The Orlando Pride is a professional women's
soccer team based in
Orlando, Florida. The team joined the
National Women's Soccer League, the top level of women's soccer in the US, for the
2016 season.
It became the tenth team to be added to the league. It is affiliated with the
MLS
Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...
team
Orlando City SC and play their home games at
Exploria Stadium
Exploria Stadium is a soccer-specific stadium in downtown Orlando, Florida. The stadium is located along West Church Street in the Parramore neighborhood west of Downtown Orlando. It is the home of Orlando City SC, which entered Major League ...
in
downtown Orlando.
History
Following the
2015 NWSL season, it was rumored that the
Orlando City SC ownership group would be adding an expansion team to the women's professional league. On October 20, 2015, a press conference was held at
Lake Eola Park
Lake Eola Park is a public park located in Downtown Orlando, Florida. Lake Eola is the main feature of the park. Also located in the park (on the west side) is the Walt Disney Amphitheater, which hosts many community events and various perform ...
where Phil Rawlins unveiled the team name, logo, and colors.
Former national team head coach of
Australia and
the U.S. Tom Sermanni
Thomas Dorby Sermanni (born 1 July 1954) is a Scottish football coach and former professional player, who mostly works in women's football. He has previously managed the Australia women's national team, the United States women's national team ...
was announced as the team's first head coach.
On October 26, 2015, the Pride announced that they had made the first player acquisitions in team history; signing forward
Alex Morgan
Alexandra Morgan Carrasco (born Alexandra Patricia Morgan; July 2, 1989) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a striker and captains for San Diego Wave FC of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), the highest division o ...
and
Kaylyn Kyle
Kaylyn McKenzie Kyle (born October 6, 1988) is a former Canadian soccer player who last played as a midfielder for the Orlando Pride in the National Women's Soccer League. She was also a member of Canada women's national soccer team, winning a ...
from
Portland Thorns FC
The Portland Thorns FC is an American professional women's soccer team based in Portland, Oregon. Established in 2012, the team began play in 2013 in the then-eight-team National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), which receives support from the Uni ...
in exchange for the Pride's No. 1 picks in the
2015 NWSL Expansion Draft
The 2015 NWSL Expansion Draft was a special draft held on November 2, 2015 by the National Women's Soccer League to allow expansion side Orlando Pride to select players from existing teams in the league. The Pride were allowed to select up to ten ...
and the
2016 NWSL College Draft
Sixteen or 16 may refer to:
*16 (number), the natural number following 15 and preceding 17
*one of the years 16 BC, AD 16, 1916, 2016
Films
* ''Pathinaaru'' or ''Sixteen'', a 2010 Tamil film
* ''Sixteen'' (1943 film), a 1943 Argentine film d ...
as well as an international roster spot for the 2016 and 2017 seasons, and also acquired
Sarah Hagen
Sarah Marie Hagen (born November 18, 1989) is a retired professional soccer player who is currently an assistant coach for the Green Bay Glory in the USL W League. She previously played for Houston Dash, Orlando Pride, FC Kansas City and the G ...
in a separate trade with
FC Kansas City along with Kansas City's second-round 2016 draft pick in exchange for the Pride's 2017 second-round draft pick.
They finished the season in 9th.
In
2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...
the Pride qualified for the playoffs for the first time in franchise history as they finished the regular season in 3rd place with a record of 11–7–6. They went to
Portland Thorns FC
The Portland Thorns FC is an American professional women's soccer team based in Portland, Oregon. Established in 2012, the team began play in 2013 in the then-eight-team National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), which receives support from the Uni ...
for the semi-final but lost 4–1. The season was also notable for the signing of five time
FIFA World Player of the Year
The FIFA World Player of the Year was an association football award presented annually by the sport's governing body, FIFA, between 1991 and 2015 at the FIFA World Player Gala. Coaches and captains of international teams and media representati ...
and
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
international
Marta who finished the season as the league's second highest scorer with 13 goals.
Following a disappointing
2018 season where the Pride missed the playoffs by finishing in 7th place, head coach
Tom Sermanni
Thomas Dorby Sermanni (born 1 July 1954) is a Scottish football coach and former professional player, who mostly works in women's football. He has previously managed the Australia women's national team, the United States women's national team ...
and the Orlando Pride mutually parted ways after three seasons. Sermanni had a regular season record of 25–29–14 during his spell in Orlando, going 0–1–0 in the playoffs.
In January 2019,
Marc Skinner stepped down from his role at
FA WSL side
Birmingham City
Birmingham City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Sin ...
to become the Pride's second ever head coach.
In May 2019, plans were unveiled to build a dedicated training facility at Sylvan Lake Park, the first-ever training facility in the
NWSL that is tailored to and used exclusively by a women's team. The Pride plan to finish out the 2019 season at their current facility located at Seminole Soccer Complex before moving to the new state-of-the art training ground prior to the start of the 2020 season.
On May 12, 2021, Orlando City majority owner Flavio Augusto da Silva announced he was in advanced negotiations with
Zygi and
Mark Wilf
Mark Wilf (born 1962) is an American businessman who is the president and co-owner of the Minnesota Vikings, and chairman and co-owner of Orlando City SC.
