Sunday 10/22: Event Schedule Update.
Watch Party Postponement
A few members of our local supporter community have reached out with a concern that the Crew SC / NYCFC watch party might be “too soon” and/or feel it’s a bit like “dancing on the graves” of Columbus fans. We are a community and our members and peers have a voice. We hear you. Our intention of course was not malicious — we were just excited to have another opportunity to show our support for a team.
Therefore we are canceling the Crew SC / NYCFC Watch Party on Sunday at 3pm. The Supporter Social at 7:30 is still very much on and we’re looking forward to seeing you. More on that below.
During the post-season, we will re-evaluate as a group how to show support during match days in 2018. For now, we’ll just wish Crew SC well in their final match of the 2017 season and in the play-offs.
Also as a community, we need to be prepared that no action we take will be seen by Columbus supporters as agreeable. They are angry and upset–this is perfectly understandable. However, some of their fans are not constructively expressing their thoughts. They are using attacks and lashing out toward Haymaker–home to many local supporters groups and Austin-based SGs themselves. These local groups have no official affiliation with the MLS in Austin effort other than sharing some members and supporting a common cause–Austin’s effort to bring an MLS club to town. This is not uncommon anywhere in the country among supporters.
To be clear: We are making this change to be responsive to a reasonable ask by our local members and peers in the Austin soccer community. Also, it’s been a wild week. One less event might allow some of the team to catch a breath.
What it is not:
- Placation of angry Columbus fans. There will be many events in the weeks and months to come. They will not like some of them. It is what it is.
- An ask by Haymaker. In fact, Haymaker doubled down on its support for Austin soccer supporters when Columbus fans attempted to extort them into cancelling the event by saying they would continue providing fake and unfavorable reviews of Haymaker. That’s an unacceptable action against a business that supports soccer and simply said “yes” when we asked to bring a watch party to them. Haymaker is too busy serving delicious poutine to worry about soccer politics. We are grateful for their support, and we will continue to support them back.
Sunday is still a busy day.
We still have a full roster on Sunday.
MLS in Austin on the Throw-In
9:00am
Founder Josh Babetski will be a guest, talking about the week’s news and the impact the move would have on Austin. Be sure to listen.
The Austin Supporters Social and Meetup
7:30pm
In addition to holding another a mixer with supporters from groups all over Austin, we’ll have our first opportunity to get soccer fans in Austin together to talk about this week’s events. We’ll have food and drinks provided, a bunch of new Supporters Union and MLS in Austin gear, a guest speaker or two — including a recap of the Austin Spurs Harvey relief efforts, and some “fireside chat” to get your questions answered. We’ll also be doing video and audio interviews of what soccer means to you and taking lots of photos.
Space and swag is limited. Come out early.
