Orlando City SC’s first game in Major League Soccer was on March 8th, 2015. The Lions played against fellow expansion side New York City FC at the Citrus Bowl. The game finished 1-1 and Orando City became the first franchise in MLS to be based in Florida since 2001, when both the Miami Fusion and Tampa Bay Rowdies folded.
There were 62,510 people in attendance that day, the largest ever crowd to watch a soccer match at the Citrus Bowl, and the second-largest attendance ever for an MLS team’s inaugural home game.
2015 saw the Lions finish in seventh in the Eastern Conference, missing out on the top six playoff places by just a point in their first season in the league.