{"id":173791,"date":"2026-03-01T11:55:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T11:55:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/173791\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T11:55:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T11:55:17","slug":"how-orlando-willed-itself-into-sports-big-leagues-orlando-sentinel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/173791\/","title":{"rendered":"How Orlando willed itself into sports\u2019 big leagues \u2013 Orlando Sentinel"},"content":{"rendered":"

As part of the Orlando Sentinel\u2019s 150th birthday, on the first Sunday of each month, we will report on a topic that helped shape the Centreal Florida of today and how we covered that topic. Today we look at sports.<\/p>\n

On a bright, beautiful afternoon in 1985 that should have disappeared into Orlando\u2019s endless reel of bright, beautiful afternoons, an NBA executive sat in the back seat of a car and made casual conversation about expansion.<\/p>\n

Pat Williams, then the general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers, was thinking like a league lifer. Florida was booming. The NBA was looking. If you were placing a basketball franchise in this football-fanatical pigskin peninsula, where would you put it?<\/p>\n

\u201cMiami, Tampa or Jacksonville?\u201d Williams asked his Orlando friends.<\/p>\n

From the front passenger seat, Orlando businessman Jimmy Hewitt turned around and glared at Williams.\u00a0 Hewitt countered not with a pitch so much as a correction; the kind you deliver when you\u2019re not lobbying but declaring.<\/p>\n

\u201cOrlando is the place to be,\u201d Hewitt said sternly.<\/p>\n

That six-word sentence, equal parts civic pride and audacity, has become the incantation at the center of Orlando\u2019s sports history. Because the Magic didn\u2019t simply arrive as a team; they arrived as proof that Orlando could build the arena, sell the tickets, command the attention, and keep a major-league franchise anchored in a downtown that outsiders still treated like an interchange on the way to Disney World.<\/p>\n

Hewitt\u2019s belief quickly turned into action. The next day, he ran into then-Mayor Bill Frederick while they were picking up their sons at soccer practice. Hewitt rushed over, explained his NBA idea, and asked Frederick to pull political strings to accelerate plans for a new arena. Frederick said yes. The civic wheels started turning. Investors were assembled. Meetings were scheduled. A city that had never owned a major professional team began to behave like a city that could.<\/p>\n

\u201cJimmy Hewitt is the reason the Magic and professional sports exist in Orlando,\u201d Magic CEO Alex Martins has said.<\/p>\n

And Williams, who would become the team\u2019s other co-founder, would make it even more absolute: \u201cWithout Jimmy Hewitt, there would be no Orlando Magic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PatPat Williams and Jimmy Hewitt reminisce about 20 years of the Orlando magic franchise \u2014 that they helped bring to Orlando \u2014 during a meeting at Country Club of Orlando on June 15, 2006. (Joe Burbank\/Sentinel archive)<\/p>\n

Orlando\u2019s sports evolution \u2013 past, present, future \u2013 flows from that moment: one city deciding to will itself into major-league relevance, then spending the next four decades learning what relevance costs, and what it can become.<\/p>\n

The early years
\n In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Orlando\u2019s athletic life grew the way young American towns did back then: informal recreation hardening into organized competition.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The region\u2019s first recorded sports events date back to the late 1800s with horse racing at the Orlando Jockey Club. Organized baseball followed, leading to the formation of the minor-league baseball Orlando Tigers in 1919. Professional boxing was also a big draw in Orlando at the turn of the century.<\/p>\n

What separates Orlando from many Sun Belt boomtowns is that it learned early how to host. Long before it was a national synonym for theme parks, it was building athletic infrastructure that helped it practice the logistics of big crowds and big moments.<\/p>\n

\"CatawbaCatawba College of North Carolina won the first 2 Tangerine Bowls in Orlando, This is from the game on Jan. 1, 1947. (Orlando Sentinel file)<\/p>\n

