Always Here, Year After Year: A Look Behind the Scenes of 2025’s Season Opener Tifo
Austin FC players get into position before kickoff as the tifo and card stunt are revealved • Katie Ensign
Before Austin FC was created, before Q2 stadium was built, before we even knew what the colors of the club would be, there were fans. These fans, who fully engaged with a concept—the idea that Austin was the perfect place for an MLS club—are still at the core of what we at Los Verdes are doing today. They devote their time and energy into supporting this club, including putting together the tifo we saw on Saturday night. But before we get into the behind the scenes of how that was made, I’m going to take you on a little history lesson.
“Tifos” started in Southern Italy as part of ultra culture in the 1960s, “tifo” coming from the word tifosi, which means a group of fans. As these groups gained membership and resources, these displays became a way to show their creativity, community strength, and passion for their club. Saved for important matches like local rivalries, tifos are choreographed displays for fans to show their devotion to the team, usually with artwork, coordinated chanting, and in many cases, smoke.
Los Verdes, in collaboration with other Austin FC supporter’s groups, have been integral to the creation of multiple tifos every season, doing what the groups of old did: showing off our creativity, love of our club, and community strength. Tifos are huge undertakings. It involves weeks of planning, more than a thousand volunteer hours, and of course, many gallons of paint (22 for this one).
Volunteers begin gridding • Zach Lyons
For a little more about the design itself, here are some words from the creators:
The tifo is a combination of iconic Austin images, Congress bridge, the violet crown sunset, and celebrates how just like the bats return to their home every year, the Austin FC fans come back to celebrate our community and support our city and team. The creation process itself was a celebration of the community. Joel’s vision and brilliant truly brought the idea to life, and I’m so thankful I could work alongside dozens of community members to write our love letter to the team and its fans 💚
Marc Tost
This tifo design is profoundly meaningful to me—it encapsulates the spirit of our community, the passion of our players, and the vibrant energy of Austin. While every design is a labor of love, this one resonated with me on a uniquely emotional level, embodying the unity and strength of our incredible Verde community.
Joel Corral
This tifo began as pieces of fabric sewn together to make the full canvas, a 100’x45’ moving mural. Fabric is used as the tifo has to be rolled up and unrolled as part of the presentation set up at Q2. Before the design can be transferred the entire backdrop is laid out with a grid. The design is then traced onto the grid, creating a “paint by numbers” style of artwork that allows for volunteers of varying skill levels and ages to be able to participate easily. It’s so large it has to painted in sections and with multiple coats to ensure the colors are as vibrant on the canvas as they were in the original design. This tifo was painted over nearly three weeks in shifts, all volunteers, and the materials were all funded by Supporters Groups.
Click to enlarge
This tifo was led by two experienced leads who put into their own words what “Tifo” means to them:
I first got involved in tifo just by coming to paint. As someone with no artistic talent whatsoever, I really liked that it gave me the opportunity to participate in the creation of a piece of art. Having been doing it for two years now, what's really inspiring is seeing the whole process play out Volunteers help sew fabric, wrangle tarps, paint, work grommet machines and much more, in the heat and the cold, to make the vision a reality…Austin supporters' tifo game is recognized as one of the best in MLS and I'm really proud to be a part of it.
Emma Cravey
What really drew me to tifo is that it's such a great opportunity to build community by giving people a barrier free place to come together. There's no cover at the door, no skills required, and everyone is welcome to get involved as much or as little as they'd like.
Seeing the diversity and welcoming environment of Los Verdes is something I've really never seen anywhere else. The sport brings fans together whether they're new to soccer or have been fans since childhood, and the fact that the team represents the city inspires people to work to express what the city means to them. Tifo is the perfect outlet for that. I know some folks come out just to quietly paint and maybe get a break from stress in their lives. Some folks come out to debate and discuss the latest team news, and it seems at some point most people start coming out because they want to catch up with the friends they made from a previous tifo session.
Personally, I've come to the conclusion that the point of tifo is equal parts 1) an opportunity for people to come together AND 2) to create a large piece of art that represents the community and the city. They're equally important. It just so happens that the finished tifos we do happen to be some of the absolute best in the league because we lean on all of the talented and passionate people in that community.
Jef Chappius
Dozens of volunteers come out to Q2 Stadium the week before unveiling to rig the tifo to netting, attach the netting to ropes suspended from the roof, and practice raising it all to ensure everything is ready to go on matchday. • Katie Ensign
Tifos are one of the most visible parts of what Supporter’s Groups do, giant murals on display for a stadium of thousands, broadcast to millions, and shared across social media all around the world. But they all start the same way: from groups of people joined together to show their support of the club.
I want to personally thank everyone for their hard work and especially the tifo leads for their leadership of organizing such a massive undertaking once, let along multiple times a season. This is a labor of love to our club and our community. LISTOS!
A tifo tradition: a group photo with everyone who makes practice—and much of the rest of this long process—happen. • Katie Ensign