How Austin FC keeps 20,000 fans connected with Southern hospitality

Every match day at Q2 Stadium, something extraordinary happens. Twenty thousand voices rise as one. Verde lights flash after each goal. Smoke billows during pre-match. In the supporter section, fans stand for the entire 90 minutes, drums pounding, songs echoing through North Austin. This is Austin FC—the city's first professional sports team, and a club that's sold out every single Major League Soccer (MLS) home match since day one.

But behind this electric atmosphere lies a remarkable operational challenge: How do you maintain genuine, personal relationships with 20,000 season ticket holders? How do you deliver Southern hospitality at scale when your membership services executives manage anywhere from 1,000 to 1,400 accounts each?

"My job is making friends with people," says Tyler Weber, a membership services executive who's been with Austin FC for two and a half years. "With 1,400 people, it's like being the mayor of a small town."

For Austin FC, the answer to scaling authentic relationships lies in their commitment to community, but more importantly, it’s also in the technology that makes those connections possible. We spoke with the team behind the sellout streak—from VP of IT Ryan Fannin to the membership services executives on the front lines—to learn how they transform thousands of transactions into genuine human connections with Dialpad.

Building from dirt: The challenge of starting from scratch

When Ryan Fannin first arrived at Austin FC, the stadium was literally "just a bunch of dirt." The groundskeeper had grass growing in the parking lot, testing which varieties would thrive in Austin's heat. Seats sat outside, baking in the Texas sun to see which would hold up best. It was startup mode for Austin's first major league sports team.
"We went from a startup to a full-fledged professional team in a matter of a couple years," Ryan recalls. "And during that time there was also a global pandemic."

The challenge was immense for Austin FC—building the entire infrastructure to support a modern sports franchise. Eight ticketing reps worked with physical phones at their desks, each costing about $250. They were taking deposits for season tickets with no stadium to show prospective fans. "It was all kind of pie in the sky stuff, right? We didn't have a stadium where you could go and look at," says Ryan.

"We had no visibility into data," Ryan explains. "We couldn't make any data-driven decisions on any of our telephony. For me, that was one of the glaring weaknesses once I arrived."

For a team whose business model was 75% phone-based, this was a critical barrier to growth. The membership services team was trying to build relationships at an unprecedented scale, but they were flying blind.
Meanwhile, team members like Kerlin Anderson were literally juggling two phones—one personal, one for work. "I would sing that song, 'I got two phones,'" Kerlin laughs. "I used to just leave my work cell phone at work when I was really trying to cut it off."

Finding the "home team advantage" with Dialpad

As Austin FC evaluated phone systems, they had clear requirements: they needed data analytics, seamless Microsoft integration, and ideally, a local presence. When they discovered Dialpad had an office in Austin, it felt like finding a home team advantage.

"Austin FC wanted to be Austin-based, Austin first," Ryan explains. "Dialpad checked all those boxes—the analytics, the integration, and they're Austin-based."

The rollout was remarkably smooth. On a Friday, they took their old numbers offline. When the team woke up Monday morning, they were live on Dialpad. "Things just worked," Ryan recalls. "Dialpad provided training for our user base, but really the Dialpad product is very intuitive."

What made the timing even more critical was the pandemic. Austin FC had selected Dialpad before COVID-19 hit, but the cloud-based system proved prescient. "We were able to seamlessly transition to offsite work with Dialpad," Ryan notes. "Without Dialpad, we would've been dead in the water."

Making friends with 1,400 people: Authentic relationships at scale

The transformation Dialpad enabled was highly technical—however, it was also deeply human. Across Austin FC's membership services team, representatives manage staggering numbers of relationships while maintaining remarkable personal connections.

The Father's Day moment that captured it all

Tyler manages 1,400 accounts, but remembers one particularly memorable relationship. A season ticket holder in the supporter section had become more than just a client—they'd grab lunch together, share happy hours. Tyler knew the man had a 6-year-old daughter.

"Over the past couple of years, I've had the opportunity for her to go on the field, walk out with some players, hold flags," Tyler shares. "A few weeks ago, it was a Father's Day surprise we were doing."

That night, after the match, Tyler received a text. It was a photo of the father and daughter hugging after Austin FC scored. The message read: "This is the greatest Father's Day gift I've ever had. I can't thank you enough."
"I wouldn't have gotten it without Dialpad on my phone," Tyler reflects. "Having the ability to communicate with him so consistently and so easily made my job a lot easier. But I don't even look at it as doing my job. That's just something I wanted to do for him."

Speaking every language

Eric Rodriguez brings another dimension to relationship building—bilingual support for Austin's large Spanish-speaking community. About 20% of his 1,000 clients prefer Spanish, and being able to seamlessly communicate in their preferred language changes everything.

