Today, the Pro Bowl; soon, a real NFL game?
Orlando auditions for a franchise
ORLANDO, Fla. — Today, the Pro Bowl.
Tomorrow, the Orlando Jaguars. Or maybe the Bucs or the Saints or even the Chargers after they fail in Los Angeles.
Doesn’t really matter who — all that matters is Orlando will get an NFL franchise someday.
We’re too big and beautiful not to be under consideration. We have too much projected population and too much pigskin passion not to attract some NFL owner disgruntled with his current home.
“There is no doubt in my mind Orlando can have an NFL franchise someday,” says Steve Hogan, the CEO of Florida Citrus Sports and the man mostly responsible for bringing tonight’s Pro Bowl to Camping World Stadium.
Orlando has already opened some NFL eyes this week by selling out the Pro Bowl and showing the league that we take our football seriously. As Hogan said earlier this week, “This is Orlando’s time to shine.” As iconic NFL defensive back Charles Woodson said: “By having the Pro Bowl here, you’ve got the biggest sports league in this country in your backyard. You are up close and personal with the NFL. I think this could have a lasting impact.”
For all of you nattering nabobs of negativity who continue to make fun of the Pro Bowl, I have message from Orlando sports fans: If you don’t want your tickets to the game, we’ll take them.
“The Orlando game is definitely the most in-demand Pro Bowl ticket that we’ve seen,” said Chris Leyden, content analyst for the ticket-resale site SeatGeek.com who says the average price of a seat for tonight’s game is $150. “Orlando is a lot more accessible to a lot more people than Hawaii. I live in New York and I could easily take a weekend trip to Orlando, but I’m not going to fly 12 hours to Hawaii and 12 hours back in a weekend.”
This is one of the main reasons the NFL wants the Pro Bowl to work in Orlando — a much more accessible, affordable and fan-friendly site than Honolulu. Another key reason is because of Orlando’s obvious ties to Disney — the parent company of ESPN, which will televise the game tonight. It’s not just coincidence that many of the pre-Pro Bowl activities took place at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex out at Disney.
Someday, I’m convinced, there will be a state-of-theart Disney Dome somewhere in Orlando that will not only house our NFL team, it will host Final Fours, college football national championship games and many other sports and entertainment events.
Disney is run by smart people and so is the NFL. Both entities are well aware that with Los Angeles now home to two NFL franchises, Orlando is the largest TV market in the country that doesn’t have an NFL team. In fact, Orlando’s market size is bigger than 12 existing NFL cities.
“I think we could definitely support an NFL team of our own,” Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer says.
Today, the Pro Bowl. Tomorrow, the Orlando Mouseketeers.