Troy Bryant

Austin FC hosts first Meet The Team event for season ticket holders

A line snaked around the stadium to see Sebastian Driussi and other players at the Captain Morgan Club

What a special afternoon for Austin FC fans.

A rare occasion when the Verde community was welcomed into Q2 Stadium on a day that wasn’t matchday.

To dive right in, here’s our take — good and bad — of the first-ever Meet The Team event.

Good: In case there was any doubt, Austin FC is a SOCCER CITY. Verde love is strong in Austin. Thousands of fans turned out to celebrate the club with players and coaches on a hot and humid afternoon at Q2. Pretty sure it was double or triple the turnout they logistically planned for. In fact, it probably had more fans attend than some MLS clubs get on matchdays. We kid. Also, the fete was refreshingly FREE. Food and beverages were complimentary. There was no charge for autographs and photos.

To get a player’s perspective on McKalla’s fan fest, look no further than Ethan Finlay’s [@EthanFinlay13] tweet shortly after the event ended, “Unreal turnout for todays Austin FC season ticket holder event! Much Appreciated”

Bad: In their first celebration held for season ticket holders, Austin FC’s Oak Operations grossly missed the mark in managing the lines for the photo and autograph stations at the event. Some fans dutifully waited for nearly 2 hours only to be turned away just before the event’s scheduled end. With lines so long, most fans were lucky to visit 1 or 2 of the stations, out of seven total, making it impossible to meet many of the players at their assigned areas. Event organizers missed some opportunities too, like broadcasting coach Wolff’s Q&A session (with sound) on the stadium’s big screen for all the folks waiting on the concourse.

Capital City Soccer hat signed by players
Autographs from Sebastian Driussi, Brad Stuver, Jhohan Romana, Moussa Djitte, and Rodney Redes

What was Austin FC’s Meet The Team Event?

If you’re not sure what the hoopla was about, Austin FC season ticket holders received an email to RSVP for a previously-unannounced Meet The Team event scheduled on June 4, 2022, during the club’s three-week break.

At the event itself, six stations were located throughout the stadium where Oak Collective members had the opportunity to get player autographs and photos. One other station was a Q&A session with Coach Wolff and other front office personnel.

Meet the Team event player stations
The six Austin FC player stations at the Meet The Team Event

Most Austin FC players were at the event, except a few for good reason: Alex Ring (out of the country), Owen Wolff (U-19 USYNT call-up), Andrew Tarbell (reason unknown), and Freddy Kleemann (injured).

Surprisingly, Cecilio Domínguez was at the meet and greet. He’s been MIA since being reinstated following a lengthy suspension while MLS looked into off-field misconduct. Today was likely a PR move to reintroduce Ceci to fans as he works his way back into the game day roster. The club’s actions were loud and clear, he isn’t leaving ATX anytime soon.

The players in attendance were stationed at these locations around the stadium:

  • Q2 Field Club
  • Lexus Club
  • Captain Morgan’s Club
  • McKalla Corner (Southeast corner)
  • On Camera Set (Southwest corner)
Meet the Team event map
Meet The Team Event station map

As we mentioned, complimentary food and beverages (water, soda, and beer) were also provided by these vendors (thank you!):

  • DoubleDave’s
  • OneTaco
  • Taco Flats

Upon entering the gates, fans received three redeemable vouchers, good at any of those vendors, as well as some other limited food stands set up on the concourse.

Meet the Team event food vouchers
Austin FC Meet The Team Event food and beverage vouchers

Finally, the club set up games for the kiddos, and of course, the Verde Store was open for business.

If you attended the first-ever Meet The Team event, tell us what you thought of it in the comments below.

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3 comments

  1. They definitely under estimated the turnout. I only got to visit two stations due to time, but still can’t complain since this was a free event. Andrew Tarbell and Nick Lima were there near section 105. They just popped up out of no where. My wife got Tarbell’s signature.

  2. Not only was I one of the ones who got left in line at 3:45 when they shut the doors to the captain Morgan club, I also almost didn’t get to go at all. Apparently they didn’t send the information to all season ticket holders because I never received a single email about the event and only found out the morning of as people were talking about it on Facebook. There was no way to get hold of anyone with the team reps who might have been able to help me figure something out but luckily a kind soul in the Facebook fan group had some extra passes she offered up which I gladly accepted. Logistically I think they screwed up big because they had to know how many people would be interested in this and they had to know that most people would gravitate to one line eventually and if they had cut it off earlier we wouldn’t have been so disappointed.

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