This week, the city of Orlando will decide whether to build a brand new, state of the art soccer stadium to house a brand new Major League Soccer team. Orlando City Soccer Club has already assured the city of Orlando that upgrading the already successful soccer team based here will bring huge amounts of tourism to the city.
Major League Soccer or simply just the MLS is a growing brand here in America. Soccer is a sport that is always the little brother to other popular sports like baseball and football. However the MLS is already taking over large markets with teams in Los Angeles and New York City. I believe that is how sports in America grow in popularity, by marketing themselves in larger, and more profitable cities.
This being said with the MLS coming to Orlando, I think this will be a win-win situation for both the league and the city of Orlando. First off expanding the league to a very large city in Florida would help attract new fans to the league. The city of Orlando would benefit from this deal with an increase of tourism due to another major sports team along with the Magic.
If all goes according to plan and the deal is approved today by the city council then construction will start in the coming months. My hope is that this soccer stadium will change quite a bit of downtown scene for Orlando. I’m not the biggest fan of soccer, but a huge fan of Orlando and I think this is a huge step in the right direction for the city.