On Monday, Sept. 9, 2019, a few shovels struck the dirt somewhere in a 24-acre plot of land off of McKalla Place in North Austin. While the amount of material displaced was insignificant, the event marked a momentous project which will transform the city of Austin as we know it. Among the shovelers were Anthony Precourt, the CEO of Austin City FC and Twin Oak Ventures, Mayor Steve Adler, and local actor and producer Matthew McConaughey, along with other Austin FC dignitaries. The construction of Austin FC’s new 20,000-seat stadium was officially underway. The establishment of the club will give sports fans all over the city a chance to watch a professional sports team of their own, something Austin has lacked for years. However, despite the excitement surrounding the new club, the stadium’s ground breaking occurred in the midst of controversy surrounding negative opinions of the chosen building site. Residents of nearby neighborhoods such as Gracywoods have expressed concern about the stadium. Great Ideas teacher and LBJ girls’ soccer coach Chloe Cardinale said she feels the complaints are valid and that the stadium could have negative effects on the neighborhoods.

“I think that anyone’s input into something that’s going to directly affect the community, whether negatively or positively is justified because it is something that they will deal with,” Cardinale said. “Like people might say, it’s going to increase property taxes, which might be negative while you’re increasing the value of land and homes. Also, just more traffic over there, so finding a way to get people in and out of the games.”

While Cardinale believes the complaints are reasonable, she also mentioned how the stadium could benefit the area it is built in. According to Cardinale, the stadium could promote local businesses and public transportation.

“There’s a lot of different local businesses around there, and so I think it will definitely be beneficial to all of those aspects of the community and building that area of Austin,” Cardinale said. “Also, the train line runs over there. So, I think, hopefully, it will encourage more people to take the train and, by that, join public transit.”

Junior and Austin FC supporter Eli Kuhn said a professional sports team could have a significant impact on Austin’s culture. Kuhn said the stadium could become a gathering spot for sports fans around the city.

“I think the positives are just that, in the same way that the University of Texas sports work, you just have a big place where all these people from around the city can go and enjoy sports,” Kuhn said. “And I think that a professional team like that, a sports team, does a lot for our community.”

While Austin FC is the city’s first professional soccer team, Texas MLS clubs FC Dallas and Houston Dynamo have existed since 1995 and 2005, respectively. Derek Ensign, the VP of member support and growth at Austin FC supporter group Austin Anthem, said the new club shouldn’t have trouble winning over local fans of those teams.

“It seems like everybody’s like, ‘Houston, Dallas, they’re my team for now,’ but they’re just super pumped about having their own team here,” Ensign said. “Our Anthem group has even taken trips up to Dallas for two games and one game in Houston and, you know, some people were rooting for those teams then, but there’s a whole bunch of people that are ready to jump ship for Austin.”

Among recent news around the club is the hiring of head coach Josh Wolff, who has played professional soccer for 14 years for various MLS teams and has been an assistant coach for 7 years but has no experience as the manager of a club. Kuhn said a new manager could be a good fit for Austin FC.

“I think that can definitely be beneficial,” Kuhn said. “He got an entirely new roster that he’s got to put together. And I mean, it might be overwhelming for him. But he’s obviously had a lot of experience in professional soccer. I think that overall for a coach to have been a former player and be rather young, I think that they can really connect with their players who will also be young and trying to prove themselves.”

While a soccer club has the potential to bring Austin together, Ensign said it could help connect the city to the rest of the world. According to Ensign, having a club will give the city the ability to communicate in the international language of soccer.

“It’s the most international game, so it’s just a cool way for us to connect with the whole world,” Ensign said. “I even saw one of our council members, Jimmy Flanigan, he took a trip to China, he brought an Austin FC scarf as a gift that he gave to the governor of the state [where he was]. So, being kind of part of a universal language now of soccer is pretty awesome.”