Orlando City SC, like most expansion teams, is a "work in progress," but the buzz for the MLS team "is palpable, something that feels like it could be here to stay," according to Grant Wahl of SI.com. Central Florida's soccer culture "is developing right before our eyes," and it can be seen in downtown Orlando, where "throngs of fans congregate on gamedays," at the
recently renovated Citrus Bowl. There also is a "multicultural fanbase" that cheers on the team. Orlando City SC Founder & President Phil Rawlins "had no prior ties
to Orlando when he began looking into cities where he could move the
minor-league team he had started in Austin." But he "wanted it to become
an MLS team eventually, and for that to happen, the chances were best
in the Southeast." Rawlins: "The city was craving an identity. Everybody
knows Orlando, everybody all over the world, but they think of it as
being one very large tourist attraction. And there’s actually a vibrant,
exciting city here." The club has "just under 14,000 season-ticket holders, firmly within the
top third of MLS, and a baseline number considerably higher than what
the Miami Fusion and Tampa Bay Mutiny averaged during their brief
tenures as MLS franchises." The "happy question being asked these days
is whether the stadium opening next year will need to be expanded sooner
rather than later from the planned 20,000." Rawlins said that stadium expansion is "certainly a possibility." He added, "These next few games for us are really important, because
they start to prove out just how big a marketplace this is." Wahl noted
the team is "evoking comparisons to some of MLS’s biggest success
stories" after getting off to a "smashing start at the gate." Thirteen
years after the "sad departures of the Mutiny and Fusion, Florida isn’t a
place where MLS teams go to die anymore" (SI.com, 4/7).
