AUSTIN, Texas — The City is one step closer to finding out if Major League Soccer is coming to Austin, but first the City Council has to agree to some key terms.
Precourt Sports Ventures, the operating group of the Columbus Crew team, has been in negotiations with the City for months.
It wants a 20,000-seat stadium built at McKalla Place in North Austin. The City would rent the stadium to Precourt for more than $500,000 a year and 1,000 parking spaces and 130 affordable housing units would be added on-site.
For some supporters, it’s about helping the local economy, while critics say the plan is too vague on transportation and parking.
“Where do they line up, where do they come from?” Susan Spataro a proposal opponent asked. ”All of those are questions that need to be asked definitively, answered definitively, not just we’ll work it out when it gets here.”
“Any time a business sees an entity like this succeed in a city it helps us create more business, more jobs, more benefits for our employees,” Trey Brueche, a proposal supporter, said.
Another public hearing is scheduled for next Tuesday, Aug. 7 before a final vote Thursday.