About Us

We started Violet Crown Soccer in 2015, during the final season of the final incarnation of the Austin Aztex. Their home (high school football) stadium had been flooded, and they were playing in a temporary, suburban (high school football) stadium. Then before we knew it, they were gone, and our new blog no longer had a local team to cover. Regardless, we’ve covered soccer at various levels in and around central Texas, minus a hiatus or two.

At the beginning of the 20s, we find ourselves coming out of a pandemic with not one but two pro soccer teams, playing in not one but two purpose-built soccer stadiums. What a time to be a soccer fan in Austin, Texas.

There’s also more coverage of the game, from formations and roster news to results and supporter culture, than ever before. The Statesman has a dedicated soccer beat writer, and KVUE has a local soccer podcast, to name a couple of the most mainstream examples. Tell our 2015 selves that and watch us laugh and carefully back away from you.

But we’re still here, and we’re still fans. We’ll be at most every MLS game and tons of the events around town, and we’ll have opinions and occasional advice for our fellow fans in the Capital City.

Jeff & Chris
Proprietors

June, 2021


About the Name

Wondering about the name “Violet Crown”? From the Austin History Center:

What’s the origin of the term “City of the Violet Crown” referring to Austin? Did it really originate with O. Henry?

The earliest mention the Austin History Center has found is from an article published in the Austin Daily Statesman on Wednesday, August 8, 1894. The article, “The Rest of the News,” begins: “May 5,1890, was a memorable day in Austin. It was memorable for the reason that on that day the citizens of the City of the Violet Crown voted to build a granite dam across the Colorado River …”

For a long time, it was believed that the first published use of the phrase is found in O. Henry’s short story “Tictocq” in the Rolling Stones collection of O. Henry short stories. It was originally published in his local newspaper The Rolling Stone on October 27, 1894.

The phrase is used in Chapter Two: “The drawing-rooms of one of the most magnificent private residences in Austin are a blaze of lights. Carriages line the streets in front, and from gate to doorway is spread a velvet carpet, on which the delicate feet of the guests may tread. The occasion is the entre into society of one of the fairest buds in the City of the Violet Crown.”