It was a day we had been waiting for with great excitement and anticipation. After years of political maneuvering, a momentous decision by club ownership, and a lengthy construction period, Orlando City SC finally opened its brand new soccer stadium in the Parramore district near downtown Orlando.
For years, the political football that was Orlando City’s new soccer-specific stadium was kicked from Orlando to Tallahassee and back multiple times, creating numerous headaches and frustration for Flavio Augusto da Silva, Phil Rawlins, and all of Lion Nation. After two whiffs in the state capital, Da Silva took matters into his own hands in May of 2015 and decided to privately fund the new venue — which had already broken ground the previous October — raising the capacity from 19,500 to more than 25,000 in the process.