MLS Soccer Stadium

[dcluley98]

Honestly, half these players will probably be gone next year as bad as our team is.  I think it is a good decision, and much better than Lake Nona or Downtown. It can help revitalize Kissimme and Heritage park and will add more jobs in Kissimmee near the SunRail instead of the middle of nowhere. 

[klstorey]

It's nowhere near the SunRail station. I actually used to live directly across the street from there at a small college now known as Johnson University.  My first real job in college was working security and parking at the Heritage Park. I remember living on campus when spring training was taking place, we had security to shoo away the sports photographers who would try and go to the second floor of the dorms to get photos of the Astros new players. 

This is very close to Kissimmee's NeoCity tech district. I'm curious if the Orlando Seawolves (the arena soccer team whose home is the Silver Spurs Arena) will partner with OCSC at all. I hope they do but I worry this might instead just cause attendance numbers at Seawolves games to be lower. 

That area around Heritage Park has struggled over the years even more than other parts of Kissimmee. There are some new investments but overall it's still a lot of undeveloped land and half-empty strip malls. I hope this causes some new investment.

I'd love to OCSC also embrace Gateway High School which is just across the street, maybe let GHS's soccer team share the facility or something. Valencia has a campus not far away. Maybe we'll see a partnership between the two of them. 

Hopefully, a shuttle is offered from either the Tupperware or Downtown Kissimmee Sunrail stations. 

[dcluley98]

It's about 3 miles away from SunRail. Relatively speaking, that's a hell of a lot closer than Lake Nona is! 

[prahaboheme]

1 hour ago, klstorey said:

It's nowhere near the SunRail station. I actually used to live directly across the street from there at a small college now known as Johnson University.  My first real job in college was working security and parking at the Heritage Park. I remember living on campus when spring training was taking place, we had security to shoo away the sports photographers who would try and go to the second floor of the dorms to get photos of the Astros new players. 

This is very close to Kissimmee's NeoCity tech district. I'm curious if the Orlando Seawolves (the arena soccer team whose home is the Silver Spurs Arena) will partner with OCSC at all. I hope they do but I worry this might instead just cause attendance numbers at Seawolves games to be lower. 

That area around Heritage Park has struggled over the years even more than other parts of Kissimmee. There are some new investments but overall it's still a lot of undeveloped land and half-empty strip malls. I hope this causes some new investment.

I'd love to OCSC also embrace Gateway High School which is just across the street, maybe let GHS's soccer team share the facility or something. Valencia has a campus not far away. Maybe we'll see a partnership between the two of them. 

Hopefully, a shuttle is offered from either the Tupperware or Downtown Kissimmee Sunrail stations. 

One of the eventual main entrances into Neocity will be just across from Gateway High School.  This entire area is also now governed by specific design principles to compliment the look and feel of Neocity. Some of the newer projects recently have already adhered to the principles (such as a recent apartment complex) that over time I think will give this cooridor a more unified and urban feel.

[aent]

4 hours ago, dcluley98 said:

It's about 3 miles away from SunRail. Relatively speaking, that's a hell of a lot closer than Lake Nona is! 

Lake Nona's developer has pushed for a rail stop every opportunity they got. If a airport-I-Drive connector gets built, I think it will either include or be extended to Lake Nona in short order. Lake Nona is poised to have a more unified and urban feel when buit out, and I have more faith in it being architecturally unique and something special. I don't get the excitement for Neocity and hatred of Lake Nona, is it really just the Sunrail stop (which is far from walking distance)?

Edited November 3, 2018 by aent

[Naqiy90]

Lynx and Osceola need to hurry up with their proposed BRT for 192. That would make connectivity to this practice field and NeoCity from Sunrail very easy  and increase ridership from other commuters as well. Right now the biggest problem for Sunrail beside it's inadequate service is its lack of regional frequent  bus connections. Orlando's' transit system needs to be holistic, not piecemeal!

