Orlando City Will Face NYCFC in MLS 2017 Season Opener March 5

Orlando City is “coming home” on March 5 for the first game in the brand new downtown soccer stadium, as the Lions will take on Jason Kreis’ former club, New York City FC at 5 p.m. The Lions’ first away match was also announced, as they’ll head up to Foxborough to play the New England Revolution on March 11. Kickoff for that game is set for 2 p.m.

This marks the third consecutive year since joining Major League Soccer that Orlando City will open the season at home.

With 18,000 season tickets already sold, the remaining 7,500 will go on sale to the general public in February of 2017. Don’t expect these to stick around for too long, however, as they’ll most likely get scooped up within a day for such a historic match.

NYCFC is a familiar opponent for Orlando City, having come into the league with Orlando in 2015. The two sides played their first MLS match against each other to open the 2015 season at the Citrus Bowl. The Lions are 3-1-2 all time against New York City, most recently beating the Blues at home back in August by a score of 2-1.

Here are the rest of the MLS home openers announced today.

Orlando City won’t need a #FillTheBowl campaign in 2017 to sell out the season opener, but it is guaranteed to be the lowest attended home opener since the club jumped to Major League Soccer, as the new stadium has a capacity of 25,500. There is also no word yet on the week of fan festivities that the club has held in years past, with events such as the Purple Pride 5K, Pub Crawl, and others.

The remainder of the 2017 MLS schedule will be released in the coming weeks. Each MLS club will play 34 games again in 2017, with 17 each at home and away. Atlanta United and Minnesota United will present new opponents for Orlando City this season.