Central Florida is ready to bring a Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise to town.
Celebration broke out in the Orange County Administration Building on Tuesday afternoon, after the Orange County Board of Commissioners voted through the approval of funds for a new downtown, multi-purpose soccer stadium. The approval helps to catapult the Orlando City Soccer Club into the final stages of negotiations with Major League Soccer (MLS) executives in order to bring a franchise to the City Beautiful.
“We’d like Orlando to be the next expansion team,” MLS President Abbott said in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel Monday. “We have in place a number of the factors that we think are needed to be successful, a strong leadership group and a strong fan base. Once we finalize (a stadium plan), we will have a Major League Soccer team here.”
Orlando City Soccer Club officials have stated that with approval of funding for a downtown stadium, a franchise could be awarded in as early as November 2013, with the Lions playing in the league by Spring 2015.
“It’s a very exciting time to be a fan of soccer in Orlando,” Rawlins said in an interview withOrlandoCitySoccer.com. “We are on the verge of bringing a second major league team to Central Florida.”