"It lets them know they have a voice within the club," Eric explains. The relationships go deep—one client invites him to the Austin Rodeo BBQ competition every year. Others with UT season tickets invite him to games. Although these relationships started as business transactions, they’ve become genuine friendships.

Eric recalls his longest call: a two-hour renewal conversation where he mostly just listened. "My job is to ask them questions, get them to expand as much as possible. The more information they give me, the more likely I can save and renew them."

Game day choreography

On match days, the stadium becomes a carefully orchestrated dance of relationship management. Kerlin captures the energy: "I'll be sitting on my couch watching TV before a game and just go through my list of clients. 'Hey, will you be at the match tonight? Want to come say hi?'"

The texts get specific: "I'm standing in the Lexus Club. I'm wearing this green dress. I'm by the Coca-Cola machine. Come chat—we've never met before, would love to say hi."

Even when the in-person connections don't happen, the gesture matters. "The client still has that text from you," Kerlin notes. "Lin went out of her way. She wanted to meet me."

The technology that makes it human

What makes these thousands of authentic interactions possible is how Austin FC uses Dialpad's features—as an enabler of human connection.

The basics that change everything

Voicemail drops save voices for real conversations. "By call 70, my head's hurting, I need water, I'm tired," Eric admits. "Voicemail drops help save my voice for when people actually pick up."

SMS integration meets people where they are. "Some C-level executives don't have time for a phone call," Kerlin explains. "If I can just text them really quick—'Hey, give me a quick buzz when you have a moment'—that works better."

Device flexibility means never missing a moment. "If I answer a call on my laptop but have to run, I can just switch it to my phone," Eric says. "You can't do that with any other phone software I've had."

Ai that amplifies humanity

While the Ai transcription and Ai Recaps features can’t replace human judgment, they can enhance it significantly. After a 45-minute conversation covering "many different things in the Austin FC world," Eric doesn't have to scramble to remember every detail. Ai transcription captures it all, enabling him to stay present in the conversation.

"Sometimes there's just a lot of information being spewed at me," Eric explains. "Dialpad catches all the information I miss."

Tyler estimates the time saved more dramatically: "A million hours would probably be a little bit short of what it saved me."

The unexpected player connection

Perhaps nothing captures Austin FC's innovative use of Dialpad better than their player call initiative. During the off-season, players personally called season ticket holders to thank them for renewing.

"Our players used Dialpad to call these fans," Cameron Jenkins explains. "They worked with our ticketing team to call the fans and thank them for all they do for our team."

The impact was profound—fans hearing directly from the players they cheer for every match, creating moments of connection that transcend the typical fan-team relationship.

Going beyond metrics: The soul of Austin FC

The numbers tell one story: Austin FC has maintained a 100+ match sellout streak, the longest active run in Major League Soccer. Team members estimate a 50% reduction in note-taking time. Annual evaluations of Dialpad consistently come back positive, with Ryan noting, "There's never been a reason to look elsewhere."

But the real story lives in the details that numbers can't capture.

It's in the oak tree logo with four roots pointing to Austin's four corners, symbolizing how the team brings together every part of the city. "We want to be part of the community and represent what the community entails," Cameron explains. "We're not here to step in and take over and be some big flashy corporation."

It's in embracing "Keep Austin Weird" with an actual armadillo as a mascot. "A live armadillo," Tyler emphasizes. "A rescue armadillo. We got a guy that wears a cowboy hat, comes out in his jersey and jeans and holds an armadillo."

It's in creating what Kerlin describes perfectly: "Austin FC is such a great gathering spot for people. It makes a big city feel small."

Growing deeper roots

Today, when Tyler tells someone that he works for Austin FC, the reaction is universal: "They think it's the coolest job in the world." The team has become synonymous with "the biggest party in Austin"—a gathering place for families from all walks of life.

But Austin FC isn't resting on their success. Every year, they evaluate their communications platform, and every year, Dialpad proves itself essential to their mission. "Dialpad checks all the boxes for us," Ryan confirms.

As the team looks ahead—to potential championships, continued growth, and welcoming new fans into the Austin FC family—they know their success depends on maintaining that delicate balance between scale and authenticity.

"We wouldn't be a club, we wouldn't be here in Austin today without the support of our community members and our fans," Cameron reflects. "We're a small Austin FC in a growing city, and we're a team that wants to represent the city of Austin and the fans of Austin."

Although Tyler might spend 30 to 60 minutes on calls that meander without clear purpose, losing the plot of his own stories, he sees that as relationship building. That's Southern hospitality. That's Austin FC.

Austin FC proves that in the right hands, with the right platform, technology can help us be more human than ever—even at the scale of 20,000 screaming fans, standing for 90 minutes, creating the most electric atmosphere in American soccer.

One phone call, one text, one Father's Day photo at a time.