The most important venue in the city\u2019s early history was the football field now known as Camping World Stadium. It began as a Works Progress Administration project in 1936, originally called Orlando Stadium, built for $115,000. The first bowl game would follow in 1947, when the venue became the Tangerine Bowl and hosted the inaugural contest on January 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore we became one of the top 20 markets in the United States, the bowl game was one of the earliest forms of tourism in Orlando,\u201d says Steve Hogan, the CEO of Florida Citrus Sports.<\/p>\n

The Citrus Bowl complex also sits adjacent to what was, for much of the 20th century, the other great shrine of Orlando sports: Tinker Field.<\/p>\n

\"Orlando'sOrlando\u2019s Tangerine Bowl, known now as Camping World Stadium, and the Tinker Field baseball complex are seen in his photo, believed to be from the 1960s. The football stadium, originally with a 10,000-seat capacity, was built in 1936 with additional seating added through the years. Tinker Field, named after baseball Hall-of-Famer Joe Tinker, was first constructed in 1914 and had various refurbishments over the years before being demolished in 2015. (Florida Citrus Sports)<\/p>\n

If the Citrus Bowl taught Orlando to host football, Tinker Field taught it how sports can braid together the city\u2019s entertainment, economics, and social history. Tinker Field was named after Joe Tinker, the Chicago Cubs Hall of Fame shortstop famous for the \u201cTinker to Evers to Chance\u201d double-play trio.<\/p>\n

After his Major League career, Tinker moved to Orlando and managed the local Orlando Tigers to a league pennant, invested in local real estate and was the key figure in bringing professional spring training baseball to the city.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn original photograph of the 1920 Orlando Tigers minor-league baseball team, which was coached by Hall-of-Famer Joe Tinker.. The photo has the players lined up in three rows and each person is identified by handwriting with ink on the photo by last name. Tinker\u2019s Tigers won the Florida State League pennant with a 74-42 record in 1921. (Courtesy Orange County Regional History Center)<\/p>\n

For decades starting in 1923, Orlando was a spring training home, first for the Cincinnati Reds, then the Brooklyn Dodgers, then the Washington Senators. When the Senators relocated to Minnesota in 1961, Tinker Field was the Twins\u2019 spring training home for three decades.<\/p>\n

From 1936 to 1990, legendary players such as Hank Aaron and Mickey Mantle played spring training games in Orlando.<\/p>\n

Even the great Babe Ruth, after his retirement, made an appearance there during a barnstorming tour in 1948.<\/p>\n

\u201cRuth arrived in a Lincoln convertible,\u201d late Twins owner Calvin Griffith told the Sentinel. \u201cHe drove it right into the park and through a gate in left field. Then, he drove around the inside of the place. People cheered like crazy. I\u2019ll not forget it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"YankeesYankees great Yogi Berra signs autographs for young fans before New York’s spring training game against the Minnesota Twins on March 27, 1963, at Orlando’s Tinker Field. The refurbished stadium was dedicated that day, continuing its legacy as an important part of the Orlando sports scene. The original Tinker Field grandstand was built in 1922. (Orlando Sentinel file)<\/p>\n

Sadly, Tinker Field ended the way so many stadium stories do: with an impasse over public investment. The Twins left for a new state-of-the-art facility in Fort Myers after failing to get Orlando to commit to $5 million in stadium improvements. The departure wasn\u2019t merely about baseball. It was about leverage and urgency \u2013 lessons Orlando would later absorb in far higher-stakes negotiations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sad, just plain sad,\u201d Jamie Lowe, the Twins\u2019 spring-training coordinator said at the time. \u201cPeople are going to be sorry to see us leave. We didn\u2019t ask for any more (improvements) than what other teams are getting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tinker Field\u2019s meaning extended far beyond baseball. On March 6, 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke from the pitcher\u2019s mound in what is widely remembered as his only public speech in the city; an \u201cIntegration now\u201d rally that drew thousands. In a segregated era, the stadium became both a gathering place and a battleground over civil rights. Baseball barrier-breaker Jackie Robinson played an exhibition game in Orlando in 1950, but not at Tinker Field. It took place at Carter Street Park, a site for Negro League spring training, because Black people weren\u2019t allowed at Tinker Field at the time.<\/p>\n

