How Soccer and Shipping Containers Bring the City of Austin Together

On April 17^th, 2021, a crowd of green and black striped jerseys flooded Q2 Stadium with unique excitement. This wasn’t just any game, it was the inaugural home match for Austin’s first major league sports team, Austin FC. Many Austinites can attest that this day marked a turning point for the city. Soccer began to sweep the town off its feet. Soon, even non-soccer fans would get swept away by the electrifying culture, yelling “Verde Listos” loudly from the stands. The entire community joyfully rallied behind the team.

At the conclusion of the first season, fans looked back to see a mixed display of growing pains and impressive achievements. But even now, months after the final whistle blew on the 2021 season, a feeling of pride lingers in the air. It’s not a stretch to say that Austin FC brought the city together, just as the new outdoor venue The Pitch plans to do.

Off the shores of Parmer Pond now sits The Pitch, a food and beverage venue built to further inspire and excite fans of the football club and the greater Austin community. The space invites visitors to gather beside Austin FC’s practice facility to celebrate the vibrant and unique city with good food and good beer. To make this community space a reality, an impressive team joined forces and Falcon Structures got to play an exciting role.

The creators of The Pitch invited Falcon to modify twenty-three 40-foot shipping containers that comprise the facility. To make the most of the outdoor space, architects designed small groups of stacked containers to act as kitchens, venue spaces, and community areas. Falcon acquired the containers, modified them, and sent them off to the site to receive interior modifications.

Now, the containers sit just a sixteen-minute drive from Falcon’s facility. Three shipping containers stand upright adding a unique vertical element to the eye-catching design, while simultaneously acting as disguised equipment enclosures. The entire facility overlooks the well-landscaped courtyard and the nearby pond through the wall-sized windows.

“When I first heard about The Pitch, I was eager for Falcon to take part in this exciting project. Shipping containers are a great building resource, and this venue shows that. I'm proud of our contribution to the project.” - Stephen Shang, CEO of Falcon Structures

Austin, Texas prides itself on its distinctive culture with slogans like, “Keep Austin Weird,” so it was an easy choice to use an uncommon, container-based modular building method. The eye-catching shipping containers give the project an intriguing look that also aligned with the project budget, making modular construction a perfect fit.

Container-based modular construction was the more cost-effective choice when compared to the brick-and-mortar alternatives considered for the project. Based on careful research, the team at The Pitch chose to work with shipping containers because the modular units were more flexible and easier to modify with lower upfront costs. Falcon helped minimize cost-related design limitations to create a unique food and beverage environment. Additionally, the quick site setup helped the other project contributors quickly complete their work on-site to shorten the time to revenue.

For a city newly captivated by Austin FC, The Pitch draws food and fun-loving Austinites together to celebrate their city, community, team, and the sport of soccer itself. The Pitch is officially open. Stop by to grab a drink at the Corner Kick Bar, play a game of sand volleyball, or lounge with friends in the space. Let’s celebrate Austin, together.

If you’d like more information about the work Falcon Structures does with modified shipping containers, check out our resources page.