[aent]

2 hours ago, Naqiy90 said:

Lynx and Osceola need to hurry up with their proposed BRT for 192. That would make connectivity to this practice field and NeoCity from Sunrail very easy  and increase ridership from other commuters as well. Right now the biggest problem for Sunrail beside it's inadequate service is its lack of regional frequent  bus connections. Orlando's' transit system needs to be holistic, not piecemeal!

So, umm, I'm not too much of a sports fan (watch a handful of sports games a year), but why do we expect any of the people going to the Orlando City practice field, which presumably would be players, coaches, trainers, etc, to use Sunrail? Its a very non-dense usage, presumably this location should have ample free parking, and I imagine those going have easy access to a car. How many of these players and coaches take Sunrail to the stadium? I feel like in the best case scenario, great connectivity to this field will add a number of people I can count on my fingers per day to the ridership of Sunrail.

[prahaboheme]

Not understanding the animosity toward the Osceola Heritage Park location. Renovation and reuse of an existing sports complex sounds like a great investment. Is it as sexy as saying the USTA is relocating their headquarters to Lake Nona? Maybe not. Yet, how many people are currently taking Sunrail there?

If Orlando City runs a shuttle between Osceola Heritage Park and the Kissimmee downtown intermodal station, they may pick up some Sunrail riders.

[Naqiy90]

59 minutes ago, aent said:

So, umm, I'm not too much of a sports fan (watch a handful of sports games a year), but why do we expect any of the people going to the Orlando City practice field, which presumably would be players, coaches, trainers, etc, to use Sunrail? Its a very non-dense usage, presumably this location should have ample free parking, and I imagine those going have easy access to a car. How many of these players and coaches take Sunrail to the stadium? I feel like in the best case scenario, great connectivity to this field will add a number of people I can count on my fingers per day to the ridership of Sunrail.

Not so much the practice field, but if NeoCity is ever fully realized as a high tech economic hub it could generate a decent amount of professional riders  who want to live in the bigger city and commute, since Sunrail from Orlando to Kissimmee is generally faster than driving and professionals can work on Sunrail opposed to driving. Right now Sunrail is mostly people commuting into Orlando  from Kissimmee, so getting more reverse commuters would be a good use of excess capacity. In addition to the practice field there's the two other sports facilities, Johnson University, and Valencia Osceola Campus all within a mile radius. Irrespective of any new developments, an alternative analysis for Bus Rapid Transit was approved for 192 back in 2013 and the corridor already gets substantial bus ridership, so it's time to get er' dun!

[dcluley98]

TOD $$$$ for Corridor! 

[aent]

2 hours ago, prahaboheme said:

Not understanding the animosity toward the Osceola Heritage Park location. Renovation and reuse of an existing sports complex sounds like a great investment. Is it as sexy as saying the USTA is relocating their headquarters to Lake Nona? Maybe not. Yet, how many people are currently taking Sunrail there?

If Orlando City runs a shuttle between Osceola Heritage Park and the Kissimmee downtown intermodal station, they may pick up some Sunrail riders.

And when Lake Nona is connected to the airport/Sunrail extension, which they've been pushing for, I'm sure Lake Nona will add more people to the Sunrail ridership then Osceola Heritage Park. I do appreciate the reuse of an existing sports complex, and thats what this location has going for it, but thats about it. Its likely a budget cut over what was previously planned. This is literally the opposite of TOD. If this gets TOD money, its money earmarked for transit that is getting sent to a sports team.

Having it at part of the Lake Nona sports complex would make it part of a really large, impressive sports complex. It may not be TOD, but its not going to be, no matter what.

Plus didn't the Lake Nona location incorporate sports medicine or sports medical research or something to that nature?

[prahaboheme]

And what is the timeframe for having Lake Nona connected to Sunrail via an airport connection? I imagine the Osceola location pulls in a healthy amount of Orlando City’s fan base, based on demographics. 

There is a lot of redevelopment and investment earmarked for the 1-2 square miles around Osceola Heritage Park so to suggest that the only thing going for the location is it’s cheaper (which is an assumption) ignores all that’s been done over the last few years to raise its profile.

