Orlando City joined teams throughout Major League Soccer celebrating the official announcement MLS is back.
It was an especially big moment for the Lions when MLS confirmed Wednesday it is bringing its 26 teams to the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando for a World Cup style tournament. The "MLS is Back" event will kick off on July 8 and feature 54 total matches.
There will be a group stage, round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals and championship. Teams will get regular-season points for all matches and the champion of the tournament will get a spot in the 2021 Concacaf Champions League.
Orlando City CEO Alex Leit�o said ever since the league shut down play March 11 due to the coroanvirus pandemic, the Lions were eager to figure out ways to help bring back soccer safely.
As the league began discussing playing in hubs to limit travel, Leit�o said he thought, "maybe we didn't need hubs. We have a place that can accommodate all teams. That we have hotels that could host all the teams and a facility like ESPN Wide World of Sports with the fields to not only accommodate the games but as well give opportunities to the teams to train."
He said his first call was to a club partner at Disney World and his second was to Orlando Health. He then introduced Disney and Orlando Health leaders to MLS officials. Some connections had already been made when MLS hosted some of its 2019 all-star week events at Wide World of Sports.
Leit�o also told the league the entire Orlando City staff would help MLS in any way possible if it staged a tournament in isolation at Disney.
"For me personally, the club, for the community in Orange County, it's really, really something very important for all of us," Leit�o said, noting the economic impact and exposure for the Central Florida community that has been hit hard by the pandemic.
He said he expects Orlando City field a full, healthy roster for the event and the club is eager to keep the tournament trophy in Orlando.
Fans will not be allowed to attend the tournament, with MLS created a closed environment to help protect players and staff from the virus, but every match is scheduled to be broadcast once the tournament draw is set.
"The opportunity to have all 26 clubs in a controlled environment enables us to help protect the health of our players, coaches and staff as we return to play," Garber said in a news release Wednesday.
The tournament draw will be held Thursday at 3:30 p.m. and it will be streamed live on MLSsoccer.com as well as MLS Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Orlando City will be the host seed of the Group A pool in the East, while the following teams will host the give remaining pools:
_ East: Atlanta United (2019 MLS Cup semifinalist)
_ East: Toronto FC (2019 MLS Cup semifinalist)
_ West: LAFC (2019 MLS Cup semifinalist)
_ West: Seattle Sounders (2019 MLS Cup semifinalist)
_ West: Real Salt Lake (next highest 2019 points total in Western Conference)
To determine which of the 20 unseeded clubs goes into which group, a representative from each of the six seeded clubs will participate in the draw by picking a number at random from their conference. Each number will correspond to a ball containing the name of an unseeded club that will join the seeded club's group.
Nashville is moving from the Western Conference to the Eastern Conference for the tournament and remainder of the season to limit the travel load.
Teams will begin arriving in Florida on June 24 and will go through an extensive series of safety protocols. All MLS players and staff will be housed at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort.
MLS clubs will be able to make up to five player substititions per match, but they will have up to three chances to make those changes.
Matchday rosters will feature up to 23 players.
Video review will be available for all matches. The league will follow its 2020 regular season rules for match delays and postponement. Any group stage match may be considered final if it reaches the 60th minute and it is determined that the match cannot continue.