The stadium was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004 but was ultimately demolished in 2015 as the Citrus Bowl expanded. Today, the Tinker Field History Plaza stands in its shadow, an attempt to preserve the memory of a venue that housed both America\u2019s pastime and a pivotal civil-rights moment.<\/p>\n

Emerging from the desert<\/p>\n

Baseball\u2019s demise was, in some ways, tied into the rise of the Magic with much of the city\u2019s public money and attention focused on the new NBA franchise that played its first season in 1989. The Magic didn\u2019t just give Orlando its first major pro franchise, they changed the way the city perceived itself and the way others perceived it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were a sports desert before the Magic came to town,\u201d longtime Sentinel writer and columnist Brian Schmitz remembers.<\/p>\n

Orlando transformed into a pop-culture stage in 1992 when the Magic won the draft lottery and selected Shaquille O\u2019Neal. A year later, the Magic miraculously won the lottery again and Penny Hardaway arrived. The Shaq and Penny Show turned Orlando into a basketball destination. The Magic were young, loud, and nationally interesting. The city \u2013 long treated as a place people visited, not a place they belonged to \u2013 finally had something that belonged to the locals.<\/p>\n

\"ShaquilleShaquille O\u2019Neal waves to the crowd after the Orlando Magic select him with the No. 1 pick in the 1992 NBA Draft. The LSU player was 7 feet, 1 inches tall with an even larger personality that quickly drew attention to him and the expansion Magic. He played for Orlando from 1992 to 96, leading the team to the NBA Finals before leaving to join the L.A. Lakers. (Don Ryan\/ Associated Press file)<\/p>\n

By 1995, the Magic had reached the NBA Finals, one of the fastest ascents in league history. Then came the moment that still clenches in Orlando\u2019s collective memory: Nick Anderson missing four straight free throws in Game 1, the kind of sequence that sports cities never fully release. Orlando was swept by Houston.<\/p>\n

A year later, Shaq bolted to join the Los Angeles Lakers.<\/p>\n

Orlando sports has had many turning points, but few are as foundational as the summer of 1996. Shaq\u2019s departure felt like an early referendum on Orlando itself. Shaq dismissed the city as a \u201cdried-up little pond\u201d on his way out. And Nick Anderson, who lived that era from inside the locker room, still frames it as a stolen dynasty.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m honest when I say this,\u201d Anderson told the Sentinel. \u201cI think we would have won five or six championships.\u201d<\/p>\n

Says Schmitz, \u201cTo this day, I firmly believe the Magic have still never recovered from Shaq leaving.\u201d .<\/p>\n

Knight time arrives<\/p>\n

UCF football\u2019s origin story reads like folk mythology. In 1979, the Division III Knights played their first official game in what was described as \u201ca cow pasture during a driving rainstorm at St. Leo\u201d under volunteer head coach Don Jonas. Players arrived for that inaugural season with no scholarships, buying their own shoes and socks and dressing in public bathrooms. One player famously described his \u201clocker\u201d as a hook on the wall in the handicapped stall.<\/p>\n

That scrappy beginning matters because it mirrors Orlando\u2019s own trajectory: a place dismissed as too new, too transient, too reliant on tourism. Until, suddenly, it wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\"WideWide receiver Bobby Joe Plain (No. 6) scores the first touchdown in UCF history as the Knights start their then-Division III football program with a 21-0 win at St. Leo College. The field was described as a cow pasture, with one end zone completely flooded from rain that day. (UCF Special Collections)<\/p>\n

Over time, UCF went from Division II to Division I-AA to Division 1 and grew into a program that didn\u2019t merely compete; it forced the sport to acknowledge it. Late president John Hitt made the decision that a major university in the South must have a bigtime football program and began investing big money into the program.<\/p>\n

