Express Question / Austin

[doylehargraves]

I wasn't here when the Express were deciding where to set up shop. Did they explore Austin as a home and place to build a stadium?

 

[Victorious1]

I remember there being many against any pro ball in Austin because it would take away from the longhorns baseball program. RR was offering all kinds of tax incentives to lure in business and Dell was having huge growth at the time to help out.

 

[mishatx]

I don't remember if the Express considered Austin, but just prior to the Express moving in, the Phoenix Firebirds were planning to move to Austin. I don't remember all the details, but the team was planning to have a stadium somewhere near downtown, and it seemed like there was a decent deal of excitement about it at first. But the tax deal that the team wanted to build the stadium was not favorable to the citizens of Austin. There was grumbling. Then the team announced they were going to name themselves "Austin Swing". There was laughing. Outrage. The measure to pass the package to build the stadium failed.

A couple years later, the Express was an easy sell to Round Rock: "We'll name the team 'Round Rock', and you'll have a team and Austin doesn't." Plus, I think the tax deal was a little better.

 

[jmatt]

At least two teams, and maybe the Express, wanted to go in with UT on expanding/upgrading D-F and sharing usage.

Don't know why it fell through every time, though the word was UT didn't want anything to do with sharing the stadium. I do imagine that parking was probably one big reason.