Could Austin be the next MLB city?

AUSTIN, Texas - Could Austin become the next MLB city? Well, that's the question we're here to answer.

FOX 7 Austin's Julian Martinez and Clif Thornton were joined by Matt Mackowiak, co-founder of the Austin Baseball Commission. 

Julian Martinez: Now, this is exciting. Obviously, as a sports fan, the idea of having potentially a pro sports team that kind of gets, you know, the blood flowing a little bit. But let me ask why now? Like what? Why is this a perfect time for Austin? Really push for MLB team. 

Matt Mackowiak: Yeah. Look, I mean, I grew up in Austin. I've been here since 1984 to 10 years in D.C. after college at UT, but came back 15 years ago. I mean, I remember when I was a kid wanting a major league sports team to be in Austin and dreaming about it and hoping it would happen and knowing it would eventually happen. I'm shocked, honestly. That kid, when I moved here when I was four years old, that we would be almost 40 years later or 40 years later, Exactly. We still don't have one. What's changed is Austin is now the largest city in the country that doesn't have a top four sports franchise. And, what's also changed is that baseball has indicated that they intend to increase the makeup of the league from 30 to 32 teams, expanding by two teams, around the 2029 timeframe, the last year of commissioner, Rob Manfred's contract. If you look at the cities that are rumored, speculated about on lists in places like ESPN and other places, Austin's the largest city on that list, and it's actually really not even close. My friend Derrick Fox, our wives are friends. We've known each other three years, we've attended both of our weddings, approached me in March and said, did you know that baseball is considering expanding? And I said, I did not. And he said, did you know that Austin appears to have nothing organized? And I said, well, that doesn't surprise me. And he said, well, did you know that Nashville and Salt Lake City and Portland and, to a lesser extent, Orlando and Charlotte are very, very well organized. And I said, no, I didn't. I said, that's a problem. And so his idea was to start a fan support website to show that there's immense community support for this expansion team. We've spent four months quietly working on this, talking to lots of people, putting the pieces in place. And so, the Friday of All-Star weekend, we decided to launch the Austin Baseball Commission. And this has grown beyond just a fan-support effort. That is the core of what we have ATXMLB.com. But what this is now is we're trying to move forward aggressively on four separate tracks in parallel, so that by the end of this year, Austin is very well organized. Doesn't mean it's all over or completely done with the work, but we are far past where we are right now. First is yes, we want to demonstrate significant community support. Second, we need to narrow to a list of potential stadium sites that are large enough, at least 80 acres. And that could work for the stadium if we were to be an expansion city. Third, and most importantly, we need to put a serious investor group together. This is a 3 to $4 billion enterprise. It's the largest economic development project in the history of Austin, with the possible exception of Samsung, which is in Taylor. But, it's a significant effort. And then fourth is we've got to bring this community together, not just the city of Austin, but Williamson County, Travis County, Hays County, the state of Texas, the city of Austin, all the municipalities together, so that even only maybe one location will actually get the stadium. The entire region is going to benefit from everything associated with this. And so, Derek and I started this as volunteers. This is a volunteer effort at this point. We're building out our team now our leadership committee or Baseball advisory committee, our government, business and community committees. And, the response we've seen organically the first three weeks has been extraordinary. More than 500 people expressing if they want season tickets. And this is with no paid advertising or paid promotion. We have more than 100,000 email addresses in three weeks, and with help of people like you we've been able to get our message out through our media Austin Business Journal, Community Impact, the Statesman in other places. So we're excited about what we're building. We're excited about the opportunity. It is time, guys, for Austin to join the big leagues.

Clif Thornton: You said you grew up in Austin. You've been a baseball fan for a while. You'd love to see a team here. You mentioned 4 or 5 locations in this area as to where a stadium could be. Where would you like to see a stadium? Yeah. What do you have in mind? 

