When Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said: “Build them all. Build them right. Build them now,” he took a little bit of a beating.
The events package that would see the construction of the Amway Center and Dr. Philips Center for the Performing Arts and the renovation of the Citrus Bowl was a controversial package. The Amway Center was derided as the public financing a private businessman’s project for his team (another argument for another day). The performing arts center was the only one most thought was necessary and important, but was tied to the other two.
The Citrus Bowl?
That was the one that got increasingly put on the backburner. Detractors asked why the city and county should spend so much money on giving a stadium a facelift without a permanent tenant. UCF had long moved out and the aging Citrus Bowl was empty save for the stray Orlando City USL-Pro game, the two bowl games and monster truck rally.
As money dried up and delays came from the performing arts center, the Citrus Bowl got pushed aside.
The Citrus Bowls’ renovation finally got completed this year. Orlando City moved in for its inaugural season. The events came. And the Citrus Bowl renovation suddenly became a smashing success.
Even the typically skeptical Orlando Sentinel editorial board came around to the Citrus Bowl:
At least 80 percent of the cost of Citrus Bowl 2.0 is being bankrolled through taxes paid by tourists — a funding source limited by state law to promoting tourism and building or operating sports, cultural and convention venues. Even so, opponents argued that the stadium was a poor public investment, because it would simply divert spending from other parts of the local economy.
In fact, events at the Citrus Bowl have drawn fans — and imported their dollars — from beyond the region. At the Stones’ concert, nearly three-quarters of fans came from outside Orange, Osceola, Volusia and Seminole counties, according to city officials. At the Mexico-Costa Rica game, that figure was even higher — 77 percent. Fans from all 50 states and at least 27 other countries have bought tickets to Orlando City Lions’ soccer games, officials said.
That is an incredible return in the short time the Citrus Bowl re-opened.
The events the stadium has gotten would not have happened in the old Citrus Bowl. There was talks the bowl games would get downgraded in the bowl pecking order, now the Citrus Bowl is fighting its way onto the college football calendar. A kickoff classic game is on its way to the Citrus Bowl next year along with Florida State’s spring game.
The soccer games that have come to the Citrus Bowl are astounding. Mexico hosting a national friendly at the Citrus Bowl drew a lot of fans to the stadium. The U.S. Women’s Soccer Team’s Victory Tour is on its way too and could smash the record the team set when they came in 2013.
This has become a soccer-crazed city.
Orlando City’s presence as a permanent resident until the team’s new stadium is constructed has helped. The Lions have attracted at least 20,000 fans each MLS home game this season.
The Lions season tickets have already surpassed 18,000 tickets. The season ticket fan base is full. All that is coming to the Citrus Bowl for now (and for another year).
Other events will surely come too. The Rolling Stones would never have come to Orlando it seems without the new Citrus Bowl. Other events — Wrestlemania again, anyone? — are sure to follow.
In a short amount of time, the Citrus Bowl has become a destination again. The renovation program worked and boosted Orlando as a destination for football stadium events.
