By Paul Nicholson
November 20 – While David Beckham and his people discuss whether to open up shop in the MLS in Miami or not, Orlando has stolen a lead with MLS commissioner Don Garber unveiling Orlando City Soccer as the next expansion franchise yesterday. Garber made the announcement at a community celebration near the site where a new downtown stadium will be constructed.
Orlando City Soccer will be the 21st MLS franchise, after the NYCFC (New York City FC) franchise which will also make its debut in the 2015 season.
The Orlando franchise has been under discussion for some time, but those negotiations gathered speed once the city approved a $20 million contribution to the £84 million cost of building a 18,000-seat stadium in Orlando. City and council officials have approved the use of tourism taxes to pay for the stadium.
Garber said that although the final numbers are still to be confirmed, but he expects Orlando City to pay the same $70 million franchise expansion fee that recent previous MLS additions have paid.
“Orlando was ready,” Garber said. “They were just aggressive with how quickly they wanted to come into the league. They were engaged with detailed negotiations with the city, the county and the state. All those pieces were coming together, and we wanted to ride that wave and capture the momentum.”
The city will own and operate the stadium with the club taking all money from ticket revenue for its games and the city taking all revenue from events it holds at the stadium. The final deal with Orlando city will likely see it picking up 50% of the cost of the stadium plus any cost overruns.
Orlando City Soccer will not be starting from scratch. The club has twice won the US Pro League (the second tier of professional soccer in the US) in the three seasons they have been in orlando since moving from Texas. They had the highest league attendances in 2013 and set a league record with 20,886 at the Florida Citrus Bowl in September.
The club is owned by Phil Rawlins who this year brought in new investment with Brazilian businessman Flávio Augusto da Silva.
“Look, around you. You’re seeing history happening right now,” da Silva told a crowd of a few thousand who had turned up to celebrate the announcement. “You’re all a part of it.”
The prospects for an MLS franchise in Orlando look promising and there is undoubted strong city support for the project. Orlando is the biggest TV market in the country but only has one major-league sports team (NBA). With a metropolitan area of more than 2 million people and a growing Latin American population, plus its huge tourism business, the franchise will add significantly to the city in terms of profile (and potentially tourism) and to the MLS in terms of national coverage.
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