With high demand reportedly causing its website to crash, Austin FC claimed an MLS record Wednesday for season-ticket membership deposits secured in a single day.
Austin FC, an expansion club backed by Anthony Precourt‘s Precourt Sports Ventures, will serve as MLS’s 27th team and is scheduled to begin play in 2021. Home matches will be played at a planned stadium at McKalla Place in North Austin, with the club aiming to begin construction on the 20,500-seat facility this fall.
The latest step in planning for the inaugural season came Wednesday, when Austin FC began accepting season-ticket membership deposits. Shortly after deposits began being accepted Wednesday morning, the club’s website crashed, with high traffic cited as a factor. Austin FC announced in the afternoon that it had set a new MLS record for season-ticket membership deposits placed in a single day, though the exact amount was not disclosed in the announcement, and the baseline deposit price was only $50. More from the Austin American-Statesman:
Season ticket deposits became available at 10 a.m., and AustinFC.com crashed shortly after. A link was released for an alternative site where fans could complete their claim on memberships.
Andy Loughnane, the Austin FC president, said the website had gone down because of “unprecedented traffic.” At 4 p.m., the team published a news release claiming a record number of deposits. No numbers were given, and it was not clear which MLS team previously held the single-day deposit record.
“Austin demonstrated today that this market has a significant amount of pent-up demand for major league sports and the sport of soccer,” Loughnane told the American-Statesman. “Today was a day that Austin shined. The supporters should be extremely proud of themselves. This is their day more than it is ours.”
“This evening we celebrate the thousands upon thousands of Austin supporters who stepped forward with season ticket membership deposits for Austin FC’s inaugural season in 2021,” Andy Loughnane, president of Austin FC, said in a statement announcing the record. “Today’s record-setting deposit results reinforce the strength of the market, the community’s love for the sport, and the pent-up demand for major league sports in Austin. We are incredibly grateful for those who placed deposits on this historic day.”
Austin FC released new renderings for the planned stadium earlier this week, showcasing club areas and other amenities that will be included within the venue.
Renderings courtesy Gensler.
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