There are very few things in life better than getting something for free. It’s why the human race has engineered ways to fire hot dogs, t-shirts, and tacos out of a compressed air cannon.
We here at The False Nine, in our attempt to cover all aspects of Austin FC fandom, have come up with a grading rubric to judge and rate giveaways at Q2 stadium. It’s a very simple system for very simple items, everything is graded 1-100 with 5 points possible for the Look, Usability, and Originality categories. An additional 85 points are available for the Throwability category.
Final Rankings:
1-24 – Not worth the effort of grabbing from the attendant
25-49 – No one will be heartbroken by not getting the item, nor will they be sad when they accidentally leave it at the stadium
50-74 – A perfectly cromulent giveaway item
75-99 – An item to cherish and display
100 – Reserved for a Rodney Redes bobblehead
Now, let’s get to the Giveaway:

SeatGeek Scarf (3/8/2025 vs. Colorado Rapids
Look: It’s Black, It’s Verde, the white lettering shows up well against it, and the quality of the scarf is much better than the previous one.
Score: 5 out of 5
Usability: Scarves are inherently useful and we here at The Compound are starting think the FO has control over the weather because of how timely both of the early giveaways are. WE ARE ONTO YOU!
Score: 5 out of 5
Originality: A picture is worth a thousand words:

Score: 1 out of 5
Throwability: As we’ve covered previously a scarf is inherently not very throwable, it lacks a material to maintain a shape on its own, but: not when made into Scarfball TM. This is a scarf, we made it into scarfball, it’s just as throwable as the previous one.

There are some noticeable differences in the scarves, the 2025 version is a nicer fabric and the verde fringe looks better than the Black/Verde mix in the 2023 version. Much like how under Nico Estévez Austin FC looks more cohesive and structured, despite the lack of better results (yet).
Score: 74 out of 85
Final Score: 85 out of 100
Ranking of Giveaways (score in parenthesis):
Yeti Season Ticket Holder Gift (98)
Yeti 10 oz Tumbler (96)
Dell Technologies/Intel Bucket hat (92)
Heineken Koozie (86)
4ATX Foundation/SeatGeek Fan (85)
SeatGeek Scarf (85)
Q2 Stadium Scarf (84)
YETI Hat 2023 (84)
HEB Re-Usable Grocery Bag (83)
YETI Hat 2022 (81)
YETI T-shirt (79)
Netspend FanBand Bracelet (62)
4ATX Foundation Keychain Lanyard (50)
Two-Sided Towel (35)