Orlando City Launches New Kit and Major League Soccer Plans
At last night’s Fans Forum, Orlando City Soccer launched their new kit and gave more details about their plans to be included in Major League Soccer.
While nothing is set in stone the club did announce lofty ambitions that they hoped to be competing in Major League Soccer at the start of the 2015 season. Much has to be done before then, not least of all building a new stadium to house around 20,000 fans. Orlando City owner Phil Rawlins stated “The stadium issue is a delicate matter because you’re under non disclosure agreements and you’re doing things privately and in conversation with City and County officials that you can’t talk about openly, but rest assured we work on that stadium issue every single day of every week and we’re working very closely with the City, the County and now even the Governor to make this happen and I’m hoping, although we can’t promise anything as timescales do tend to elongate on these kinds of things, but I’m hoping some time, first half of next year we can have some exciting announcements about the stadium for Orlando City that will catapult us into MLS.”
He then added “2015 is still on the agenda and still on the cards, we push for it everyday , we’ve driven a stake in the ground, we want to be in the MLS in March 2015 and unless you do that, I’m not saying we’re going to achieve that, but unless you do that and unless you set your goals and you make a mark, you’re not going to achieve it anyway, so let’s drive for it, let’s plan for it, let’s push for it and maybe we’ll make it happen.”
New players are also on the agenda as during the close season, Adrian Heath and his staff have been journeying to all parts of the globe trying to find new players. Brian Burke from LA Blues has joined the club and the club is hopeful of making some exciting announcements in the next couple of weeks of players it is adding to its roster.
Signings do need to come quickly though as the club also announced last night that they would be playing a pre-season friendly on January 2nd at Rollins College against Italian team AS Roma. After that the club will then participate in the Disney Pro Soccer Classic against MLS opposition in February before the two games everyone in Central Florida has been waiting for, against Tampa Bay Rowdies on March 9th and March 30th.
The regular season sees some changes as the USL Pro league has added a new franchise to the 2013 season. The new team will be called Phoenix Wolves FC and its mascot, which is affixed to its logo, is the Mexican wolf. The Wolves will be the 12th team in USL PRO and will join the LA Blues as the only two teams in the west in a mainly East Coast league. USL President Tim Holt has previously said the USL is anxious to expand to the west as well. The team is owned and operated by BDR Sports, LLC, a consortium of Phoenix-based investors led by local developer Tim Thomas. Rui Filipe Bento, a longtime Phoenix soccer entrepreneur, will serve as its General Manager.
Former Scottish player David Robertson, who played for Aberdeen, Rangers and Leads United, has been signed on to coach the team. Robertson has coached Elgin City FC and Montrose FC, both of the Scottish 3rd division.
This now means that teams will once again play 24 games in the 2012 season with a maximum of four games played against any single opponent. The 2012 USL PRO Playoffs will include the top six finishers in the table, with the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds receiving a first-round bye the weekend of August 24-26. The semifinals featuring the four remaining teams will be played the following weekend, with the 2012 USL PRO Championship set for the weekend of September 7-9. All playoff rounds feature a single-game knockout format.
The final announcement for the evening was the new kit. Three team strips will be used, the traditional purple outfit together with optional white and red uniforms depending on the opposition and where Orlando plays.
More photo’s are at Facebook.com/FloridaLeisure and here’s some video from last nights event:
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