Daunte Culpepper\u2019s arrival in 1995 put the program on the map. An on-campus stadium built in 2007 became a statement of identity. Coach George O\u2019Leary\u2019s Fiesta Bowl-winning team of 2013 took the program to another level and then Coach Scott Frost\u2019s 2017 undefeated season and AD Danny White\u2019s self-proclaimed national championship became a cultural event \u2013 a point of pride for locals and a provocation for the sport\u2019s established elite.<\/p>\n

\"QuarterbackQuarterback Daunte Culpepper, shown scrambling during a UCF game against top-ranked FSU in 1995, was the first big-time football recruit to sign with UCF. During his tenure UCF moved to Division I-A, making the Knights the first football program to play in all four NCAA football divisions, III, II, I-AA and I-A. (Orlando Sentinel file)<\/p>\n

The transformation became official when UCF joined the Big 12 in 2021, stepping into the Power Four landscape and changing the sports map of Central Florida. It wasn\u2019t simply conference realignment; it was nationwide legitimacy.<\/p>\n

Today, UCF is navigating modern college football\u2019s turbulence \u2013 NIL, the transfer portal, the weekly weight of a major-conference schedule and trying to gain footing in a new era. The return of Scott Frost gives the program another narrative loop.<\/p>\n

\"ATLANTA,<\/p>\n

Kevin C. Cox \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

QB McKenzie Milton celebrates with teammates after the UCF Knights defeated the Auburn Tigers 34-27 to win the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on January 1, 2018 in Atlanta. The Knights finished as the only undefeated team that season and claimed a national chapionship. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Longtime UCF radio voice Marc Daniels says the program literally springing up from the mud of that first game at St. Leo to now becoming one of the state\u2019s \u201cBig 4\u201d has been miraculous.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of things had to happen for the meteoric rise,\u201d Daniels explains. \u201cOrlando\u2019s TV market, the massive enrollment and the timing of significant events (like the back-to-back undefeated seasons under Scott Frost and Josh Heupel) allowed us to become the youngest, fastest-growing Power 4 program in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other football<\/p>\n

While college football has given Orlando credibility in the South, soccer would give it visibility around the world. Orlando\u2019s soccer identity is sometimes treated as a recent phenomenon \u2013 Orlando City, purple-passionate crowds, Marta and Kak\u00e1 thrilling fans on those downtown stadium nights. But the city\u2019s relationship with international soccer has deeper roots, and it surged into view in 1994.<\/p>\n

In the first World Cup ever hosted by the United States, Orlando kicked it off by hosting five sold-out matches at the Citrus Bowl, welcoming hundreds of thousands of international fans in the process. That World Cup wasn\u2019t just sports tourism; it was Orlando presenting itself as an international city with genuine cultural electricity, powered by volunteers, downtown celebrations, and the kind of hospitality that matched Orlando\u2019s tourism DNA.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe eyes of the world were on Orlando for soccer\u2019s World Cup in 1994. The Citrus Bowl played host to matches involving Belgium, Morocco, Mexico, Ireland, Saudi Arabia and the Netherlands. Dutch fans are shown celebrating outside the stadium on July 4, 1994, following a 2-0 victory over Ireland. (Orlando Sentinel file)<\/p>\n

Said Joanie Schirm, the World Cup Orlando 1994 Host Committee Chairman, in a guest editorial in the Orlando Sentinel on the 30-year anniversary of the event: \u201cThe World Cup ignited a soccer revolution in Orlando, sparking the growth of youth leagues and leading to the establishment of our Major League Soccer team, Orlando City Lions, and the women\u2019s team, Orlando Pride. In 1994, the world fell in love with Orlando.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two decades later, in 2013, Orlando City\u2019s\u00a0 leap from minor-league success to MLS selection felt like the Magic announcement all over again \u2013 political leaders leading a civic celebration and asserting that Orlando was now \u201cbig league times two.\u201d The symmetry mattered. Much like Jimmy Hewitt and Pat Williams, Orlando City\u2019s founders \u2013 Phil and Kay Rawlins, along with Coach Adrian Heath \u2013 believed professional soccer would work in Orlando. The MLS announcement was made at the same Church Street location where the NBA once validated Orlando\u2019s dreams.<\/p>\n

