The USL Pro’s Orlando City Soccer Club is looking for a new home, and talks have been underway with the Louisville Bats (Class AAA; International League) about playing at Louisville Slugger Field.
MLS is coming to Orlando in 2015, which means Orlando City needs to find a new home. Louisville has been identified as a market that can support pro soccer, and the ballpark would be a logical place for a minor-league soccer team. From the Louisville Courier-Journal:
Wayne Estopinal, a minority Orlando City owner who lives in Louisville, has already compared calendars for the teams and drafted a 2015 schedule for them to work 20 soccer matches into the minor league home slate. That schedule would leave open a full day between the end of a baseball homestand and a soccer game to convert the field, such as flattening the pitcher’s mound.
A 75-yard by 110-yard pitch would run down the first-base line at Slugger Field, Estopinal said, providing vantage points from about 9,500 of the existing seats at the stadium.
“We’ve taken a look at it,” said Estopinal, who also owns Mockingbird Valley Soccer Club in Louisville and serves as president of The Estopinal Group architects. “We haven’t studied it in detail, but certainly after today and the positive results we’ve had, we’re going to be looking at everything further.”
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