March 28, 2013, - NY Times - Goal! Blog Orlando Wants to Add M.L.S. to Attractions http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/28/orlando-wants-to-add-m-l-s-to-attractions/ Although Orlando is a healthy market for third-division soccer, the Florida city was in the back of the pack for an M.L.S. team until an unlikely partnership put the Orlando City Lions on the radar of Major League Soccer. The Brazilian businessman Flávio Augusto arrived in town and decided he wanted in to American soccer, and the league. He teamed with an Englishman to give the Orlando candidacy the missing ingredients for a run at M.L.S. [...]] Rawlins repeats an “Orlando is not a matter of if, but when,” message from the M.L.S. Commissioner Don Garber.[...] Years ago, Rawlins looked at the M.L.S. map as if it was a Monopoly board, and saw a huge hole in the U.S. Southeast, so he moved his club from Texas and transformed it into the Orlando City Lions, a team that averages nearly 7,000 fans to the Citrus Bowl playing in United Soccer League’s Pro division. [...] Last month, Augusto came on to the scene. [...] Rawlins said that 1.5 million Brazilians pass through the city’s international airport each year. “The audience is perfect for M.L.S.,” he said. “We have a very young population, a soccer-hungry population. We’re configured as a small M.L.S. club. We’ve got over 20 employees. We have youth divisions. We play the ball on the ground, a continental European style.” [...].