ORLANDO, Fla. _ Today, the Pro Bowl.
Tomorrow, the Orlando Jaguars.
OK, so maybe it won't be the Jaguars; maybe it will be 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 at least 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. Or, better yet, maybe we will get the attention of a future league expansion committee in search of vibrant new markets.
"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. "I'm not saying that time is now, but it's going to be impossible to ignore the growth of this market."
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, a Lake Nona resident, 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."
Don't kid yourself, 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 long-time host Honolulu. Another key reason the league wants the game to succeed in Central Florida 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, including the popular Skills Showdown, took place at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex out at Disney.
Someday, I'm convinced, there will be a state-of-the-art 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 (see Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Charlotte, Indianapolis, Buffalo, Nashville, etc.).
"I think we could definitely support an NFL team of our own; it's just a matter of whether Jacksonville, Miami or Tampa would ever let that happen," Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer says.
They might not have a choice if Orlando keeps growing at its current rate. Central Florida is the fastest-growing of the country's 30 largest regions, according to population estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau last year. Our region added more than 60,000 net new residents in the 12-month period ending in July 1, 2015 _ growing our total population by 2.6 percent to 2,387,138. If this sort of growth continues, we could be Atlanta in 10 years.
In addition, Florida has surpassed New York as the third-largest state and is also the nation's fourth fastest-growing state. If the cities of Los Angeles and New York can house two teams in the same stadiums, why couldn't the entire State of Florida house four teams in four separate markets in the next five to 10 years?
Remember how former Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver sold the NFL Expansion Committee on giving little ol' Jacksonville a team two decades ago
"It's about passion; it's about a hot market, it's about a growing market," Weaver said at the time. "This is not about today. It is about 10 years from now, what Jacksonville will be like in 10 years."
Twenty years later, Orlando is the 18th largest TV market in the country; Jacksonville is 47th.
It's crazy to think Orlando can't support an NFL team.
Of course, six years ago, when Phil Rawlins hatched the idea to pursue an MLS franchise, people said he was crazy to think Orlando would support a professional soccer team. In its first two years in the league, Orlando City and has had the second-highest attendance figures in MLS with an average crowd of more than 30,000 per game.
Thirty years ago, when Magic founder Jimmy Hewitt hatched the idea of putting a professional basketball franchise smack, dab in the middle of a football state, people said he was crazy, too.
As the story goes, Pat Williams was on an information-gathering mission for NBA Commissioner David Stern, who wanted to expand into rapidly growing Florida. That's when Williams casually asked his friend Hewitt, "Which location in Florida would be the best location for a potential NBA franchise _ Miami, Tampa or Jacksonville."
That's when Jimmy puffed out his Orlando chest and uttered the proud, passionate words that would change the course of Central Florida sports history.
"Orlando is the place to be," Jimmy told Pat.
The NFL, by virtue of a sold-out Pro Bowl, is finding out that Jimmy Hewitt's words are just as true now as they were 30 years ago.
Today, the Pro Bowl.
Tomorrow, the Orlando Mouseketeers.
