Austin Baseball Commission Gains Significant Momentum in First 25 Days of Effort to Bring Expansion MLB Team to Austin
Over 500 Season Ticket Requests, 100,000+ on Email List, 60+ on Committees
AUSTIN, TX — Twenty-five days ago on Friday, July 12, a new organization, the Austin Baseball Commission (ABC), launched with one goal: Bring an expansion Major League Baseball Team to Austin. After not even a full month in operation, ABC has made tremendous strides in growing their organization, in demonstrated community support, and in awareness through earned media. ABC was created as an LLC equally owned by two co-founders: native Austinite Matt Mackowiak and sales executive Derrik Fox.
In less than a month, ABC has generated:
More than 500 requested Season tickets
An email list of more than 100,000 people
Expressed interest in volunteering on a committee from more than 60 Austinites
Earned media from KXAN, KVUE, Fox 7 Austin, the Austin American-Statesman, the Austin Business Journal, and Community Impact
“We are thrilled with the community response to the powerful idea that Austin could be home to a major league baseball team in as short as five years,” said ABC co-founders Matt Mackowiak and Derrik Fox. “While a few significant challenges and a ton of work remain, we decided to bet on the future of Austin with this effort, and it is now clear to us that Austin is the strongest market of the cities regularly mentioned for expansion (Nashville, Salt Lake City, Portland, Montreal, Orlando, and Charlotte). For us to be successful, we will need the largest and most sophisticated community effort in city history. We intend to build the team that can execute that, with broad and deep community and fan support, workable stadium site options, a credible investor group for this $4 billion enterprise, and significant regional governmental support.”
Within weeks, ABC will launch a Leadership Committee, as well as a Baseball Advisory Committee, a Local Politics and Government Committee, an Investor Recruitment Committee, a Business Advisory Committee, and a Community Advisory Committee, to divide up the significant workload that remains to make Austin’s bid for an expansion team as strong as it can be. Already more than 60 Austin-area individuals of all backgrounds have expressed interest in helping by serving on a committee as a volunteer.
Members of the community who wish to offer their help on a committee can fill out the survey here — https://form.jotform.com/242095371885162.
To express interest in season tickets, or to sign up for ABC emails from ABC, click here – ATXMLB.com.
In the coming weeks, ABC will be offering merchandise for purchase to help fund their operation and begin local events to build support for a franchise and give updates to supporters.
Recent earned media include:
Austin Business Journal story here — https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2024/07/17/major-league-baseball-expansion-austin-franchise.html
Community Impact Austin here — https://communityimpact.com/austin/south-central-austin/sports/2024/07/23/austin-groups-gear-up-to-draw-major-league-baseball-to-central-texas/
Austin American-Statesman story here — https://www.statesman.com/story/sports/mlb/2024/07/18/austin-mlb-expansion-baseball-team-atx-rangers-astros-san-antonio/74440617007/?utm_source=atxpulse.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=atx-pulse-7-18-24-dod-selects-ut-for-840m-facility-darden-buys-chuy-s-council-approves-kelly-s-hospital-safety-measure
KVUE story here – https://www.kvue.com/article/sports/baseball/major-league-baseball-austin/269-7b8bcd53-6cdd-4da1-9b3f-b13313df2be1
KXAN story here – https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/effort-underway-to-bring-major-league-baseball-team-to-austin-is-it-possible/amp/
Fox 7 Austin story here — https://www.fox7austin.com/sports/could-austin-be-next-mlb-city
“It is time for Austin to join the Big Leagues,” said Mackowiak and Fox. “We are the largest city in the country without a top four sports franchise. We intend to work hard to change that and seize this opportunity, but to be successful we need help from as many people in this community as possible.”