your right about that. and im also wrong about it being 11th within the city. it is 16th for some reason i had 11 in my head i know one thing for certain (not sure if this is still true the last few years) but austin has been the 2nd fastest growing city for quite a while behind las vegas. so within 10-15 years austin may grow quite a lot.
Austin area grew by 400k people between 1990 and 2000 (tech boom probably helped that a lot...). DFW grew by 1.2 million and the Houston area grew by 938k. Austin's losing ground within Texas, but probably gaining ground nationally. http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/phc-t3/tab03.txt
They did (or rather the Oilers did) for one year while waiting for their new stadium to be built. The plan for to play in Memphis two years, but the first year was such a disaster, they went ahead to Nashville and played at Vanderbilt Stadium in Year Two. I like it how people from Dallas still think they live in the biggest city in Texas, when they've even been passed up by San Antonio as of 2005... Pretty sure Dallasites have known for a long time that Houston was bigger than Dallas, if we're talking city-proper. As to the original question, if the size of the city itself was key in getting a sports franchise, I would bet East Rutherford, NJ wouldn't have quite so many teams.
im pretty sure the article i read was just city, and not metropolitan figures. i think it was time magazine or newsweek. las vegas was on the cover.
Well, when "Fastest Growing" is trotted out in articles, it's usually referring to the percentage growth. Since Austin started out smaller, adding 400K people meant a higher rate of growth than the already much bigger Houston and D/FW, even though both Houston and D/FW added more people in total. Not necessarily a good thing, but I'm sure Houston will pass up Dallas soon (especially with all the Katrina people). It'll be interesting to see. The city rankings give a misleading picture because it tends to show some cities that are landlocked adding less population than cities that have physical room to grow. The Metropolitan Areas don't have that same problem and D/FW has still been adding people quite quickly (600K between 2000 and 2004, I believe). Making up a 500K or so person deficit would take a long time, I would think, even with the influx of Katrina Evacuees (though those people certainly help, as does, I would assume, the strength of the oil & gas business right now). Every time I drive out onto the highway, I question the idea of whether bigger is better.
I think Austin is big enough physically to support at least one pro sports team. The problem is with the fan base. Most of the people in Austin are from somewhere else and therefore already dedicated to another franchise. The people that are originally from Austin to them the longhorns will take precedence above anything else. I live in Austin but I like the Astros/Rockets because of my previous following so say if the Marlins were to move here I certainly could care less. There are a lot of people like me in Austin that already like another team. The Spurs and the Cowboys take care of the more casual fans. I dont think Austin will have a pro team in a while.
Austin Toros Round Rock Express However I think UT would not want to divide the market, and the city is far too liberal to spend money on a public stadium (probably rightly so). DD
1.) The University of Texas 2.) relatively centrally located between Houston, San Antonio, dallas 3.) Round Rock Express 4.) Austin Wranglers 5.) Austin Toros 6.) little league soccer
as far as professional sports in austin go, i see it like this (having been a resident in austin since '91) football: cowgirls basketball: spurts baseball: astros (hockey: stars) futbol: Mexico/ManU/Barcelona/USA not coincidentally, that's also the local radio coverage breakdown.
There's a reason the Express are in Round Rock and not Austin. They would not spend public money in Austin to get it done. Round Rock jumped at the chance to add a huge tax base. In the end, it works out better being out there.
Yep. And even with that, I imagine Phoenix would be higher than Austin, too. That city has been growing exponentially for a while now.
you could even add Mexico City in there. if you do they would be on the very top. dunno if the nfl will be ever really serious about moving there, but you never know...
MSA's are an important component but I am sure are discounted at times. Eg., the Houston MSA includes 10 counties and Galveston. How many folks from these other 9 counties...or Galveston .... commute in for a Rockets game? Anyway, there are a number of cities smaller than Austin's MSA (esp using 2005 numbers, not 2000 which rapidly become obsolete when the city is growing at nearly 50% over 10 years). It will happen soon or later.
BTW, the use of absolute numbers can be interesting. Not that Austinites would ever want their city to be larger than Houston... but what does 'extrapolate' mean?
It's funny that living in Austin, I have no desire to have any pro teams here. I'm a Longhorn fan, but I am satisfied following my hometown Houston teams. I think that my feelings toward pro teams are about what 99% of Austin people feel. Express, Ice Bats, and Toros fill any need to have a sports event to take your kids to and get a good family experience. If you really need the big leagues , all other major Texas teams are within three hours of Austin. I haven't lived in Houston for almost 15 years, but I still closely follow all of Houston sports and consider myself a Houstonian from the sports fan perspective.
it's really hard to wake up in the morning and go to a pro football game after the wicked hangover you got from saturday's college football game.. and as a lot of people have already said, Austin treats UT (when they're winning, at least) like a pro sports team.. not really enough enthusiam to go around.
