Orlando, Florida has a history of major events in sports. It has had a considerable amount of success in minor league sports as well, with teams winning several minor league championships.
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Orlando is home to the Orlando Magic, an NBA pro basketball franchise that plays at Amway Center in downtown Orlando.
The Magic hosted the 1992 NBA All-Star Game at what is now Amway Arena, and will host the 2012 NBA All-Star Game at the Amway Center.
The UCF Knights, the athletics teams of the University of Central Florida, compete in NCAA Division I. They joined the Football Bowl Subdivision in 1996, and Conference USA in 2005. The UCF Knights football team won the Conference USA Championship in 2007 and 2010. Its soccer program has produced several high-profile players, including FIFA 100 honoree Michelle Akers. The campus features Bright House Networks Stadium for football and UCF Arena for basketball, both built in 2007. Other facilities include Jay Bergman Field (baseball) and the UCF Track and Soccer Complex (soccer, track and field).
The Citrus Bowl is the home of the Capital One Bowl (formerly the Florida Citrus Bowl) and the Champs Sports Bowl (formerly the Tangerine Bowl). It also hosts regular-season football games for Jones High School, as well as the annual Florida Classic played between the NCAA Division I-AA Football teams from Florida A&M University and Bethune-Cookman University, and the state's high-school football finals.
The Orlando Predators have existed since 1991 as an expansion team in the original Arena Football League. The Predators' rivalry with the Tampa Bay Storm was one of the landmark features of the AFL. The Predators won the ArenaBowl in 1998 and 2000, and also recorded the only shutout in AFL history in 1992. After the original AFL folded in 2009, the Predators shifted to the new Arena Football League, reconstituted by a group of AFL and af2 franchises, beginning play in the new league in 2010.
The Lingerie Football League, a women's indoor football league, expanded to Orlando in 2010 with the Orlando Fantasy. The plays their home games at the UCF Arena. The inaugural season had a 0-4 record under Coach Kenny McEntyre, the legendary Orlando Predators Defensive Specialist.
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 pro teams in short-lived leagues. In 1985, the USFL's Washington Federals shifted to the Citrus Bowl and were re-named 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 infamous XFL who, like the other teams, 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. (The Orlando Rage name has since been revived in the semi-pro Southern States Football League). The Citrus Bowl was once slated to host some of the games for the Florida team in the never launched All American Football League beginning in 2008.
The Citrus Bowl also hosted an NFL team—a fictional one, the Orlando Breakers, who were featured in the last two seasons of the television sitcom Coach. The team, head-coached by main character Hayden Fox (played by Craig T. Nelson), was a plot device to reflect the 1995 addition of the Jacksonville Jaguars to the real-life NFL. It also permitted the ABC series' production to move to Disney-MGM Studios in Orlando.
Orlando was one of the launch markets for the United Football League 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 complied a perfect 6-0 record in the Premier 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 stake has since been purchased by Pro Football Hall of Famer Joe Theismann. Before the start of the 2011, it was announced the Tuskers would be moved to Norfolk, Virginia and would be renamed the Virginia Destroyers.
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 1992–1995, winning the regular season title in 1992[1] and 1993.[2]
In 1994, Orlando took part in the United States Soccer Federation's hosting of the 1994 FIFA World Cup. The stadium hosted five matches—one in Group E, three in Group F, and one Round of 16 match—with an average attendance in excess of 61,000 per game.
Orlando would also host six group stage matches—three each in Groups B and D—for the 1996 Summer Olympics men's soccer tournament, with an average attendance of over 20,000 per game. They would also host three Group E matches for the women's tournament, with similar attendance figures. This permitted U.S. women's soccer star Michelle Akers to play for her team before her hometown fans, being a product of UCF.
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 1998, Orlando hosted MLS All-Star 1998. The U.S. All-Stars beat the World All-Stars, 6-1, before an attendance of 34,416.
The Central Florida Kraze formed in what is now the USL Premier Development League, the highest amateur league (4th tier overall) in the United States soccer pyramid, in 1998. Playing games in Orange and Seminole Counties, the team won the PDL championship in 2004.
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.
Orlando has continued to seek professional soccer. In 2010, Steve Donner formed a group named Orlando Pro Soccer which was awarded a future United Soccer Leagues pro expansion slot for 2011. Later that year, Phil Rawlins, an investor in the Premier League club Stoke City F.C., moved the organization of Austin Aztex FC to Orlando and formed Orlando City S.C. The team began play in USL Pro in 2011, and won that year's USL Pro Championship.
The Orlando area is currently home to spring training for two Major League Baseball teams. The Atlanta Braves train at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort, and the Houston Astros train at Osceola County Stadium in Kissimmee.
Pro 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, is a historic baseball stadium next to the Citrus Bowl, currently out of use. 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.
Orlando was a finalist in the 1993 MLB expansion. It lost out to Miami and Denver. It was also a finalist in the 1998 MLB expansion, losing out that time to St. Petersburg and Phoenix.
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. Since then, Orlando has had no pro baseball team.
Meanwhile, the Disney stadium has been mostly empty ever since, although it did play host to 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 is currently a grassroots campaign to attract Major League Baseball permanently to Orlando. Although initial speculation pointed to the group building an MLB-class stadium with private financing, they have 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 on September 1, 2010.[3]
The WNBA's Orlando Miracle played four seasons at Amway Arena (1999–2002). After 2002, when owners were permitted to sell their WNBA teams, the Miracle were purchased by Mohegan Sun casino and moved to become the Connecticut Sun.
The Orlando Aces played one season in the new ABA in 2006-07 before moving to Las Vegas.
In the 1990s, ice hockey became popular in Orlando, perhaps due to large influx of northerners to the city. In the 1993-94 NHL season, the Tampa Bay Lightning played four "home" games at the Amway Arena, with a 1-2-1 record.
The Orlando Solar Bears, of the now-defunct 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 taking 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 another league that did not permit an individual to own multiple teams.
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, however, 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 2005-2006 season, playing home games at the Silver Spurs Arena, making it to the President's Cup Finals before losing to Knoxville. Then on January 4, 2007, the Silver Spurs Arena abruptly booted the Seals due to unpaid rent, forcing the franchise to fold. There has been no pro hockey in Orlando since.
The Orlando Titans of the National Lacrosse League moved to the city from New York City for the 2010 season. They folded after the season ended.
The Citrus Bowl hosted World Wrestling Entertainment's WrestleMania XXIV in 2008. Amway Arena played host to WWE's Royal Rumble in 1990 and World Championship Wrestling's Bash at the Beach in 1994, as well as WWE's 2008 Hall of Fame ceremony, headlined by the induction of Ric Flair. Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, in its Impact Zone, is also based in Orlando. Orlando also hosted television tapings for World Championship Wrestling at varying times in the 1990s, both at Disney-MGM Studios and Universal Studios Florida.
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 sport Dew 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.