Matt Mackowiak: Yeah. So look, in our mind, we think the thing that would be the single strongest economic multiplier would be downtown. It's no secret and no mystery that the image we use on our website, which was AI generated, has a stadium that envisions the skyline in the outfield, much like what you see at PNC Park in Pittsburgh and Coors Field in Denver, which are truly iconic stadiums. Whether there will be a site that's large enough and that's available and that will be. That isn't cost prohibitive. Downtown is a huge question mark. If it can't be downtown, we would love to see the central core. But look, there are going to be options in North Austin, and there are going to be options in South Austin. And when I say that it could be just outside the county line potentially. And look there will be options east. If you think about the Austin, our growth for the next 100 years is going to be east. The West is pretty built up. The north is pretty built up, the south is pretty built up. It's going to be east. So we're going to explore all those locations, whether it's county land, whether it's private land, whether it's City of Austin land, whether it's state of Texas land. So that when the investor group does come together, they're not starting from a standing stop. They're starting with an enormous amount of work being done. And we think that by doing this work, we're going to make an investor group more confident about the prospects of Austin not just winning the bid, but being able to put a serious bid together and operate a franchise that can compete. 

Clif Thornton: All right. So on one hand, we've seen on the NBA side that obviously, three franchises in Texas are the Mavericks, the Rockets and the Spurs, but then we always hear on the NFL side who knows how much of this is true. I'd imagine that maybe some of it is, that any attempt for the NFL to expand in Texas would be in San Antonio. And that would be immediately thwarted by the Jones family and the Cowboys because of their obvious stamp and hold on that particular market. Would there be some kind of pushback that you might anticipate, from the Rangers and the Astros? Or do you see this to be more of a, one more would definitely work, as we've seen with the NBA. 

Matt Mackowiak: Yeah. So on the NFL. So let me answer that first. I mean it's funny, I've actually heard some pretty credible chatter just in the last couple of weeks that the San Antonio effort has made progress. You know I'm talking about NFL. I'm not talking about anything else. Sure. Of course, they're trying to finalize their downtown stadium for NBA. The mayor of San Antonio just got on board a downtown stadium option for the minor league team, the San Antonio Missions. The advantage San Antonio has is, yes, it's further from Dallas and Houston than Austin is. And that's an advantage that's closer to Mexico, which the NFL would like. But even more than that, it's that they already have a building. Now the Alamodome is ready. It's sitting there. It's not being used 340 days out of the year, maybe more. So they have those advantages. Now look on baseball. I wish I could tell you that the Rangers and Astros could be persuaded to support a team in Austin. I think that economically, that's impossible. That said, there are 30 owners, not two. 28 of them don't have teams in Texas. If Austin has to ask Dallas and Houston's permission for nice things, then we're not a serious city. Good point. California has 44 million people. They have five baseball teams. We have 33 million people. We have two. Dallas is the fifth-largest television market in the country. Houston is the sixth-largest television market in the country. If those markets aren't big enough to sustain a Major League Baseball team, then baseball has a much bigger problem. Yeah. Yeah. In the end, I suspect the Rangers and Astros are going to oppose this from beginning to end. And that's and that's regrettable. That's unfortunate. They can carve up the regions they have, and that's more than enough. Austin, as the 10th largest city in the country, the largest in the country, doesn't have a major league sports team. The fastest growing large TV market in the country. We're 35th right now. When you add San Antonio, in which we would have an opportunity to do with a TV deal, we go to 20. I think it's like 27th or 25th, I think. I'm sorry. It's actually 20th. I think if you combine them. So, look, this is a vote of all 30 owners. If we have to win 28 to 2. And that's the best we can do, that is what we're going to aim for. We would love to see if we could find accommodation that works with the Rangers and the Astros. I watch their games. I root for both teams. I've been to baseball games in both places. Most Austinites root for one team or the other or both in the playoffs, and that's a wonderful thing. But guys, come on, are we never going to get a baseball team because Dallas and Houston won't let us? It's ridiculous. 