\"MoreMore than 62,000 soccer-hungry fans packed a sold-out Citrus Bowl on March 8, 2015
\nfor Orlando City\u2019s first Major League Soccer match against fellow expansion team NYCFC. (Orlando Sentinel file)<\/p>\n

And when Orlando City played its inaugural MLS match on March 8, 2015, the Citrus Bowl became a purple cathedral: 62,510 fans showed up to watch a 1\u20131 draw with New York City FC. For a city once known for teams that came and went in anonymous leagues, that crowd felt like a declaration: Orlando wasn\u2019t merely hosting soccer. It was adopting it.<\/p>\n

A year later, the Orlando Pride began play in 2016, a franchise that would eventually deliver the milestone Orlando had chased for generations: a true major-league professional championship. On Nov. 23, 2024, the Pride defeated the Washington Spirit 1\u20130 to win the NWSL Championship. Orlando finally gained what it had imagined through Shaq-era hypotheticals, Dwight-era near-misses, and decades of event-hosting: a title at the top tier.<\/p>\n

\"OrlandoOrlando Pride players celebrate after winning the National Women\u2019s Soccer League championship match against the Washington Spirit in Kansas City, Missouri, on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. The Pride, sister team to MLS\u2019 Orlando City, began play in the 2016 season and brought Orlando its first major sports championship.. (Orlando Sentinel file)<\/p>\n

\u00a0The King arrives, others follow<\/p>\n

Arnold Palmer first played Bay Hill in the mid-1960s and fell in love with the golf course. The famous line followed: \u201cI\u2019ve just played the best golf course in Florida, and I want to own it,\u201d he told his wife, Winnie. Palmer would eventually take ownership of Bay Hill and make Orlando his winter base, turning the area into one of the sport\u2019s signature destinations.<\/p>\n

His impact wasn\u2019t only the tournament. It was the way a global sports icon chose Orlando as a home, not a stopover \u2013 helping shift the city\u2019s identity from tourist town to sports town with genuine year-round credibility. Other great golfers followed Palmer\u2019s pilgrimage to Orlando, including Tiger Woods and Annika Sorenstam.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Arnold Palmer first came to Orlando and fell in love with it, the area might as well have been the moon,\u201d says renowned Florida-based golf writer and author Bob Harig. \u201cDisney hadn\u2019t even opened yet. Orlando was considered the hinterlands. The idea that a golf icon like Arnold Palmer would decide to relocate there, gave the entire area an identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ArnoldArnold Palmer watches his shot at the Florida Citrus Invitational at Rio Pinar ni Orlando on March 7, 1970. Palmer\u2019s presence in Central Florida, his purchase of Bay Hill in the mid-1970s, and the PGA tournament he hosted there, now called the Arnold Palmer Invitational, helped make the area a pro golf mecca. (Orlando Sentinel file)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret that Orlando\u2019s identity before (and after) Arnie and before the Magic was as a laboratory for would-be franchises in start-up sports leagues. Some had success, but most were fleeting and doomed by the realities of minor-league economics in a transient market.<\/p>\n

Arena football found a home with the Orlando Predators, who managed to build real local loyalty and win championships. Hockey arrived with the Solar Bears, who had moments of glory and reinvention. The Orlando Miracle brought the WNBA to town in its early years.<\/p>\n

\"Renegades<\/p>\n

sentinel file<\/p>\n

Renegades Coach Lee Corso (right) and executive Tommy Bland listen to the speaker telephone for news about other USFL teams’ draft picks as Orlando worked to improve its team in May, 1986. ORG XMIT: OSC5Q1ORO54<\/p>\n

Spring-football experiments came and went, including the Steve Spurrier-coached Apollos and the Lee Corso-coached Renegades. From 1966-1970, the Orlando Panthers were the most popular sports attraction in Central Florida and made history when Pat Palinkas became the first woman to play men\u2019s professional football, serving as the holder for her husband, place kicker Stephen Palinkas.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

