Q2 Stadium

• 1. Introduction

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  Q2 Stadium opened on the 16th of June, 2021. Christen Press scored the very first goal in the stadium's history that night. The occasion was an international friendly between the United States women's team and Nigeria. But the 23.5-acre site in North Austin had served a very different purpose for most of the twentieth century. For nearly three decades, it housed an industrial chemical plant. By 1985, a series of on-site safety incidents had made the facility impossible to keep running. The land sat idle for years after that, weighed down by contamination problems that would take another decade to address. What drove a city to stake a Major League Soccer franchise on a site with that kind of past? And what did it take to build something enduring on top of nearly 70 years of industrial history? Answering both questions requires going back to 1956.

• 2. Toxic Ground

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  The chemical plant that once stood at the Q2 Stadium site produced chemicals for Reichhold Chemicals. Reichhold's parent company was DIC Corporation. Austin had formally annexed the parcel into the city limits on the 19th of July, 1973. Two decades later, in 1995, DIC Corporation sold the land to the City of Austin for $1.4 million. The city had a clear plan for it: construct the Austin Water North Service Center. Construction began in 2003. During that work, an explosion tore through the site. Crews discovered illegally stored chemical waste beneath the surface, and remediation stripped the ground all the way to bedrock. Austin sued DIC Corporation over the hidden contamination and recovered $3.6 million in damages. Austin had cleared the site. What it would do with it was a question that would take years to resolve.

• 3. A City Decides

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  Precourt Sports Ventures operated Columbus Crew SC, a Major League Soccer club. In 2018, the company announced a plan to relocate the franchise to Austin. City staff responded by identifying eight potential stadium sites across the city. Among them was 10414 McKalla Place, a parcel the city had owned for years. After public debate, McKalla Place became the front-runner at the Austin City Council meeting on the 22nd of March, 2018. The council returned to the matter during a special session on the 15th of August, 2018. A 7-to-4 vote authorized the city manager to negotiate and finalize a lease. The signed lease was announced on the 19th of December, 2018. The club was also given the option to extend the agreement up to three times, each extension adding another ten years. With the lease signed, the long task of designing and building the stadium could finally begin.

• 4. Building the Stadium

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  The 20-year lease carried terms that shaped everything that followed. Starting from year six, the club would pay $550,000 in annual rent to the city. A separate $3.6 million payment went to CapMetro for transit improvements around the site. The construction itself was entirely privately financed, though the city of Austin retains ownership of the building. The estimated cost came to approximately $260 million for the roughly 20,500-seat venue. In March 2019, the club named Austin Commercial as the project's construction manager and the architecture firm Gensler as lead architect. Rezoning the 24-acre site to stadium requirements passed the Austin City Council unanimously on the 6th of June, 2019. A formal site plan received approval on the 19th of August, 2019, and groundbreaking followed that September. The stadium took its name in January 2021, when Q2 Holdings, a local online banking company, secured the naming rights. The formal designation was finalized on the 25th of January, 2021. Austin FC kicked off their inaugural home season just months after that deal closed.

• 5. Austin FC at Home

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  Austin FC took the field at Q2 Stadium for the first time on the 19th of June, 2021, facing the San Jose Earthquakes. The match ended in a 0-0 draw, but the crowd of 20,738 still counted as a full sellout. Jon Gallagher scored the first competitive goal in Q2's history on the 1st of July, 2021. It came in the 27th minute of Austin FC's third regular-season home match. The visitors were the Portland Timbers, and Austin FC won 4-1. The sellouts never stopped after that. As of the 21st of February, 2026, Austin FC had strung together 89 consecutive sellout home matches. The streak covered both regular season and playoff games, setting a record across all of Major League Soccer. The stadium also hosted the 2025 MLS All-Star Game on the 23rd of July, with MLS All-Stars beating Liga MX All-Stars 3-1. Later that year, Austin FC hosted the 2025 U.S. Open Cup final on the 1st of October. Nashville SC won 2-1 before a capacity crowd of 20,738. The international soccer calendar had also taken notice of Q2 Stadium before Austin FC had even finished its first season.

• 6. On the World Stage

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  Gyasi Zardes scored in the 86th minute on the 29th of July, 2021. That goal gave the United States a win over Qatar in the CONCACAF Gold Cup semifinals, Q2 Stadium's first major men's international match. That October, Q2 served as the venue for a 2-0 U.S. win over Jamaica in FIFA World Cup qualifying. On the 10th of June, 2022, Q2 hosted the United States against Grenada in the CONCACAF Nations League. The Americans won 5-0. FC Dallas striker Jesus Ferreira scored four of those goals, delivering the first hat-trick in Q2 Stadium history. In December 2023, the stadium was selected to host two matches in the 2024 Copa America. Copa America, organized by CONMEBOL and held every four years, is the oldest national team soccer tournament in the world. Q2 was one of fourteen U.S. stadiums chosen, and one of only three soccer-specific stadiums on the list. The Copa America draw confirmed that the first Q2 match would feature Venezuela and Jamaica. The second would put Paraguay against the winner of a qualifying playoff between Costa Rica and Honduras. Q2 had built its reputation as a soccer venue, but the stadium's calendar was not limited to the sport that built it.

• 7. Beyond the Pitch

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  Willie Nelson's the 4th of July Picnic is an annual Austin tradition that Nelson himself started in 1972. Q2 Stadium welcomed the event on the 4th of July, 2022, hosting it for the first time and marking the venue's first non-sporting occasion.

  On the 30th of July, 2022, Q2 staged its first event involving a sport other than soccer. Premier Rugby Sevens brought a single-day tournament to the venue, with four teams competing: the Experts, the Loonies, the Headliners, and the Loggerheads. Premier Rugby Sevens returned on the 17th of June, 2023, for the Eastern Conference Kickoff.

  McKalla station, on CapMetro's Red Line commuter rail, opened in 2024 specifically to serve the stadium. Before that station existed, the nearest stop on the Red Line was Kramer station, which required a roughly half-mile walk from the gates. The new station provides a shorter, more direct route that avoids crossing any roads. Kramer station itself is expected to be relocated about 0.6 miles north to the Broadmoor campus and renamed North Burnet/Uptown station. Fans traveling by bus can reach Q2 on CapMetro Rapid route 803, or on routes 3, 383, and 392. A friendly is already on Q2's international calendar for the 5th of June, 2026. The match will be played on a site where, just over 20 years earlier, remediation crews were still stripping contaminated soil down to bedrock.