Julian Martinez: True. But one thing I'm kind of like thinking of if this is a playoff push, right? You mentioned it earlier. Where maybe a little bit behind in the standings. We got some big bats, some nice shining tools on this team. But you know we still got to chase for it. You mentioned some of the other major markets there in Salt Lake, Nashville, Portland. It feels like Nashville is not an "if," it's "when" at this point. What do we need to do to kind of catch up because we're playing from behind a little bit? 

Matt Mackowiak: Yeah, it's a great point. And look, I actually do think Nashville is the strongest candidate of all the teams. They have an ownership group. They have a site downtown. They've had success with every major league sports franchise that they have. There I've been there. Hockey, I've been to a playoff hockey game in Nashville. Downtown's a fantastic environment. They're renovating and upgrading their football stadium, which is on the river right on Broadway, right off Broadway, right at the end of Broadway, where all the bars and country music venues are. Nashville is a city that's very similar to Austin, very similar in a lot of ways. State capital, similar size, a hot city, lots of investment, young people, you name it. When you look at all the other cities, Austin is better than them in every meaningful way to measure it. It's just that we're two years behind when they started getting their act together and getting organized. We're just getting organized now. And so the good news is, baseball has to do two things before they can do expansion. The first is they have to get a labor agreement. The labor agreement expires in 2026 and that's going to be a big fight. There could be a lockout. There could be a strike. There could be any number of things. I hope there isn't as a baseball fan, but they've got to figure that out first. Second is, they have to extend their TV deal, which expires in 2028. And in fact, I should have said there was something before that, although they've really kind of, addressed about half of it. They have to get the Rays Tampa Bay Stadium situation figured out, and they actually just got figured out two days ago. And then Oakland, they have to figure out if it's moving to Vegas or not. And neither of those markets have been able to figure out a suitable, acceptable, serious stadium solution. I think Vegas will ultimately get that team. Baseball wants to be in Vegas. They should be there. It's a major market. But so let's presume that they move to Vegas and Tampa goes through, and they get a labor contract, and they get the TV deal 2027, 2028. They should announce a process and a timeline. And by then, we want to be the strongest. Right. Look, guys, there are two gold medals here, right? There are two teams. If Nashville finishes first, whatever that means, fine. We want to finish first or second. We want to be one of the two markets that gets this team. The benefits for this region are going to be enormous. And one of the other reasons downtown is so exciting is what it would mean for tourism and for hotel rooms and for bars and restaurants. Again, it doesn't have to be downtown. It could be central core. There are a lot of options. We're not at that stage yet. Right? But, to answer your question, we've got to get far more organized than we've been. And there have been some people doing some quiet work, some quiet meetings, some quiet conversations. The problem is, the perception is Austin's doing nothing. There was no website. There was no fan support or community. There was no social media. There was no earned media. We were just listed as a city on a list somewhere that might be a good market. So what we want to show is that there is an effort, that it is serious, it's broad base, that there's massive community support and that this market is strong enough to sustain its first major sports franchise, which it is. And let me add to that. Sorry. We've tested this with Major League Soccer. Okay. We're in our third season. There are 10,000 seats at that stadium. Our second season, we finished second in the West and had a nice playoff run. There are 25,000 people on the waiting list for season tickets. They played, I think, 16 or 18 home games. This is different. This is 35 to 40,000 people, 81 home games a year, including 1:00 games on Tuesdays, okay. Or weeknights, school nights. Right. So it's a much bigger endeavor. There's more it's more involved. But, to me, I think what we've shown with Austin FC is that this city is hungry for major sports. UT baseball is one of the premier programs in the country. So we've already been a hotbed for baseball. We've shown that with big leaguers and Hall of Famers and national championships and most visits to Omaha of any program. We're ready. And and all that was missing was someone kind of bringing this together. And so Derek and I wanted to spark that effort and that's what we've done.

