Orlando is in the running to host the Army-Navy rivalry football game at Camping World Stadium in 2027.
Orange County commissioners will be asked Tuesday to approve a sports-incentive package to lure a range of sporting events to town.
It includes a pledge to pay a required $3 million “bid fee” if Orlando is picked to host the Dec. 11, 2027, gridiron clash between the nation’s two oldest service academies.
“This is a massive event,” said Steve Hogan, CEO of Florida Citrus Sports, the event-management organization often credited with raising the region’s sports identity and leading Orlando’s successful bids to host the NFL Pro Bowl and premiere collegiate football games in the city.
First played in 1890, Army-Navy is almost always staged in northeastern venues — closer to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, and the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland — though Chicago’s Soldier Field was the site in 1926 and the Rose Bowl in Pasadena hosted in 1983.
The game has been played 122 times but never in the South.
Hosting the game in Orlando would come with a pricey requirement unlike any other marquee sporting event Florida Citrus Sports has ever attracted: paying for travel and lodging arrangements for 8,000 service-academy cadets and midshipmen expected to attend in uniform.
“That’s why so many communities don’t even attempt to bring this game,” Hogan said. “We’re bold enough to think Orlando can do it.”
He estimated the cost at $13 million during a January presentation to the Tourist Development Tax Sports Incentive Committee, which unanimously endorsed the bid.
Tourist tax revenues cannot be used to pay for travel and lodging expenses of the cadets and midshipmen.
The burden would likely fall on the private sector, Hogan said.
“The risk is pretty substantial to Florida Citrus Sports should a lot of other metrics not be met,” Hogan said.
Orlando’s competition to host the 2027 game includes Boston, Charlotte, Chicago and Dallas.
He said discussions to host Army-Navy began over two years ago, before the COVID-19 pandemic put talks on hold.
Both Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings and Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer were aware of the possibility.
Hogan described Demings as “very bullish on wanting to make a run at an event of this magnitude.”
The game is often a sell-out with a big economic impact for whatever community is lucky enough to host it, Hogan said.
Philadelphia, which is roughly equidistant from the two academies, has served as host city the most, 89 times.
He said the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau estimated 72% of spectators attend from out of town.
Visit Orlando officials envision an economic impact of over $40 million here.
Maria Henson, Visit Orlando’s director of market research and insight, said Philadelphia tourism officials estimated the impact of the game in their city at $30 million but it would be greater in Orlando with planned multi-day events drawing more visitors and extended overnight stays.
She estimated the game would fill the equivalent of 50,000 hotel-room bookings.
Hogan said Orlando also would reap a promotional benefit from hosting the game.
Nationally televised since 1945, Army-Navy has drawn a TV audience of more than 7 million viewers six of the last seven years.
The clash is the only major college football game played on the second Saturday in December.
The Navy Midshipmen lead the series against the Army Black Knights, winning 62 and losing 53 with seven ties.
Last year’s game was played at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in recognition of the 20th anniversary of 9/11.
Navy won, 17-13.
Before the incentive panel voted on Orlando’s bid, chairman Alvin Cowan described the 2021 game as “flat out phenomenal.”
The sports incentive committee also endorsed earmarking tourist-tax revenues to pay hosting fees for several other events.
The committee recommended setting aside $3.25 million to keep the Florida Classic in Orlando through 2026.
Orlando’s Camping World Stadium, formerly known as the Citrus Bowl, has hosted the annual clash between Florida A&M University and Bethune College University every year since 1997 except for 2020 when the historically Black colleges canceled their seasons because of COVID-19.
The 2021 game, won 46-21 by FAMU, drew over 54,000 fans to see the Rattlers and Wildcats — and their famous marching bands.
Nearly 80% of the Florida Classic’s spectators are from outside Orlando.
The 2022 game requires a hosting fee of $600,000, a figure which adds another $25,000 each subsequent year.
The committee also recommended that county commissioners set aside hosting fees for two soccer matches:
$50,000 for the United States men’s national team to play a World Cup qualifier March 27 against Panama at Exploria Stadium.
$90,000 for Camping World Stadium to host an exhibition game known as a “friendly” between Mexico and Guatemala on April 27.
The latter could serve as another audition for Orlando, which is bidding to host a match in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international men’s soccer championship. The 2026 world tournament will be staged in North America in venues throughout Canada, Mexico and the U.S.
shudak@orlandosentinel.com
