There’s a match on Saturday in Frisco. It’s between Columbus Crew SC and FC Dallas. There’s a group of Austin soccer fans heading up to see the match, and for some reason, it’s suddenly the latest target of the outrage machine. The root was when a snippet of the MLS in Austin email was posted on Twitter, and, as everything relating to this situation seems to do, lit up like a wildfire on social media.
Let me be clear here. I am speaking for myself. I’m not speaking on the behalf of any group or any other person who will be going on Saturday. I am part of a group, but this has nothing to do with the group.
I am going because I want to watch a soccer match. A soccer match with one team that will likely call Austin home at some point very soon. Sure, it’s not official, and there are a lot of things in flux. But to ignore that likelihood is to be willfully ignorant of the situation at hand.
I am going because I want to spend a Saturday with new friends, have a few beers, and watch soccer. I am not going to mock Columbus supporters. I am not going to celebrate the difficult situation the Crew are in. I am not spending eight hours of my Saturday going up to the suburban hellscape that is Frisco to “troll” people.
Because it keeps needing to be said, I hope Columbus has a MLS team in the years to come. I have yet to meet an Austin supporter who thinks otherwise. Columbus has a set of logistical and economic issues that need to be sorted out – regardless of what happens in Austin. That’s well above anything anyone in Austin can do. I believe that we have acted in good faith to bring soccer to Austin given the situation at hand.
For other groups to climb atop some moral high ground and call me not a “real soccer fan” or to throw any number of middle-school insults in my direction is hypocritical at best. Those threatening violence are no better than the ultras and hooligans we despise.
The supporters group has been very clear as to our intent and expected behavior this weekend. And it is my intent to follow that directive.