MLB expansion to Austin | Texas: The Issue Is
The World Series is approaching in a few days, and no team from Texas will be taking the mound.
The commissioner of Major League Baseball wants to expand to Austin before he retires in 2029. But, there are a lot of factors to consider as Austin attempts to take another step towards becoming a world-class city.
A group called the Austin Baseball Commission is stepping up to the plate and working on a plan to make a bid.
FOX 4’s Steven Dial and reporters from FOX 7 Austin and FOX 26 Houston spoke with members of the group about why they think Austin deserves a MLB team.
Matt Mackowiak: “It’s time for Austin to take another step towards becoming a world-class city. The only way we’re gonna do that, as it relates to sports is to take advantage of this tremendous, opportunity to get an expansion franchise here in Austin.”
FOX reporter, Rudy Koski, in Austin: “Why do you think baseball will work?”
Derrik Fox: “We are the largest city in consideration by Major League Baseball in this round of expansion. We are the 2nd densest behind, Portland. We are, the wealthiest city by average household income… I think in terms of fan engagement and business atmosphere, we are going to we’re gonna be the best city there as well.”
Rudy Koski: “You have the Rangers up in the Metroplex, the Astros in Houston. What makes you think that they’re going to allow Austin get into the game?”
Derrik Fox: “I would say it’s not about allow. You used the word allow. Texas, the the pow the economic power of the state comes from the Texas triangle. Triangle has 3 points. Austin, San Antonio, we make up that 3rd point. By the end of this decade, between us and San Antonio, we’ll have 6,000,000 people. We know that the league and that people in the sport are talking about Austin as a market now, and they weren’t doing that when we started. The the perception was that Nashville was going to get a team without question and that Salt Lake City was very well positioned to get the 2nd team.”
Matt Mackowiak: “It is time for Austin to stop looking, at at our state in a way where we feel like we have to ask Dallas and Houston if we can have nice things.”
Rudy Koski: “Who’s your lead investor? Do you have one yet? And and who’s your ownership group? Do you have any names that are ready to come out?”
Matt Mackowiak: “We don’t have names at this point. That that is really the toughest nut to crack because one of the things we spent some time both in the due diligence phase and then since is trying to understand exactly, what this will cost and how it will work. We believe this is a minimum $4,000,000,000 enterprise. We we’re expecting at, at least a $2,000,000,000 expansion fee, a $1,000,000,000 for a stadium, 40 to 45000 people, retractable roof, ideally in the central core, and then a $1,000,000,000 operating budget for the Major League and the 3 minor league teams. If we develop a site closer to 1 30, that’s a road where people can come up from San Antonio. And look, there’s 3 or 4 sites in Williamson County, and we’re gonna go into Hays County in the next, probably next week to to talk to them to understand what those sites are down there too because we wanna understand all of it.”
Rudy Koski: “Steven, the ATX team claims to have some political heavyweights backing them. Any signs North Texas lawmakers may get involved, try to pull up a block?”
Steven Dial: “Steven, the ATX team claims to have some political heavyweights backing them. Any signs North Texas lawmakers may get involved, try to pull up a block? So does Austin have the market for it? Sure. Will it happen? I don’t think so.”