FILE, ORLANDO SENTINEL<\/p>\n

The Orlando Panthers of the Continental Football League (1966-70) are perhaps best remembered for having the first female pro football player, Pat Palinkas. She was the holder on field goal and extra-point attempts for kicker Steve Palinkas, her husband. (Orlando Sentinel file)<\/p>\n

These teams matter because they trained Orlando fans. They taught the city what permanence feels like, and what it feels like to lose it. They also sharpened Orlando\u2019s hunger for the franchises that can endure; the teams that become institutions rather than entertainment options.<\/p>\n

Home of incredible athletes<\/p>\n

Of course, Orlando\u2019s sports accomplishments and accolades aren\u2019t only measured by franchises and arenas. The city\u2019s\u00a0 local youth and high school sports have also carved out a place in the city\u2019s sports history.<\/p>\n

Lake Lorna Doone Park, located near Tinker Field, was the site of the 1955 \u201cBarrier Breakers\u201d game between the Orlando Kiwanis and the Pensacola Jaycees \u2013 the first interracial Little League baseball game played in the Deep South following desegregation rulings.<\/p>\n

In basketball, Evans\u2019 high school phenom Darryl \u201cChocolate Thunder\u201d Dawkins became the first player in NBA history to be drafted directly out of high school in 1975.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"DarrylDarryl Dawkins towered above competitors in his days as an Evans High School boys basketball superstar. (Orlando Sentinel file photo)<\/p>\n

In football, Eatonville\u2019s David \u201cDeacon\u201d Jones became the most dominant defensive player in the NFL, the anchor of the Los Angeles Rams\u2019 legendary \u201cFearsome Foursome\u201d defensive line and Central Florida\u2019s first Pro Football Hall-of-Famer. Apopka High\u2019s Warren Sapp became an All-American at the University of Miami and a Pro Football Hall of Famer with the Tampa Bay Bucs. Olympia High School speedster Chris Johnson became one of only nine NFL players to rush for over 2,000 yards in a single season.<\/p>\n

In baseball, Sanford Seminole High\u2019s Tim Raines would go on to become one of the best leadoff hitters in history and an MLB Hall-of-Famer. Apopka High pitcher Zack Greinke won Major League Baseball\u2019s Cy Young Award in 2009. Johnny Damon of Dr. Phillips High enjoyed an 18-season MLB career and won two World Series titles.<\/p>\n

\"Apopka<\/p>\n

JOHN RAOUX \/ ORLANDO SENTINEL<\/p>\n

Apopka High School baseball player Zack Greinke was the 2001 Central Florida player of the year. (John Raoux\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

In auto racing, Glenn \u201cFireball\u201d Roberts went from being the ace pitcher at Apopka High School to a Daytona 500 winner and one of the early stars of NASCAR before dying in a fatal crash on the track in 1964.<\/p>\n

In track and field, Oak Ridge High sprinter Michelle Finn-Burrell would go on to win an Olympic gold medal in the 1992 Barcelona games.<\/p>\n

\"LakeLake Mary\u2019s Luis Calo consoles opponent Chiu Wei-Che from Taoyuan Ciy, Chinese Taipei, after the Central Florida team won the Little League World Series Championship Game at Howard J. Lamade Stadium in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, on Aug. 25, 2024. The Lake Mary All-Stars, representing the Southeast Region, became the first team from Florida to win the Little League World Series crown. (Dylan Buell\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

