Overview of sports opportunities in Orlando, Florida
Orlando, Florida has a history of major events in sports. It has had a considerable measure of success in minor league sports as well, with teams winning several minor league championships.
The effort to bring an MLS expansion team to Orlando had been led by Phil Rawlins, who was working since 2010 to bring MLS to Orlando.[2]
MLS officially announced in November 2013 that Orlando would join MLS,[3] after the club had received the necessary approvals from city and county officials to construct a new stadium.[4][5] Orlando City plays in Inter&Co Stadium in downtown Orlando, completed in 2017. They played their first and second seasons at the venue then known as the Orlando Citrus Bowl. Orlando had been previously considered for a Major League Soccer franchise following its 1994 World Cup success, but no willing investors were identified at the time.
The Orlando Pride is a professional women's soccer team based in Orlando, Florida and operated by Orlando City SC. The team joined the National Women's Soccer League, the top level of women's soccer in the US, for the 2016 season, and has played in the venue now known as Inter&Co Stadium since starting play.[6] The Orlando Pride are the 2024 NWSL Shield Winners and the 2024 National Women’s Soccer League Champions.
The Orlando Valkyries are an American professional indoor volleyball team based in Orlando, Florida. One of the seven charter members of the Pro Volleyball Federation, the Valkyries are set to begin play for the league's inaugural 2024 season.[7] The Valkyries play their home games at Addition Financial Arena.
Orlando has hosted matches for several high-profile international soccer tournaments. In the 1994 FIFA World Cup, Orlando's Citrus Bowl hosted five matches—four group-stage matches and one Round of 16 match—with Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Morocco each playing multiple matches at the stadium. Each of the five games drew an attendance of over 60,000.
Orlando also hosted six group stage matches for the 1996 Summer Olympics men's soccer tournament—three each in Groups B and D—with an average attendance of over 20,000 per game. Orlando also hosted three Group E matches for the 1996 women's tournament, with similar attendance figures.
The Florida Cup started in 2015 and hosts international clubs from several European and South American countries at stadiums across central Florida, including FBC Mortgage Stadium and Exploria Stadium.
In October 2017, Orlando City Stadium, now known as Inter&Co Stadium, hosted a 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification match for the CONCACAF fifth-round of qualifying (also known as the Hexagonal). The United States defeated Panama 4–0 in a push to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which ultimately failed.
As of February 2018, Orlando is one of 26 remaining potential host cities and Camping World Stadium is one of 29 remaining potential host venues in the United 2026 FIFA World Cup bid, the joint bid of the United States, Canada, and Mexico to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup.[8] The final version of the bid will include 20–25 venues, selected from the original 49 in consideration.[9]
The original iteration of Orlando City SC played in the third division USL Pro from 2011 to 2014. In 2010, Steve Donner formed Orlando Pro Soccer which was awarded a future United Soccer Leagues pro expansion slot for 2011. Later that year, Phil Rawlins moved the Austin Aztex FC to Orlando and formed Orlando City SC, beginning play in USL Pro in 2011. Orlando City won the 2011 USL Pro Championship, and the highest attendance in the league while playing at the Citrus Bowl during its first three seasons. 2014 saw a decline in attendance that resulted from being forced to move to a smaller venue at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Walt Disney World Resort during the renovation of the Citrus Bowl.[10] After Orlando City SC joined Major League Soccer, the organization added Orlando City B to the Tier III United Soccer League (USL), which was eventually given Tier II status in 2017. The B team went on hiatus for the 2018 season and returned for the 2019 season in the new Tier III USL League One. City SC pulled City B out of USL1 after the 2020 season, and City B resumed play in 2022 in a new Tier III league, MLS Next Pro.
The Central Florida Kraze formed in the Premier Development Soccer League (later named Premier Development League), the highest amateur league (4th tier overall) in the United States soccer league system, in 1998. Playing in Orange and Seminole Counties, the team won the PDL championship in 2004. Orlando City eventually took over several youth soccer groups and the Kraze to form a unified soccer development system under their brand. Orlando City has since been represented by teams in several levels of the United Soccer Leagues, including the Super Y-League, Super-20 League and PDL.
