Case Study: City of Austin builds trust and wins public support for a major league soccer team with PublicInput

Leveraging public engagement for economic development success

The City of Austin faced the challenge of determining public sentiment and addressing resident concerns regarding a potential deal to bring a Major League Soccer team to the city. The city needed to conduct equitable outreach to ensure the decision-making process was trustworthy and representative. To achieve this, they partnered with the vendor PublicInput to leverage its public engagement platform and GeoIP functionality.

PublicInput’s solution enabled the city to deploy a multifaceted outreach campaign, combining online surveys with in-person engagement. The platform’s GeoIP feature was critical for verifying that feedback was from local residents, ensuring data reliability. The engagement gathered input from over 1,000 participants across all council districts, revealing 84% support for the project and highlighting key community priorities. This data directly informed the city's successful negotiations, giving the council the confidence to approve the deal and directly incorporate public feedback into the final agreement terms.

City of Austin

Doug Matthews

CPIO Director