Saturday in Downtown Orlando was full of sports events that were well attended. Proving a vision Buddy Dyer had when the events centers were built.
When Orlando City announced itself to the world March 8, it was the culmination of a vision from Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer. He had pushed to much controversy to transform downtown Orlando with sports and entertainment venues. He had pushed to bring Orlando City to town and worked tirelessly to secure their own downtown venue.
Dyer wants the foot traffic in his city. He wants to showcase his city and give the citizens more things to do.
The efficacy and economic impact of sports stadiums can be debated another day. Not every citizen is going to enjoy all that these stadiums are supposed to offer and ultimately it may be a loss for the city’s coffers. But certainly not for their spirit.
It is nights like Saturday night that show exactly what Dyer envisioned for the city.
Orlando City dusted off a 2-1 win over Montreal in front of 35,421 fans at the Citrus Bowl. It was their fourth straight victory and the third largest attendance at the Citrus Bowl this season for Orlando City’s inaugural season. Chairman Phil Rawlins announced Orlando City surpassed 500,000 fans, the fastest expansion team to reach that mark in MLS history.
OCSC President Phil Rawlins announces 500K fans have attended OC games this year — fastest for an expansion team.
— Mike Gramajo (@byMikeGramajo) October 4, 2015
Even if Orlando City fails to make the Playoffs this year, the first season has been a humongous success.
What made Saturday more unique is that it was just the second time since Orlando City joined MLS that both the Lions and the Magic had games. Even though it was just a preseason game for the Magic, they had a surprising announced crowd of 14,942. The crowd may not have been that big, but it was a healthy sized crowd for a preseason game.
The point was the city could easily support both teams on the same night. And the hope for city boosters is they went to downtown restaurants before the game or after the game.
There were other things going on downtown too — Downtown Orlando is always a popular spot for Florida State games (kicked off at 3:30 p.m.), The Basement had 300-plus people for their free beer promotion during the UCF game at noon and Bloktoberfest Pub Crawl occurring in Downtown Orlando all night. That is a lot going on in a short space of time in Downtown Orlando. A lot of that is certainly aimed toward one demographic over another too.
What it all amounts to is the dream Buddy Dyer had when venues package came together. There was just a lot more for the citizens of Orlando to do on a Saturday night like this.
There will be more nights like this in the coming days. And one thing is very clear, Orlando can handle the influx of people and support all these kind of events.
