By FRANCO PANIZO
The latest images making the rounds online of Orlando City’s proposed soccer-specific stadium may be beautiful, but they are not official or up to date.
Orlando City confirmed to SBI on Sunday that the renderings released last week by architecture firm Woods Bagot that are circulating around the web are not accurate depictions of what the USL PRO club is hoping to call home if it is ever granted entrance into MLS.
Images on Woods Bagot’s website showing the inside and outside of a soccer-specific stadium in Orlando had begun spreading over the weekend before Orlando City released a statement on Sunday afternoon to refute the notion that those renderings were accurate. Woods Bagot has since removed the images from their website.
“The stadium rendering images recently posted on-line by an architecture firm based in Australia were released without knowledge or input from Orlando City Soccer,” said a statement released by Orlando City. “The pictures represent purely prototype drawings developed by an architect not employed by the club who wished to build our potential future stadium.
“Simply put, Orlando City has not yet selected an architect to design the stadium – and will not do so unless both the City & County finalize its portion of funding for the proposed 50/50 percent public-private partnership stadium plan. Orlando City encourages all our fans to learn more, and to express support for the project, at OrlandoBelievesInMLS.com.”
Orlando City are currently still waiting for a final vote from city and county commissioners on their proposed stadium. That city vote is set for Oct. 7 and county vote on Oct. 22. Should both those votes be approved, discussions with MLS would certainly follow.
Orlando City also reportedly need to buy approximately two more acres of land on the proposed downtown site for the stadium, though it might do so through the power of eminent domain.
If those boxes are checked off and if MLS grants Orlando City the expansion franchise they have been seeking for years now, Central Florida could land one of the four expansion slots that are expected to be filled before the end of the decade. MLS commissioner Don Garber recently said that three of those four spots are already spoken for, with many believing that Orlando is a main candidate to fill one of them.
—–
Bummed to hear that this images are not up-to-date renderings? Think Orlando City will fill one of those four expansion slots?
Share your thoughts below.