Some proponents of the city of Austin's Major League Soccer stadium deal are crying foul about the petition effort to sink the stadium after secret tapings revealed paid canvassers giving misinformation about the petition's intent.

"We're trying to build a new soccer stadium here," said one paid canvasser, who identified himself in the video as "SQ."

In reality, the city approved an early deal in August that would see a stadium built on the McKalla Place tract in North Austin. The petition calls for voter approval of the McKalla Place deal, as well as any future city agreements to build stadiums or entertainment venues on city-owned land. As for SQ, he's a paid canvasser for Fair Play Austin, a new political action committee that opposes the McKalla stadium deal and is being funded by Circuit of the Americas chairman Bobby Epstein.

Epstein is the majority owner of Austin Bold FC, a United Soccer League franchise that plans to begin play in 2019. Recently, the franchise began construction on its own 5,000-seat stadium at Circuit of the Americas.

The USL is the country's top minor league in terms of professional soccer, sitting a rung below the MLS. An Austin-based MLS franchise would be in direct competition with Austin Bold FC.

Nikelle Meade, general counsel for Fair Play Austin, confirmed Wednesday that Epstein is behind the PAC and that the man caught in the video is a paid canvasser.

"More or less, everything he said was not right," Meade told the American-Statesman.

The video was shot by Mark Littlefield, a City Hall lobbyist and political consultant who was paid to help seal the MLS soccer stadium deal. The terms call for a 20,000-seat stadium to be built on the city-owned McKalla Place tract in North Austin.

Littlefield told the Statesman that he shot the video Tuesday afternoon on the University of Texas campus, where he had traveled to speak to a class. He had just hopped off a scooter when the man approached him. With his phone in hand, Littlefield told the man he was ending his paid ride on the scooter, but then he turned on the video.

"Anecdotally I’ve heard stories about this for weeks now," Littlefield said. "So I told people to try to get a video of it and never thought that it would be me."

As Littlefield approaches the canvasser, he tells the man that he loves soccer. Littlefield tells the man that he thought the city already had approved a soccer stadium. The canvasser replies that a deal failed to pass twice, and now a petition was needed to get the matter on the ballot.

"It didn’t pass," he says. "So that's why we are trying to get it on the ballot."

Littlefield's video is one of two that are being circulated by some in favor of the city's stadium deal with Precourt Sports Ventures, which plans to bring an MLS franchise to Austin. The other video shows a female canvasser. She tells an unidentified woman during an interaction that the petition is related to the soccer deal, but that it would not undo the McKalla Place deal.

The Fair Play Austin PAC formed Nov. 2 after Epstein pulled his financial support from the IndyAustin PAC in the wake of a political video targeting Mayor Steve Adler that included a cartoon character that has been associated with racism and anti-Semitism.

The petition calls for an election to be held regarding the McKalla Place deal as well as any future city agreements to build stadiums or entertainment venues on city-owned land.

Meade said Fair Play Austin acted once it was made aware of the videos and would be working with the 20 canvassers they have hired to get signatures.

"It is a training issue," Meade said "They need to answer truthfully or say, 'I don’t know.' ... It is a somewhat complicated issue, so we are making sure everyone is better informed."