Biography
Born to a Jewish family, the son of Joseph and Elizabeth Wilf, who were both Hol ...
, owners of the
Minnesota Vikings
The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansi ...
of the
NFL, for the sale of the club including the Orlando Pride and other related soccer assets. The combined value of the deal was estimated at $400–450 million.
Team name, crest and colors
The name Orlando Pride was announced on October 20, 2015, by founder and president Phil Rawlins. He noted that the name "captures how we all feel about the City of Orlando, as well as firmly tying into the Lions family."
The team colors are purple and light blue. The logo features an illustration of the famous fountain at Lake Eola Park.
Uniform evolution
Home
Away
Stadium
The team plays its home games at
Exploria Stadium
Exploria Stadium is a soccer-specific stadium in downtown Orlando, Florida. The stadium is located along West Church Street in the Parramore neighborhood west of Downtown Orlando. It is the home of Orlando City SC, which entered Major League ...
, in
Orlando
Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures re ...
,
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
, which opened for the
2017 NWSL season. The stadium has a 25,500 capacity including a
safe standing
Safe standing is a measure of design in stadia to ensure that spectators are able to stand safely during events. It is important in the context of association football in the United Kingdom, where a series of fatal incidents led to legislation r ...
section. Prior to this the team played the
2016 season at
Camping World Stadium
Camping World Stadium is a stadium in Orlando, Florida, located in the West Lakes neighborhood of Downtown Orlando, west of new sports and entertainment facilities including the Amway Center, the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, ...
.
On April 23, 2016, the Pride set a new NWSL attendance record, achieving a crowd of 23,403 during the Pride's inaugural home game, a 3–1 victory over the
Houston Dash
The Houston Dash is a professional women's soccer team based in Houston, Texas. It joined the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) in the 2014 season, and is affiliated with the MLS team Houston Dynamo FC.
History Establishment
On November ...
at Camping World Stadium. The record stood for over three years before
Portland Thorns attracted a
post-World Cup attendance of 25,218 in the newly expanded
Providence Park in August 2019.
Players
Roster
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Staff
Records
Year-by-year
Head coaches
* Only competitive matches are counted. Includes NWSL regular season, playoff and Challenge Cup matches.
Broadcasting
In 2016, games were broadcast locally on the Bright House Sports Network. In April of the same year, a
livestream of a Pride match simulcast on the
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
page of
Alex Morgan
Alexandra Morgan Carrasco (born Alexandra Patricia Morgan; July 2, 1989) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a striker and captains for San Diego Wave FC of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), the highest division o ...
had a live audience of 489,999 during the first half. It was the first professional sports broadcast on the social networking website.
For the 2017 season, Orlando Pride games were streamed exclusively by
Go90
go90 was an American Internet television service and mobile app owned and operated by Verizon Communications. The service was positioned as a mobile-oriented "social entertainment platform" targeted primarily towards millennials, featuring a m ...
for American audiences and via the NWSL website for international viewers.
As part of a three-year agreement with
A&E Networks
A&E Networks (stylized as A+E NETWORKS) is an American multinational broadcasting company that is a 50–50 joint venture between Hearst Communications and The Walt Disney Company through its General Entertainment Content division. The company ...
,
Lifetime broadcasts one ''NWSL Game of the Week'' on Saturday afternoons.
The Pride were featured in the nationally televised Game of the Week on seven occasions. The deal was mutually terminated a year early at the end of the 2018 season.
In 2019, NWSL regular season matches were streamed on
Yahoo! Sports
Yahoo! Sports is a sports news website launched by Yahoo! on December 8, 1997. It receives a majority of its information from STATS, Inc. It employs numerous writers, and has team pages for teams in almost every North American major sport. B ...
for the domestic audience while international fans continued to have access to games for free via the NWSL app and at NWSLsoccer.com. However, on July 4, 2019, NWSL announced it had signed a deal through the second half of the
2019 season with
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...
on the back of the
USWNT's
World Cup victory. The new deal meant ESPN would televise 11 regular season matches including two Pride games (July 14 and September 11) as well as every playoff game. The sudden switch and lack of information surrounding the international broadcasts led to widespread confusion as ESPN's subscription service ESPN Player took control in Europe, Africa and parts of Asia while Canada's rights were acquired by
TSN.
For the 2020 season, the NWSL announced a three-year broadcast deal with
CBS Sports
CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W ...
and streaming service
Twitch
Twitch may refer to:
Biology
* Muscle contraction
** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation
** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction
** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle co ...
. In total, 87 NWSL matches will be shown across the main CBS network, CBS Sports Network, and CBS All Access live-streaming service with 14 of those games televised while Twitch will offer free coverage of 24 selected matches during the 2020 NWSL regular season. Twitch will also serve as the NWSL's exclusive international media rights partner outside the United States in 2020 with all 108 regular-season matches, the playoffs, and Championship available to global viewers.
See also
*
List of top-division football clubs in CONCACAF countries
*
References
External links
*
{{Florida Sports
2015 establishments in Florida
Soccer clubs in Florida
Association football clubs established in 2015
National Women's Soccer League teams
Women's soccer clubs in the United States