The continuous rains and cooler temperatures couldn’t stop the kick off of the reconstruction of the Florida Citrus Bowl with a demolition ceremony on Wednesday.
The 78-year-old historic stadium is being partially demolished to make way for a $200 million reconstructed venue which will entail a seating capacity of more than 65,000, multiple LED digital video boards, a 10,000 square-foot party deck, among other amenities.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer touted the team effort that made the reconstruction of the Citrus Bowl possible, while praising city commissioners for their bold leadership.
“Being able to provide top-notch venues to host events – the best sporting and entertainment events with this collection of venues, there isn’t an event in the world that we can’t host here in Orlando,” said Dyer,” And this venue in particular will be the newest large stadium to be built in the state.”
The reconstructed stadium is expected to reopen in November 2014, continuing to host signature events including the Capital One Bowl and the Russell Athletic Bowl. City and County leaders expect too, that the new stadium will draw more high-profile events like neutral-site college football games, NFL preseason matchups, big-name concerts, among others.
Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs praised tourism industry leaders and others working in the industry, including the “people cleaning our hotel rooms” who make it possible for 57 million visitors to come to Central Florida every year.
“We could never dream of having the Amway Center, Citrus Bowl and soccer if we didn’t have such an incredibly strong industry,” she said. “Those are the folks that are bringing back 57 million visitors every year and those 57 million visitors are the reason that we have the tourist development taxes to do something like this.”
“I am proud not as much of us as I am proud of you, the citizens of Orange County and the leadership of Orange County to make this happen,” Jacobs added.
Despite the jubilation at today’s event, there is concern on the part of some that the historic Tinker Field, adjacent to the Citrus Bowl, is also being demolished as part of the stadium renovation.
Former city of Orlando mayoral candidate Mike Cantone points out that, Tinker Field was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on May 14, 2004. He also notes that, according to the City of Orlando, Tinker Field was constructed back in 1923 and is the “most historic of all the Orlando Venues entertainment and sports venues.”
“More importantly, Tinker Field is the site of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic Orlando speech, who spoke there is 1964,” Cantone observed. “But apparently, Buddy Dyer doesn’t care about history.”
Both Commissioner Tiffany Moore-Russell and Sen. Geraldine Thompson were on hand at the kick-off of today’s demolition ceremony.
