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Originally Posted by the Genral
[QUOTE Anyway, what does everyone think of the new USL team's chances of actually playing or staying in Austin? Can Austin support both a USL and MLS team? I think the USL team might do OK here until the MLS stadium is actually built and the Crew starts playing. But they may have to move after that.
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It appears Epstein is bringing in some well known talent although they are probably pass their prime, they could still garner some attention and fans. 5000 seat stadiums in the USL are not uncommon, but it doesn't scream big league to me. I think once the new MLS stadium is up and running, there will be plenty of Austin Bold seats available. I'm not a soccer fan, but I plan on giving our MLS team to be named a chance and I will be in attendance. I will never go to COTA to watch a match there. I predict FAIL. And when they do decide to move, I hear Columbus OH. is looking for a team...now wouldn't that be ironic.[/QUOTE]
I must dissagree with you my good friend on this. I totally feel that both MLS and USL can do well in Austin for a couple of reasons. First the locations for both stadiums are clear across the city from each other. You have a huge Hispanic population not only in south and southeast Austin, but southeastern Travis County as a whole. I also garantee you that while I'm sure there will be people making the trek through the city in traffic, (for those who say theres no traffic on the weekends, go drive Mopac during Sat and Sun and you will still see slowdowns, not to mention it can take 15 or more minutes to get from the 290/71 split with 360 to Mopac because the traffic regularly backs up on the bridge including on weekends), there will be many people who will find it less of a hassle to get to COTA. I would also wager pricing will be different between the two. Austin's Metro is over 2.1 million and growing. We should be able to fill a 20K and 5K soccer stadiums.