Professional baseball has been played in Orlando since 1919, primarily in the Class A Florida State League, until the Orlando Twins joined the AA Southern League in 1973. Tinker Field, named for baseball hall-of-famer Joe Tinker, was a historic baseball stadium next to Camping World Stadium (formerly called the Citrus Bowl), but was demolished in 2015, and was commemorated by a history plaza.[11] It was formerly the spring training home of the Minnesota Twins (and the Washington Senators before they relocated to Minneapolis) and the AA Southern League affiliates of the Twins, Chicago Cubs and Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
The Orlando area was home to spring training for one Major League Baseball team. The Atlanta Braves trained at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort. In 2017, the Braves Class A Advanced affiliate, the Florida Fire Frogs of the Florida State League, moved into Osceola County Stadium in Kissimmee.
The Disney stadium hosted first-round (Pool D) games in the 2006 World Baseball Classic and two three-game series between for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2007 and 2008. As is common with spring training complexes in Florida, the stadium currently hosts the Braves' rookie league affiliate, the Gulf Coast Braves.
There had been a grassroots campaign to attract Major League Baseball permanently to Orlando,[citation needed] with initial speculation pointed to the group building an MLB-class stadium with private financing. However, the group has settled for attracting a Class-A minor-league team with a new stadium on International Drive. They announced they were discussing a possible purchase of the Tampa Yankees in 2010,[12] but those plans fell apart when a potential stadium construction deal was struck down.
In 2011, an investment group announced that they were approved to lease Amway Center for a new franchise in the mid-level ECHL, which was formally awarded on November 1, 2011.[13] Two weeks later, it was announced that they had received the blessing of previous owner Rich DeVos to revive the Orlando Solar Bears name.[14] The team began play in the 2012–13 ECHL season, with their first game against the Florida Everblades in Estero, Florida, on October 12, 2012. Their home opener was October 20, 2012, also against the Everblades. The DeVos family eventually purchased the ECHL Solar Bears in 2017.[15]
Orlando is home to the Orlando Anarchy, a women's professional football team that plays in the WFA (Women's Football Alliance). The Orlando Anarchy have been playing since 2010, formerly known as the Central Florida Anarchy.
In 2018, the Anarchy won the WFA Division 3 National Championship.[16]
In 2000, the Orlando Rays moved from Tinker Field to Cracker Jack Stadium at the Wide World of Sports Complex. The Rays drew poorly at Disney and moved to Montgomery, Alabama, for the 2004 season. The Disney stadium has been mostly empty ever since.
Professional football in Orlando in goes back to the 1960s, when the Orlando Panthers played in the minor league Continental Football League. The Panthers won two CPFL titles in 1967 and 1968, but folded with the league after the 1969 season. In 1974, the World Football League was formed, and a franchise originally planned for Boston, then moved to the Washington, D.C. area, wound up in Orlando as the Florida Blazers. Despite playing before sparse crowds at the Citrus Bowl and not getting paid for weeks at a time, the Blazers won their division with a 14–6 record and qualified for the first and only WFL championship game, losing to the Birmingham Americans, 22–21. The franchise was relocated to San Antonio for the 1975 season, then quietly expired with the league in October of that year.
Since then, Orlando has hosted several professional teams in short-lived leagues. In 1985, the United States Football League's Washington Federals shifted to the Citrus Bowl and were renamed the Orlando Renegades. Despite a 5–13 record, the Renegades were one of the eight teams that stayed in the USFL for its projected fall season in 1986, but the league folded before any games were played that year. Next came the Orlando Thunder, a charter team in the World League of American Football in 1991 and 1992. They lost the World Bowl to the Sacramento Surge in 1992. Like all of the other the American-based teams, the franchise was dropped in the World League reorganization of 1995. Then came the Orlando Rage, a member of the XFL who also played at the Citrus Bowl. The Rage had the XFL's best record at 8–2, but were upset in the playoffs, and the XFL folded after the on season. The Citrus Bowl was once slated to host some of the games for the Florida team in the never launched All American Football League in 2008.
