Just last week, more than 100,000 fans descended upon New Orleans for this year’s Super Bowl. New Orleans is a tourist town, so it knows how to host such events. Even so, there’s nothing quite like a Super Bowl, right? The parties, the dining, the hotel stays, the economic opportunity – it all goes boom when an event like the Super Bowl comes to town.
Hosting such mass gatherings isn’t easy. It requires infrastructure, investment and coordination from figureheads in various industries. The way Jason Siegel sees it, though, there’s no city in the world better prepared to host those types of events than Orlando. After all, they seem to be doing it virtually every day.
“If you take the attendance at just the theme parks on any given day, we’re hosting a Super Bowl every day of the year,” he tells GOAL, referencing all of the attractions that bring millions in each year to Orlando and the surrounding communities.
Siegel is the President and CEO of the Greater Orlando Sports Commission, the organization tasked with bringing big events to the city of Orlando. His focus, especially, is on sports. And of late, that’s really been soccer.
Over the last decade, Orlando looked to establish itself as a soccer city and, just as importantly, a worldwide destination for the sport. It starts with the local clubs, Orlando City in MLS and Orlando Pride in the NWSL, but that’s just the base of it all. In 2024, Orlando hosted the U.S. men’s national team multiple times. It hosted matches during the Copa America. Manchester City and Barcelona faced off in a friendly in the city, as did Club America and Atletico Nacional.
In fact, over the last several years, the city has hosted dozens of men’s and women’s soccer events, and that isn’t stopping any time soon. It’s all part of the plan to turn Orlando into a premier soccer destination, one that can be counted on to host games at the highest level each and every time.