro franchise, new opportunities for European recognition and, of course, the Austin area is such a great place to live.
The Aztex affiliate club in England will be Stoke City, a Football League Championship club. Founded in 1863, Stoke City is the second oldest club in soccer history an a founder member of the English Football League in 1888. Aztex majority owner Phil Rawlins is an Austin businessman who is also one of three owners of Stoke City. He brings to the Austin Aztex many years of management experience in soccer operations.
The Aztex partnership with Stoke City will provide a forum for exchanges of expertise among coaches and players, and a great potential for development opportunity in both clubs. See a Stoke interview with Atex President Phil Rawlins here.
The Austin Aztex™ have also announced the acquisition of the Austin Stampede team who play in the USL Premier Development League. The Stampede will immediately be rebranded as the Austin Aztex U23 team. In the 2008 schedule, the Aztex U23 team will be playing Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, El Paso, Baton Rouge, Laredo, and Mississippi . The season will run May through July. There will be sixteen matches total, with eight home and eight away games.
