Orlando City SC Sell over 30,000 Tickets for Third Straight Game
By Phil Naegely
In their third home game of the 2015 MLS season, Orlando City SC has confirmed they have sold over 30,000 tickets. This time it’s for their Week 5 match against DC United as they search for the team’s first home win.
So far Orlando City hasn’t had less than 30,000 in paid attendance. MLS attendance numbers are based on how many tickets were sold instead of how many have walked through the turn style. This is not to say Orlando’s attendance hasn’t equal what has been announced, but in other situations the paid attendance number is much higher than the actual number of fans in a stadium.
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To refresh everyone’s memory, the Lions filled the bowl for their inaugural MLS home opener with 62,000 fans . In their second home game, they had to keep expanding the available sections from their original “cap” so they could seat 31,000 fans. It is good to see there is continued interest for MLS and soccer within the central Florida and Orlando area. While the interest is there now, many teams in the past were able to sell tickets effectively during their first season towards the beginning, but once the heat of summer hit and school was out they struggled.
While it doesn’t seem to be the case for Orlando’s fan base, it does get hot and humid in the Sunshine State. The fans may elect to head towards the beach or another place involving water than sit at a stadium in the blazing heat. Orlando’s front office appears to know how to get fans into the stadium. Their time in USL was filled with many packed stadiums and one of the best and passionate fan bases. This has carried over into MLS and the atmosphere has quickly become one that convinces further fans to come to the Citrus Bowl.
For now, Orlando is succeeding on the field and in the stands. Once the dog days of Summer hit, it will be worthwhile if those same fans continue to come out to support their boys in purple or head for the beautiful Florida beaches. The Orlando attendance numbers so far have been a good thing for MLS as it shows they picked another great and passionate market to join the other MLS teams. Their opener rivaled that of the Seattle Sounders’ attendance, but the latter still has an upper hand number wise for now. As the 2015 season progress and the numbers point towards staying high for Orlando City games, team officials may need to increase their seating capacity for the soccer specific stadium being constructed for the 2016 season.
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