Orlando Citrus Bowl Stadium [Renovation Completed]

[Universe_Explorer]

Just a refresh on the link, so people don't have to search the thread for it.

 

http://turnerwzc.workzonecam.com/

 

I can see my 2015 seats!

[FortGatlin]

It looks like they are officially changing the name of the stadium from Florida Citrus Bowl to Orlando Citrus Bowl. Did anyone else notice this? The stadium website at Orlando Venues says the name change is effective 2014, and the bowl game and event sites, including Ticketmaster, are now referring to the stadium as Orlando Citrus Bowl. The Twitter handle just dropped Florida, too. The construction logo has said Orlando Citrus Bowl but I never heard an official announcement of this.

[Jernigan]

OCB yeah you know me

[JFW657]

Strange. As I recall, the original name change from The Tangerine Bowl to FCB, had to do with some new affiliation with the Florida Citrus Commission.

 

I suppose that affiliation no longer exists.

[HankStrong]

Are you down with OCB?

[Universe_Explorer]

Driving east on the 408 the bright yellow colored accents going up look really cool.  This project has been growing on me

[JFW657]

I might like it if it doesn't end up looking as "delicate" as it did in the original renderings.

 

They made it look more like some kind of large fashion boutique than a football stadium.

 

In the newer computer generated renderings, it looks beefier.

 

That's how I think a football stadium should look... beefy.

[HankStrong]

Maybe they can get the old Beefy King sign that was replaced?

[JFW657]

Ha ha!!! I saw that they were touting their new sign.

Haven't eaten there in years. Maybe it's time.

But as far as "Orlando Beefy King Stadium" is concerned... I dunno.

[Boomer136]

I was pleased to see the north side getting the flanking scoreboards. I saw a possibility of them geting cut due to budget. Main scoreboard has its LED wall. Anyone know pixelcount on it?

[Boomer136]

Seat work progressing nicely, though the cam is stuck on 9/29.

 

The Sentinel turns the snark up to 11 reporting on the Sentinels, a national spring football league team that is part of the original 8 teams of the reformed, semipro North American Football League than wants to field as fully pro. 8 total teams to start: us - Crusaders (Richmond, VA), Flight (Columbus, OH), Merchantmen (Hartford, CT),  Freedom (Birmingham, AL),  Redwolves (Raleigh-Durham, NC), Thoroughbreds (Louisville, KY), and Kings (Memphis, TN). Eventually expanding to 16 teams, four at a time in two years.

 

The six game season is set to start May 16. Evidently there are two four team conferences (Orlando to be in the AFC) that will play for titles on June 27th, take the week of the 4th off and have a Championship game and All-Star Weekend July 10-12. Team members, coaches, stadiums all up in the air. They will be holding 8 combines in February to find players. The article said they'll be paying their 46 man roster more than the $107,000 each that one could make on an NFL practice squad. The NAFL teams will have 7 man practice squads in keeping with NFL numbers without the inactive quarterback and just to spice it up there is a mandate that at least one player be foreign born. It will be interesting to see if anyone besides the place kickers are. One of the few things not mentioned in the article was the NAFL is also launching their own TV/Radio network and what I think is something new to the mix, streaming web channel. Lack of media coverage has been cited as reasons for failure in the past, so just like a garage band that posts a YouTube video bypassing a label, they can do the same thing. Another reason this might take off is the NFL is talking about wanting a farm league to develop not just players, but coaches and even officials and the Championship Weekend ends at a good time for some lucky guys to take a week or so off before reporting to NFL training camps.

 

Allen Johnson says Orlando Venues has not been contacted and the NAFL web site says all stadiums are TBD. It is interesting that they hold combines in February and then training camp starts end of April which sandwiches NCAA Spring Football bringing in the no doubt thought out possibility that college facilities could be rented. Now, whether or not they would play their games on campus is something that could be looked at, but Johnson also said that there might be some conflicts that are "concerning" at the Citrus Bowl. Whether he is referencing the yet to be announced MLS 2015 season or monster truck shows, no telling.

 

But it would be so Orlando to get a football club and a newly renovated football stadium in the same year and never the two meet.

 

 

 

 

 

[HankStrong]

I went to every home Rage XFL game.

I went to 2 Tuskers games.

I have been a Preds season ticket holder for 15 years... this coming season will probably be the last because they just aren't that much fun anymore (even if/when the team is winning)

 

 

This sounds like a league that is nothing more than a money pit.  I'd love for it to succeed, but it sounds expensive and expensive leagues in markets like Orlando are failures waiting to happen.  A bare minimum of $4.2M in salaries for players, staff costs, stadium rentals, equipment, insurance, other overhead, etc. for a SIX GAME season?  If they luck out and keep things to a bare bones price of $8M total, which is about as close to impossible as I can imagine.

