Traveling Austin FC crowd could bring new life to FC Dallas fans in first regular-season matchup

In Major League Soccer, the term “away day” is relative. Even when the fans travel in large numbers, it usually takes a whole weekend to get through.

On Saturday, Austin FC will be the closest thing to a European road trip experience when hundreds of fans drive Interstate 35 to the first regular meeting of the season with FC Dallas at the Toyota Stadium in Frisco.

Seth Rau, who organizes travel trips for the Austin Anthem support group, said eight buses will leave North Austin before noon. Five of these were donated by the club, and the Los Verdes fan group is making the other three available at cost to fans who have either been left out or who do not meet the 21+ requirements for the Austin FC beer-sponsored trailer.

They’ll be treated to free beer and try to add a little Texan spice to the MLS rivalry as part of the new Copa Tejas Division 1 trio that also includes Houston Dynamo FC.

On and off the pitch, the Verde Invasion comes to take over Texas football.

“We have these buses, we have people who live in Frisco or somewhere along the way who meet us there and all we know,” said Katie Ensign, Los Verdes travel coordinator. “But I assume that there will be people who will just show up.

It’s probably the largest – or at least loudest – crowd that FCD will host all year round. La Murga de Austin brings a limited number of instruments to provide a scaled down version of the Verde Wall that will compete with the show that FCD supporters El Matador and Dallas Beer Guardians have in the northeast corner.

And for all the flak that Dallas FC has racked up for its lackluster fan support over the years, things seem to be getting better, leading to this encounter with the state’s shiny new toy. Since the stadium opened on June 19 to full capacity, attendance at each home game has exceeded 14,000, including 19,096 on July 4th.

“I think our core fan base was just excited to come back and have football back,” said Kris Katseanes, FCD vice president of ticket sales. “We are preparing for the World Cup, we had a kind of football summer with the Gold Cup and the European Championship and everything else that happens. I just think football will continue to grow and remain an exciting thing. And I find our team exciting. “

This resulted in a resurgent fan area being relocated from the north end stage to an area in the southwest corner near the National Soccer Hall of Fame canopy, which provides more shade and a closer connection to the rest of the stadium. On Saturday, Austin FC fans will be stationed in the northeast corner of the stadium, creating a back and forth like Los Verdes has never seen.

Hundreds of fans made trips to Colorado (DenVERDE) and Nashville (NashVERDE), but nothing like this game, which has been on the calendar since it was canceled in March.

“We sold 300 tickets on the first day,” said Rau. “The people were very excited right from the start, but of course also with the victory on Wednesday [3-2 over Houston] We’ve had people coming here at the last minute who said, ‘Yeah, I see some hope on this team. Let’s go up there. Let’s have fun.'”

Katseanes said fans sold more than 600 of their 900 seats, excluding tickets from other areas of the stadium. He didn’t estimate the total number of visitors expected to make the trip, though he said other clubs had larger contingents at Toyota Stadium – Houston and Kansas City in particular.

“We’ve seen this before, and it’s proof of MLS that more and more teams are capable of it,” said Katseanes.

In some circles, Austin fans have touted a potential “Frisco home game” that may be exaggerated. On social media, fans participated in a promotion FCD is running for the Dallas Stars Night for the local NHL team with a green and black color scheme similar to Austin FC.

“People will try to drill for whatever they can,” said Katseanes. “It’s fun. Everyone’s in a good mood. There’s nothing to it. I mean, basically we wanted to work with the stars and we teamed up with the Rangers earlier this year. We’ll pick a date that makes the most sense for them They only announced their schedule a few weeks ago; they’re going to get started here pretty soon. The window and timeframe to be able to do something like this is limited. “

Will it feel like an Austin FC home game? Probably not. But the spectacle could produce some new FCD fans.

As Katseanes quipped, “Nothing attracts the crowd like a crowd, does it?”

Chris Bils is a writer for The Striker Texas, which works with The Dallas Morning News to cover Dallas FC and other notable football stories in Texas. For more soccer coverage, please visit thestrikertexas.com.

More coverage of FC Dallas in the Dallas Morning News can be found here.

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