MLS expansion club Austin FC has created a 360-degree VR experience at its HQ, which will allow fans to "better perceive" how the team's new stadium will "look and feel," according to Phil West of PRO SOCCER USA. The Austin FC Experience Center was created with the help of a "third-party vendor secured through stadium architects Gensler." The facility gives fans a "full circle view of what the 20,500-seat stadium will look like from the vantage point" of being at the center of the field. The experience will "initially be open to prospective suite buyers, but will soon be open to those who put down seat deposits for premium tickets." More than 35,000 season-ticket deposits have been "placed so far at premium, general and supporter section levels; 30,000 of those were claimed at an MLS-record-setting level shortly after they were made available by the club in June." The center is "located less than a mile from where the new team’s stadium will be built" for the team’s '21 launch. A date for the stadium's groundbreaking "hasn’t been officially announced yet, but could come as soon as next month" (PROSOCCERUSA.com, 8/6). In Austin, Chris Bils notes the two main displays are a "virtual reality stadium tour and a 3D scale model of the stadium site and surrounding neighborhood." They "appeal to kids of different generations" and bring the new facility "to life in a way that hasn’t been seen before" (AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 8/7).