 

$8M/6 is $1.33M a game... they'd have to sell out the entire stadium of 60,000 seats at an average ticket price of over $20 a ticket to break even.  OSC only brought 20,000 fans to the championship game, which pushes that up to over $65 average ticket price.

 

Obviously, I'm not an accountant, but those are just the vaguest of rough numbers and they are insane.

 

 

 

ETA: I understand sponsorships and the like bring down average ticket prices, but startup leagues always have trouble with those and usually don't have the backing of big names to put giant dents in the money problems.

Edited October 2, 2014 by HankStrong

[jrs2]

^^

The Orlando Sentinels.  Interesting.

[jgardnerucf]

^^

The Orlando Sentinels.  Interesting.

 

The field sidelines will keep shrinking inward! The mascot could be a giant ad pop-up blocking the field! You cannot enter the stadium unless digitally signed in! All replays on the scoreboard will be based in picture gallery click-thru format!

[smileguy]

The field sidelines will keep shrinking inward! The mascot could be a giant ad pop-up blocking the field! You cannot enter the stadium unless digitally signed in! All replays on the scoreboard will be based in picture gallery click-thru format!

 

They'll lay off a third of the editorial players every few months and people will keep looking at each other asking how there's still a team.

[HankStrong]

Someone will line up to bat wearing swim trunks, a football helmet and carrying a hockey stick.  Thanks to the cutbacks in the equipment room staff, no one will know this isn't actually what the uniform looks like until someone in the stands yells down and tells them.  They won't realize they are attempting to play baseball on a football team until someone in the stands also points that out.

Edited October 8, 2014 by HankStrong

[FLheat]

The fans will all be old, conservative white people from the Villages complaining about the ticket prices and mandating all games start with the pledge of allegiance, a prayer to Jesus and that they pay everyone less than minimum wage--and definately not give them any of that Obamacare. Halftime, requires a monster truck ralley and vendors consist of gun dealers.

Edited October 8, 2014 by FLheat

[HankStrong]

All chants during the game will start with... "God! Guns! Murika! Constitution! PEW PEW PEW!"

[smileguy]

I don't know about you, but I won't be sitting in the comments section. In fact, I can barely stand to wade through it.

[jgardnerucf]

Turf going down today!

[sunshine]

fake?

[jgardnerucf]

Turf going down today!

 

fake?

 

Yup.

[spenser1058]

Orlando leaders face big decision on national championship game

http://touch.orlandosentinel.com/#section/1442/article/p2p-82218375/

 

Well, we've always passed on the Democratic and Republican National Conventions because the powers that be in the tourist corridor did not feel we needed to boost occupancy in August (at least given how much we'd have to pay for the privilege). Now, we'll find out if they feel it makes sense to pony up for the privilege of boosting occupancy in mid to late January. 

 

Of course, in both cases, the publicity would be priceless, but as I have been told by more than one hotelier, "everyone knows where Orlando is."

 

It will be interesting to see if the downtown crowd can achieve a meeting of the minds on this - I think it would be a great game to have.

Edited December 8, 2014 by spenser1058

[cwetteland]

^^ I'm thinking, best not for now.  We'd be right in the middle of I-4 Ultimate.  It'd be a mess.

 

In ;21 or '22 ... Ultimate will be done and we could better show off downtown.  Also, Sunrail will be operating to the airport, with Maglev and AAF running through the multimodal station, UCF will be hopping, and the Magic Entertainment Complex will be in place to take in the pre-game festivities.  We might even have another Green-way (aka Magnolia) for the revelers to party on.

[Casselberry_Knight]

Made it out to the Citrus Bowl game to check out the new Stadium. Came away pretty impressed. Obviously its not as nice as Cowboy Stadium, UoP stadium, etc, but for the money we got some great value. I'd say its better than the Bucs or Jags stadium in some respects. 

 

Decent Scoreboard, lots of club seats, Great field views, and easy access into and out of the stadium.

 

Biggest disappointment is that the mid level has no concourse. Want a Soda? Beer? Popcorn? You either need to march to the South Endzone, or take the hike down to the lower concourse. If you've been to UCF's BHNS, its pretty much the same.

 

So it looks like the South Endzone is getting a indoor club level added. 

 

Also, I noticed they added space "Bunker Suites" in the North Endzone under the party deck. From what I understand they won't be installed until future funding becomes available, but it s a nice touch. Maybe we can get a pool in them like the jags stadium.

 

All and all, WAYYYYYYYYY better than the old stadium. Not quite NFL-quality, but should be great for bowl games and other college events. 

 

Now we just need to get that NFL team into town