Julian Martinez: Well, Matt, I know you're obviously well-connected and everything. I just got to ask like, you know, we're ready. We're ready as fans, citizens and everything like that, it's ultimately going to come down to like, city leadership. Like, have you talked to some people higher up, maybe some with deeper pockets that may be interested in this? Because that's really what's going to spark this. I mean, you work with you mentioned the A's. What's going on in Nevada, obviously a little bit of back and forth there. But it came down to, you know, some pushback from city council. You got to get taxpayer money. It's not cheap to bring a team here. So what have you been hearing from people in charge?

Matt Mackowiak: Yeah. So, again, we're really early in this, but we have had conversations with the mayor's office. They're very excited about this prospect. Want to be kept up to date? We've talked to the economic developer corporation for us and Opportunity Austin. They very excited about this for the region. We've talked to Williamson County Judge Bill Gravel, who's very interested in the team in Williamson County Stadium, site in Williamson County. I will be talking to the county judge here in Travis County, and the county judge in Harris County as well. And in the state of Texas, but we wanted to be kind of almost, you know, fully organized before we started having all the really high-level government conversations. We're going to have a broad leadership team. We're going to have a baseball advisory committee of serious guys who play baseball, have been the big leagues and know it well. And so when we go talk to you, whether it's the governor's office, whether it's TXDOT, whether it's a county judge, whether it's a regional chamber, you know, we want to have a broad leadership group that goes in there so we can understand what the options are, how, what the incentives can be, what their level of interest is. So we can put the single best bid together possible. And that's what we have to do. We have to put our best foot forward as a city and, and let me just say, guys, Samsung should have been in Austin and Dell should have been in Austin, and those things are bookends. So that was 30 years ago and two years ago. They're not in Austin. There are reasons for that. I can tell you, as someone who cares about Austin, who's involved civically and politically, I was unwilling to allow us to drop the ball again on a major economic development project for the city. It doesn't mean that I'm going to be the only one leading this thing. We're going to have a broad team. We wanted to start this process. Eventually, the investor group is going to take this thing and run with it, but it's not going to come together of its own. It's going to be put together and brought together, and you have to have a strong foundation for those pieces to come together. So we want to build in all these directions between now and the end of the year and be in a much, much, much stronger organizational position. And I'm confident we will be. 

Clif Thornton: As a lifelong Austinite, I got to ask you if this thing comes to fruition, and it happened, and Matt Mackowiak has his vote on what the nickname would be. What do you what do you got? And first, or are we calling it Austin? 

Matt Mackowiak: The brand around Austin is so, so strong, and it's going to be so strong as it goes forward. I think it makes all the sense in the world to call it Austin, even if it's in Round Rock or San Marcos or somewhere between, and of course, the Texas Rangers are Texas, right? They're not the Dallas Rangers, not the the Arlington Texas Rangers. You know, I had the most obvious, but I think clever idea for a nickname that we created an amazing logo for without realizing a minor league team has that name. And so, we would be prohibited unless we literally purchased the name from them. I'll let your imagination run wild. My friend Lynn Wooley, who hosts a show on 1370, who I was on the air with him a couple of days ago, suggested the mockingbirds. I thought that was a good idea. There will be all kinds of ideas. Bluebonnets might be another. I haven't gotten too far down the road on nicknames, but, we want to do a logo contest. We want to do nickname contests, mascot contests. We'll do all those things down the road, right? 

Clif Thornton: Yeah. Mockingbird sounds a little awkward, but I'm sure the Orioles and Blue Jays also. 

Matt Mackowiak: At one time.

Clif Thornton: Right at one time or another

Matt Mackowiak: Become part of the vernacular?

Julian Martinez: Yeah. That's usually when the nickname, you know, picks up steam. But all right guys. Well Matt, appreciate you dropping by.

Matt Mackowiak: The website is ATXMLB.com.