And who will ever forget when Lake Mary Little League defeated Chinese Taipei 2\u20131 in eight innings to win the 2024 Little League World Series \u2013 Florida\u2019s first championship in the event. The on-field drama was memorable, but what made the story travel, what made it linger, was what happened after: Lake Mary\u2019s players and coaches pausing their celebration to console their devastated opponents.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, kids become the most revealing mirror of what a sports city wants to be. With world-class facilities such as Disney\u2019s Wide World of Sports, Orlando has become a mecca for youth sports by bringing in mega events such as the 24-day AAU Junior National Volleyball Championships, at the Orange County Convention Center, which last year generated approximately $825.5 million in economic impact, drew over 325,500 attendees, including athletes, coaches, and families. driving significant revenue for local hotels, restaurants, and attractions.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next for Orlando?
\n\"Magic Magic Johnson holds the MVP trophy after the 1992 NBA All-Star Game at the Orlando Arena in Orlando. Johnson won the MVP award after winning memorable one-on-one showdowns with Isiah Thomas and Michael Jordan and then sinking a long 3-pointer to close the game. (Gary Bogdon\/Orlando Sentinel)[\/caption]<\/p>\n

And this is where Orlando\u2019s tourism machine also becomes Orlando\u2019s sports machine: hotels, airport capacity, transportation, event staffing, and a civic ecosystem built to welcome crowds. In 2024, Sports Business Journal ranked Orlando No. 1 in its \u201cBest Sports Business Cities, Event Hosting\u201d list \u2013 essentially crowning Orlando America\u2019s premier sports-event hub.<\/p>\n

\u201d ]\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a lot more sophisticated of a sports city than when I was growing up here,\u201d says longtime Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer. \u201cI think we\u2019re the best sports city in America,\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NFCNFC Tampa quarterback Baker Mayfield (6) and NFC New Orleans linebacker Demario Davis (56) and NFC head coach Eli Manning (middle) celebrate after winning the NFL Pro Bowl game at Camping World Stadium in Orlando on Sunday, February 4, 2024. (Stephen M. Dowell\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

And getting better all the time.\u00a0In 2024, Sports Business Journal ranked Orlando No. 1 in its \u201cBest Sports Business Cities, Event Hosting\u201d list \u2013 essentially crowning Orlando America\u2019s premier sports-event hub.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the next 10 years, I think the international opportunities will be unprecedented because of the investment in our venues,\u201d says Jason Siegel, CEO of the Greater Orlando Sports Commission.<\/p>\n

Orlando\u2019s next frontier is the same one Pat Williams has been chasing in different forms for decades: baseball. Orlando\u2019s pitch is built around the city\u2019s tourism economy and its status as the largest metropolitan area in the country without an MLB or NFL team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very confident we\u2019ll have a baseball franchise this decade,\u201d Orlando Dreamers co-founder and businessman Jim Schnorf says. \u201cNo, I can\u2019t tell you the path or timing or whether it\u2019s an existing team or an expansion team. But what I can tell you is the market attributes in Orlando are so exceptional and superior compared to any other markets that it\u2019s a no-brainer Major League Baseball will end up here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Football will also end up in Orlando \u2013 and much sooner than baseball. The Jacksonville Jaguars are expected to play their 2027 home games at Orlando\u2019s Camping World Stadium while their stadium in Jacksonville undergoes renovation.<\/p>\n

\"AA rendering of stadium plans is projected during the Orlando Dreamers prospective MLB ownership group\u2019s presentation to the I-Drive Resort Area Chamber of Commerce, with moderator and former state House representative Bobby Olszewski, at the Hilton Orlando, Monday, June 16, 2025. (Joe Burbank\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

When the Jaguars play in Orlando, it won\u2019t just be an NFL scheduling solution. It will be a test run of Orlando as a true NFL market: ticket demand, corporate support, weekly operational logistics, national optics. For one year, Orlando will become an NFL town.<\/p>\n

Orlando\u2019s sports future \u2013 MLB ambitions, NFL auditions, and the next generation of kids learning class and courage on local ball fields \u2013 suggests the city is not finished expanding its sports identity. It\u2019s still doing what it has always done best: turning civic belief into civic reality.<\/p>\n

It started with a car ride and a bold declaration.<\/p>\n

Orlando is the place to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As part of the Orlando Sentinel\u2019s 150th birthday, on the first Sunday of each month, we will report…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173792,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[12150,53370,114,266,115,139,141,140,53371,109,110],"class_list":["post-173791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-columnists","tag-flashbacks","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-orlando-sentinel-150","tag-social","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}