Citrus Bowl wants their stadium fixed

Florida Citrus Bowl/Courtesy: orlandovenues.net

And the rest of us ask why? Having been raised in the Central Florida area, we are very familiar with Orlando's version of a football stadium, the now Citrus Bowl. Though, we may be dating ourselves, it was the Tangerine Bowl, when we grew up there.

The stadium. Well, it's old. It's always been old. It's always looked old. It's essentially an old aluminum style seating stadium that kept getting expanded over the years.

Flash forward to these days. The aging Citrus Bowl is getting ready to host its annual Bowl game. People in the Orlando area consider it the "Best Bowl trip in America". And while there are certainly a lot of things for a tourist to do in the area. (It's Disney World...duh!). The game itself, isn't particularly exciting.

Alabama and Michigan State. A decent game. Certainly two teams that expected to be in a better bowl game. And in a better stadium.

Now, according to the people who run the game, Florida Citrus Sports, the city is in danger of losing one or both of its bowl games (The Champs Sports Bowl is the other). And Orlando is supposedly saying they "May" consider renovating the stadium. Apparently, those repairs have been promised, promised for a long time.

Read the text version of the story from myfoxorlando.com RIGHT HERE

While we don't discount the thought that Orlando needs to take a long look at their stadium, we don't think patching it up will make much of a difference. Really, the primary draw of bowl games is the payout. As long as they keep the title sponsor for the games, they will probably be fine. In the story, Citrus Sports excutive Steve Hogan says that other city's have upgraded stadiums and that will hurt Orlando. One thing he doesn't mention....all the city's he mentions...have NFL teams and....new stadiums.

Orlando would be stupid to build a new stadium. The city in no way, shape or form would or will be an NFL city. Why would a politician in a climate where city's are hemorraging money, be willing to devote hundreds of millions of dollars to a new or heavily renovated stadium.

Here is the TV story on this, again from MyFoxOrlando.com:

Florida Citrus Sports warns Citrus Bowl could lose bowl games: MyFoxORLANDO.com