Real Salt Lake (14-7-9, second in the Western Conference) vs. Austin FC (9-13-8, 11th in the Western Conference)

Austin, Texas; Saturday, 8:30 p.m. EDT

BETMGM SPORTSBOOK: LINE Austin FC +129, Real Salt Lake +183, Draw +255; over/under is 2.5 goals

BOTTOM LINE: Austin and Real Salt Lake square off in conference action.

Austin is 8-11-6 in Western Conference play. Austin is ninth in the league allowing 42 goals.

RSL is 10-6-7 against Western Conference opponents. RSL has a 6-3 record in one-goal matches.

Saturday’s game is the second meeting between these teams this season. RSL won the last meeting 5-1.

TOP PERFORMERS: Jader Obrian has six goals and two assists for Austin. Gyasi Zardes has three goals over the past 10 games.

Christian Arango has scored 17 goals with six assists for RSL. Anderson Julio has three goals and two assists over the past 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Austin: 2-6-2, averaging 0.9 goals, 3.5 shots on goal and 5.2 corner kicks per game while allowing 1.4 goals per game.

RSL: 4-4-2, averaging 2.0 goals, 5.4 shots on goal and 4.7 corner kicks per game while allowing 2.2 goals per game.

NOT EXPECTED TO PLAY: Austin: Mikkel Desler (injured), Matt Hedges (injured).

RSL: Jose Kevin Bonilla (injured), Nelson Palacio (injured), Pablo Ruiz (injured).

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

Austin’s disappointing dating scene seems to be an ongoing joke on social media.

Countless videos of users sharing their disastrous dating experiences have been posted on TikTok in the past three months alone.

The city is partly known for its indie, eccentric, and fragmentedly spread wealthy population. It attracts a mix of people with its scenic trails, music festivals, and tech startups, so what’s going on? Is Austin cursed? Is it the same in other Texas cities?

A video circulated on social media of someone claiming Austin as one of the “Top five worst cities for dating entering 2024.” Newly moved-in Austin resident Julia Mazur vowed to make it her life’s mission to change that narrative around the city’s dating scene. She recently moved to Austin after 10 years of living in Los Angeles.

“I am about to plan an event that is going to take Austin off of this list,” she said in a stitch response to the original video. “And I believe in myself to do it because I worked at Tinder for six years, I have a dating and relationships podcast called ‘Pretty Much Done’; I know a thing or two about dating.”

However, the task hasn’t been without its challenges, as Mazur shared in a video last month that the city didn’t meet her expectations.

“I was incredibly hopeful,” Mazur said in the video. “I was like, ‘I’m moving to the South, the guys are going to be so great.’ But what happened is that I was humbled extremely quickly.”

It led Mazur to understand that it wasn’t Austin–specifically that was the issue.

“I realized that dating is just bad in every city,” Mazur said in the video.

Whether that’s because of increased social media use, a yearslong pandemic, or the price of dating thanks to inflation, no one knows for sure. But she’s not alone in her thinking.

Data from Pew Research Center cites that even before the pandemic, “nearly half of U.S. adults — and a majority of women — say that dating has become harder in the last 10 years.” Then, in another study conducted by them two years later, 32% of U.S. adults said they found dating got even harder during the pandemic.

To ease the challenge of modern dating in her corner of the country, Mazur has begun hosting an event called Hot Takes Hot Dates in Austin with Joel Monteleone, a tech life coach.

The event launched in mid-August and is meant to “prove that our differences can actually bring us together.”

“It’s not like a cheesy speed dating event. We talk about our dating icks, we debate hot takes; it’s a group event. It’s super fun, it’s super low pressure,” Mazur said in a video.

This week, residents have a chance to come to their own conclusions on whether there’s hope for Austin’s dating scene.

The next event is on Sept. 27 at the Wiggle Room, located at 612 Nueces St. Tickets are available at https://tickets.vulcanpresents.com/e/hot-takes-hot-dates-2.

AUSTIN, Texas – The City of Austin is a part of more than a dozen cities fighting against a rate increase proposed by Texas Gas Service.

Residents were able to express their view on the proposal during a public hearing at the City Council meeting on Thursday.

“Let me begin by stating how outrageous the rate increase is. If the gas company wins its proposal, it would increase residential rates by 105 percent since 2019. This will be over $300 per year per residential customer,” said a resident.

Residents faced city council members on Thursday afternoon with data to back their concerns about a rate increase proposed by Texas Gas Service.

“Not only are the rates too high, but they are poorly structured. They are regressive. The more you use, the less you pay per unit. This discourages energy conservation, and it hurts the poor who generally use less energy,” says a resident.

The average household should expect their bill to go up about 14% and while residential rates could go up, commercial rates could go down anywhere from 2% to 6%.

“In the case of TGS, new growth across Texas has caused existing customer gas rates to increase, which explains a lot about why gas rates have doubled in the last five years. It seems the city needs to get serious about studying a way out of this situation with the franchise renewal coming up,” says a resident.

The city of Austin is 1 of 17 cities in a coalition served by the Texas Gas Service, fighting against the rate increase.

“This is the motion that I posted on the message board and, as I mentioned there, I do not believe, and I cannot support the settlement that has been put forward and so what this amendment does is remove the cities’ affirmation of that settlement,” says Council member Ryan Alter, District 5.

“For clarity purposes and for the public, if this amendment goes on, what the city council would be doing is technically denying the application of Texas gas service and taking no position with regard to the settlement proposal because of the amendment,” says City of Austin Mayor Kirk Watson.

Austin City Council is still considering the gas rate proposal.

The Texas Gas Service released a statement:

“At Texas Gas Service, our top priority is maintaining a safe and reliable natural gas system for our customers. This requires upfront investments in the maintenance and operations of our natural gas system. Our rate adjustments reflect the actual costs of maintaining and improving our infrastructure, including safety, reliability and efficiency investments. The regulatory process allows Texas Gas Service to recoup an allowed portion of that investment and to continue providing the service Austinites have been able to depend on.

We are here to help and work with all our customers who face financial hardship. We encourage our customers to reach out when they need assistance, and we will work with them to find a solution. Financial assistance resources can also be found on our website at texasgasservice.com/cares. 

We’ve heard our customers’ sentiments towards our rates and overall satisfaction through survey questionnaire data in 2024. Customers residing in Williamson, Hays, and Travis counties specifically said:

• Over 64% of respondents indicated high trust in their utility to set fair and reasonable rates.
• 90% of responses indicated positive overall satisfaction.”