The cool and quiet air of Monday evening was interrupted at 10ish with a cacophony of distinctive pops.

It was neither gunfire nor fireworks. Rather, the din came from the exploding heads of hundreds of die-hard local soccer fans who have been clamoring for a Major League Soccer team in San Antonio.

The Columbus Crew, according to a story from the Columbus Dispatch, was finalizing a deal to pull up cones in Ohio and move its MLS team to Austin. Hence the popping.

This news, days before San Antonio FC’s first United Soccer League playoff game Saturday at Toyota Field, came as a bicycle kick to the collective junk of local soccer fans.

Since then, fans have been all over the map, claiming MLS has cut corners to favor Austin. Or alleging, as I once did, that Spurs Sports & Entertainment was going through the motions to pacify fans.

While the jury is out on the integrity of MLS, SS&E said in a Tuesday statement it continues to pursue an MLS expansion franchise.

Privately, a source high in the SS&E offices says Crew owner Anthony Precourt went rogue.

“It’s puzzling,” the source said. “They asked Columbus not to do this. It hadn’t been approved by the league.”

That’s what MLS officials explained to SS&E in a pair of hastily made phone calls to San Antonio over an 18-hour span late Monday and early Tuesday.

Austin doesn’t have a stadium plan, and the city’s mayor refuses to support public money for one. Precourt wants to play in UT’s soccer stadium for a while. Officials with MLS aren’t keen on that idea.

The Spurs official said the company needs to land an MLS team to avoid ponying up a $5 million penalty laid out in the Toyota Field lease agreement. That kicks in two years from now.

There’s a chance Precourt is, like nearly every other disgruntled team owner in America, using one city (Austin) to extract financial concessions from another (Columbus).

The calming words of MLS gave blindsided Spurs officials assurances they were still in the game. Fans can rest easy that the push for MLS isn’t over.

Or can they? There are other developments that might give SS&E and San Antonio fans pause when it comes to trusting MLS.

Shortly after San Antonio and 11 cities filed applications for the four MLS expansion franchises, the league surveyed Austin residents and South Texans about the possibility of MLS in Austin. That caught SS&E off-guard.

At various times over the past year, MLS commissioner Don Garber has spoken about potential expansion cities. San Diego, St. Louis and Detroit have been called locks to get teams.

Garber never once mentioned San Antonio. He has, on the other hand, mentioned Austin several times.

Then came August, when MLS registered “Austin FC” and “Austin Athletic” as protected trademarks.

Another unsettling revelation came from Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, in a joint statement released with Mayor Ron Nirenberg on Tuesday afternoon.

“MLS officials told us that there will not be a franchise in both Austin and San Antonio,” Wolff said. “We want clarification from MLS regarding the status of our expansion application in light of news today from Columbus.” Mayor Nirenberg added, “When the MLS figures out what it wants to do, we’re ready to talk. Meanwhile, we’re looking forward to the playoff game on Saturday.”

What’s most bothersome to SS&E and galling to local fans is that if the city’s chance to join MLS is spoiled, it’s possibly by a team going to Austin.

Austin was not a city that went through the MLS bidding process. Nor has the city shown support for a soccer team: a USL team drew few fans and went dark two years ago.

Plus, and I cannot emphasize this enough, it’s Austin, where smugness flows like the cold waters of Barton Springs. This is the city that tried to take credit for breakfast tacos, for God’s sake. Now, it appears Austin wants to waltz in and take MLS from a city that’s worked hard to do it on the up-and-up.

Or maybe Austin is so jealous of San Antonio that it’s trying to lay claim to the Alamo City’s title as “The Bargaining Chip of American Sports.” It’s not much to be proud of, but at least it’s ours.

Whatever the truth is, it couldn’t be happening at a worse time.

In four days, San Antonio FC will play the biggest match in the two-year history of the club. And while the Columbus news has a chance of lowering fan morale, this is a chance for local soccer fans to redeem themselves.

From the days of the original Spurs “Baseline Bums” to modern day Rampage hockey fans, this has been a city of loyal, hard-ass fans.

You’re a blue-collar town, San Antonio. Time to act like it.

Let the stands be filled Saturday with angry fans screaming for their team. Mission City Firm, you’re the top supporter group. You should compose and sing songs mocking Garber and Austin.

That’s the San Antonio way.

rbragg@express-news.net

Twitter: @roybragg