View From The Shires: Orlando Edging Closer To MLS
Orlando City Soccer Club can potentially take one step closer to MLS next week, when the Orange County Commission votes to approve plans for a soccer-specific stadium in downtown Orlando. The plans, which have already been unanimously approved by the Orlando City Council, would provide $20 million in tourist taxes for the stadium and likely be the final significant hurdle cleared for the club before they can enter the league.
If awarded a franchise, it would mark the return of MLS to Florida for the first time since 2001, when the Tampa Bay Mutiny and Miami Fusion were both contracted due to serious financial difficulties, and satisfy the league’s long-running ambition to fill the gaping hole still left in the Southeast.
Alongside Detroit, Orlando is the only ’94 World Cup host city which has yet to welcome an MLS franchise to its doors, though the area has continued to be favoured preseason destination for clubs, while breading a number of establish American players, such as Sporting KC’s Graham Zusi and the New York Red Bulls’ Dax McCarty. Between 2002 and 2006, the city was also home to the Ajax Orlando Prospects – an exclusive US affiliate of AFC Ajax’s extensive global network, originally set up with the aim of sourcing North American talent for the Dutch club. Playing in the semi-professional leagues however, the programme never found great success and, despite allegedly harbouring MLS ambitions of its own, was eventually folded by its parent club in early 2007, with little to show for its efforts.
Over the next few years, more efforts would be made to generate a soccer footprint in Orlando. Ajax Orlando’s former president and CEO, Mark Dillon, a long-time stalwart of the area’s soccer community, founded Football Club Orlando in 2008, with plans to build a 88-acre, $50 million soccer complex and stadium near Winter Garden, while Mexican club Pachuca also briefly flirted with the idea of fronting a USL team to play in the city.
Neither plan would evidently come to fruition but in 2010 a new group, identified as Orlando Soccer Club and headed by former Rochester Rhinos owner Steve Donner, sealed the rights to a USL First Division franchise to begin play in 2011. Initially affiliated with the Orlando Titans National Lacrosse League team, it was a project which very nearly too succumbed to financial issues, until help arrived in the form of then-Austin Aztex club president Phil Rawlins, an Englishman whose boardroom role with Stoke City had originally helped establish the Texas-based club.
Rawlins had ambitious goals. Together with fellow owner John Bonner, he saw the huge gaping hole in the Southeast of the MLS map and, purchasing the Orlando Pro Soccer USL rights, moved his team from Texas to Florida, transforming them into Orlando City Soccer Club (also known as the Orlando City Lions).
Keeping most of the original Aztex organisation intact, including manager Adrian Heath, despite initial scepticism, the club’s ensuing years in the USL Pro Division (effectively the third tier of US Soccer) have been an unexpected and verified success. Playing in the Florida Citrus Bowl, the Lions have seen their attendance figures rise from 5,265 in 2011 to 8,917 in 2013 – a number which dwarfs the league average of 2,611 – while winning championship titles in both 2011 and 2013. The ultimate aim however was always to catch the attention of MLS and, at any opportunity, ownership was never short of stressing so. Prior to 2011, Orlando had never truly been considered a legitimate expansion destination for the league but that sentiment was rapidly changing.
Possessing a wholly passionate fanbase and having established a promising player developmental system, Rawlins and co. have been steadily pitching their plan to MLS over the past couple of years but only really began to be considered as serious contenders for an expansion franchise by the league in early 2013, when the crucial pieces of the puzzle started fitting into place.
That’s when it was announced that another figure had entered the picture – Brazilian multi-millionaire Flávio Augusto da Silva, whose network of English-language schools for adults, known as ‘Wise Up’, was valued at $450 million before it was sold recently. Together with sports marketing specialist Alexandre Leitão, Augusto himself had MLS ambitions and looked closely at a number of potential locations in the Southeast before settling on Orlando – reaching out to Rawlins and promptly taking up a 60-to-80 per cent majority stake in the club.
With Augusto pledging as much as $70 million to $80 million towards Orlando City, the club now had the financial backing to lure MLS to Central Florida but, despite Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer’s public backing, still had yet to establish that crucial prerequisite for a franchise – a plan for a soccer-specific stadium.
When the original plan to fund a downtown stadium location with $30 million from the team, $30 million in state sales taxes, $25 million in hotel taxes and $25 million from the city was rejected in early May, things looked somewhat rocky. It had long been believed that MLS would cap expansion for an extended period once they reached 20 teams and, when New York City FC was named as the league’s next franchise later that month, it appeared as though Orlando’s dreams would have to be put on hold for a while.
On July 31 however, during the MLS All-Star Game, Commissioner Don Garber announced that the league planned to reach a total of 24 teams by 2020, offering a crucial lifeline to Orlando City. The clear frontrunner among expansion candidates, the club thus saw Orlando’s board of commissioners voted 7-0 on October 7 to approve the use of $20 million in tourism taxes and another $20 million from the city and other smaller jurisdictions to fund a downtown stadium. With the other half of the $80 million needed for the proposed public-private partnership coming from ownership’s pockets, the possibility of an MLS franchise heading to Orlando suddenly seemed closer than ever.
Pending the Orange County Comission’s vote on October 22, as well as a subsequent successful expansion bid to MLS (including the $70 million franchise fee), at this stage it would be more of a surprise not to see Orlando City named as the league’s 21st franchise sometime over the coming months. Club president Rawlins is confident that the October 22 vote will prove successful and that they will then be able to come to an agreement with MLS by the end of November, which would see them join the league for 2015.
This latest piece of news is not the only thing which has been getting fans excited lately either. After training with the club this summer, rumours too that Kaká could be joining Orlando City for their inaugural MLS season (Augusto’s advisor, Leitão, is the president of sports marketing group Octagon Brazil, which represents the player) have rightly been cause for intrigue and have many wondering what other ambitious moves the franchise could potentially have in store. That scenario would have certainly proven unimaginable no more than two years ago and demonstrates just how far the club has come in such a relatively short space of time, with Rawlins undoubtedly due much of the plaudits for his stellar work behind the scenes.
If other rumours are to be believed too, Orlando City may not be the only team from the Southeast plying their trade in MLS by 2020. Of the possible locations for the other three expansion spots up for grabs, Atlanta, backed by Falcons owner Arthur Blank, and Miami, who have the support of David Beckham, currently appear to be the likeliest two destinations. Phoenix and Sacramento are two other cities however which have made noises about putting together impending bids, while the excellent fan support the San Antonio Scorpions and the Carolina RailHawks have been enjoying in NASL have many wondering whether either may try to make the step up to ‘the big leagues’ in the future.
All those cities in question however have a long way to go before they can ultimately reach the point at which Orlando City find themselves. Next week will certainly be a tense one for all those involved with the club but, when all is said and done, it would undoubtedly be a huge upset not to see them imminently named as the next MLS franchise and the dreams of ownership and fans finally realised.