Orlando City: More Than A Novelty Team?

Cities and towns across the United States of America are known for a variety of different ‘niches’ if you will, as they all have a story to them. When it comes to Orlando, Florida, it’s very obvious to the masses that the main theme running throughout the city is rollercoasters (and theme parks as a whole).

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, and if anything, it helps to set Orlando apart from the remainder of Florida State. For fans of soccer, though, they’ll also be well aware of Orlando City SC – the team that, as reported by MLS Soccer, was able to trounce FC Cincinnati at the weekend. Of course, on top of that, you can also point to the fact that they haven’t really done much of note since coming into existence a few years ago.

Go City Go

Orlando play their games the Orlando City Stadium, and as you can probably tell by that name alone, it feels like there’s a serious push within the city to get OCSC on the map. They’ve been close to breaking into the upper echelons in the last few years but haven’t quite been able to take that next step, with a big example of that being their acquisition of Kaka. It was a move that certainly brought the fans in, and for the most part, they’ve stayed. The lack of major sports teams outside of the Orlando Magic probably helps out with that, and we can’t really see an issue there.

However, as seen on Visit Florida, the primary focus behind people going to Orlando continues to be the Disneys and Universals of the world. They just seem to have a stronghold on the region that has yet to be broken, despite the fact that Orlando City has made some nice in-roads in recent years.

The most intriguing part about all of this is that there is 100% a market out there for this team to exploit, especially in the Eastern Conference. The West seems to be enjoying it’s best extended spell of success in a long time this season, and they also seem to possess most of the general intrigue for teams in the league.

Keep on working

Orlando has made steps towards joining them in that regard, but we need more. We need people to want to go out of their way to attend a game, as opposed to thinking that they can go ‘if they feel like it’. If they continue the investment and continue to pour everything into the club, then in the next few years, they could be serious contenders.

The aforementioned win over Cincinnati served as a shining example of what this current squad is capable of, and all they need to do is find a way to cut out their inconsistency. That is certainly much easier said than done and we can appreciate that, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

We truly believe the future is bright for Orlando, and in that regard, the future is purple.