Orlando was one of the launch markets for the United Football League (UFL) in 2009. Orlando's team, the Florida Tuskers, was invested in by Stuart Sternberg, principal owner of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team, and played two of its three home games in the Citrus Bowl, and the third in Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. They compiled a perfect 6–0 record in the inaugural UFL season, before losing to the Las Vegas Locomotives in the championship game. Before the 2010 season, Sternberg sold his stake in the team and the Tuskers announced they would play all home games in Orlando. Its team was then purchased by Pro Football Hall of FamerJoe Theismann. Before the start of 2011, the Tuskers moved to Norfolk, Virginia, and became the Virginia Destroyers.
The Lingerie Football League, a women's indoor football league now known as the Legends Football League, expanded to Orlando in 2010 with the Orlando Fantasy. They played their home games at the CFE Arena. The inaugural season had a 0–4 record under coach Kenny McEntyre, a former Orlando Predators' defensive specialist. The team folded after the 2012 season, before the league adopted its current name.
After the original AFL folded in 2009, the Predators resumed play in 2010 in the revived Arena Football League reconstituted by a group of AFL and af2 franchises. The Predators played at the city-owned Amway Center until 2013, but in September 2013 the city of Orlando notified the Predators it was canceling their lease, because the low attendance numbers of 5,878 were in default of the lease's minimum provisions and because of the team's financial performance.[17][18] For the 2014 season, the Predators moved to the smaller CFE Arena on the University of Central Florida campus.[19] The team was then purchased by Westgate Resorts owner David Siegel during the 2014 season and the Predators moved back to Amway Center for the 2015 season.[20]
On October 12, 2016, the Orlando Predators announced they had suspended operations due to the reduced number of teams in the AFL and other pending disagreements with the league.[21] In 2019, former Predator Kenny McEntyre launched a new version of the team in the National Arena League.
Soccer
Minor league soccer has seen varying degrees of success in Orlando. The original Orlando Lions were formed in 1985, and played in the American Soccer League in 1988–90. A second incarnation played in the USISL from 1992 to 1995, winning the regular season title in 1992 and 1993.[22][23] Orlando made another attempt at pro soccer with the Orlando Sundogs, who played in the USISL A-League in 1997. They finished in the middle of the pack, but suffered poor attendance, and folded after one year. In 2008, Orlando hosted the Orlando Sharks of the Major Indoor Soccer League. After poor performance their first year, plans to shift to the new National Indoor Soccer League were eventually shelved.
The Orlando Solar Bears of the International Hockey League were formed in 1995 and were very successful, making the playoffs in each of its six seasons and qualifying for Turner Cup finals twice, losing both times, before finally winning the title in 2001. When the IHL folded after the 2000–01 season, Rich DeVos chose to fold the Solar Bears because his other team, the Grand Rapids Griffins, was moving to the American Hockey League (AHL) along with several other former IHL teams, but the AHL did not permit an individual to own multiple teams. In 2017, the DeVos family eventually purchased the revived Solar Bears that had been playing in the ECHL since 2011.[15]
In 2002, the Atlantic Coast Hockey League was formed with Orlando hosting one of the charter franchises, the Orlando Seals, which won their Commissioner's Cup in 2003; this made Orlando the only Florida city with two hockey championships. The Seals moved to the World Hockey Association 2 in 2003, then the Southern Professional Hockey League in 2004. The City of Orlando revoked their lease for the present Amway Arena, forcing them to sit out the 2004–05 season. They moved to Kissimmee and became the Florida Seals in November 2004. The team resumed play in the 2005–06 season, playing home games at the Silver Spurs Arena, making it to the President's Cup finals before losing to the Knoxville Ice Bears. On January 4, 2007, the Silver Spurs Arena evicted the Seals due to unpaid rent, causing the franchise to fold.
Other sports
Orlando is also the home to the NBA Pre-Draft camp, the NBA's Orlando Summer League, the MLB Winter Meetings, the NFL Annual Meeting, and since 2005, the PSP World Cup paintball tournament. They also host the final event of the extreme sportDew Tour, the PlayStation Pro. Orlando hosted the Major League Baseball Draft for several years until 2009, when they moved to the studios of MLB Network in Secaucus, New Jersey.
The annual Community Effort Orlando (CEO) is the second biggest fighting game tournament of the country. Having grown exponentially since its introduction in 2010, the event got over 4,000 attendees from more than 25 different countries in 2016.[24][25] Its Street Fighter tournament has been part of the Capcom Pro Tour since its start in 2014.