[orlandouprise]

LN is hip, modern and aesthetically pleasing area where players would enjoy coming to work everyday....OHP is not. Its a rodeo/cowpasture. This blows bigtime.  Where would you rather work? LN or a cow pasture? On top, they have gutted the whole project down to a bare bones CHEAP version of what was originally planned. How are people not supposed to be upset. Flavio once again is showing he does not have the money to run with other big boy owners in MLS

[aent]

On 11/3/2018 at 4:16 PM, prahaboheme said:

And what is the timeframe for having Lake Nona connected to Sunrail via an airport connection? I imagine the Osceola location pulls in a healthy amount of Orlando City’s fan base, based on demographics. 

There is a lot of redevelopment and investment earmarked for the 1-2 square miles around Osceola Heritage Park so to suggest that the only thing going for the location is it’s cheaper (which is an assumption) ignores all that’s been done over the last few years to raise its profile.

What projects? As far as I can tell, all we got is some sitework and one building, right? Obviously we don't know the timeline for the Lake Nona connection as the airport rejected the previous proposal. But Lake Nona's shown its been successful at the sports complexes, attracting companies that have high paying jobs (medical, tech, sports, etc), and Lake Nona's sports complex seems like its something to see when its completed, between USTA, Drive Shack, the golf club, and that announced lagoon or whatever they're building. And I know most sports people are into multiple sports, the Osceola location is gonna have little around it, definitely nothing out of the ordinary. If it couldn't be at Lake Nona, my second choice would be Maitland near RDV, this location wouldn't even cross my mind outside of a budget saving move. 

[prahaboheme]

I’ve posted several developments in the Kissimmee thread and you are welcome to take a look there, for starters.

[spenser1058]

Orlando City announces that its Development Academy will also be locating at Osceola Heritage Park:

https://www.orlandocitysc.com/post/2019/05/29/orlando-city-development-academy-set-make-osceola-heritage-park-official-training

Edited May 29, 2019 by spenser1058

[JFW657]

Announced within the last hour:

Orlando City Stadium will now be known as Exploria Stadium as part of a corporate sponsorship deal.

Terms of the deal were not announced.

[Uncommon]

8 minutes ago, JFW657 said:

Announced within the last hour:

Orlando City Stadium will now be known as Exploria Stadium as part of a corporate sponsorship deal.

Terms of the deal were not announced.

Booooooo!

[JFW657]

8 minutes ago, Uncommon said:

Booooooo!

Gotta admit that at least it's better than "Camping World"... 

[Xander]

Me, to coworker: Hey, OC got a stadium sponsor!

Coworker: Oh, cool! Who is it?

Me: Exploria.

Coworker: Expedia?

Me: No, Exploria.

Coworker: I....I don't get it.

Me: You know Deltona?

Coworker: You mean Daytona?

Me: See? You get it.

[tc01]

16 minutes ago, Xander said:

Me, to coworker: Hey, OC got a stadium sponsor!

Coworker: Oh, cool! Who is it?

Me: Exploria.

Coworker: Expedia?

Me: No, Exploria.

Coworker: I....I don't get it.

Me: You know Deltona?

Coworker: You mean Daytona?

Me: See? You get it.

Lol!!!!!!!! Seems like we can never get a normal stadium name. 

[Pieson]

So we have pyramid scheme arena, timeshare stadium, and camping world all on one street... we doing it Orlando! 

[spenser1058]

UCF’s arena is now going to be Addition - I guess the math dept will like that.

I do wonder if we’ll ever get a name that doesn’t border on ridiculous for at least one venue.

[codypet]

TD Waterhouse Centre could like a word with you.

Ehhh Spectrum Stadium does sound better than Brighthouse Networks Stadium

Edited June 5, 2019 by codypet

[Urban25]

Actually exploria isn’t that bad of a name, we’ve had worse “camping world”