Orlando City’s Home Stadium Gets New Name

Exploria Stadium is no more. Orlando City Stadium is long gone. The next time you step into the purple palace on Church Street in Parramore, chances are you’ll be walking into Inter&Co Stadium. Yes, you read that correctly. The Lions and Pride will play in a building that shares part of its name with Orlando City’s southern, in-state rivals.

The club has entered into a long-term naming rights agreement with the financial and digital commerce services company — one that many of you may not have ever heard of before (it’s based in Brazil) unless you’ve seen its previous promotions at the stadium. It is a “founding partner” on the Orlando City partners page. The deal was officially announced today at a press conference at the stadium.

In September, Inter&Co became the club’s official financial institution of both Orlando City and the Orlando Pride. The Brazilian-based company is the club’s first international partner.

Orlando City President of Business Operations Jarrod Dillon said that the initial partnership grew into the current stadium naming rights agreement. There wasn’t a widespread search for a new stadium name sponsor. Inter&Co leadership, he said, experienced firsthand the passion the city had for both the MLS and NWSL teams, wanted to be a bigger part of it, and asked how they could make it happen. That led to the discussions that eventually culminated in today’s announcement.

“It’s only fitting that as we enter our 10th season in the MLS here in Orlando and ninth in the NWSL that we would partner for the next decade with a global company, not only committed to our community, but with a shared vision for the future,” Orlando City SC and Orlando Pride Owner and Chairman Mark Wilf said in a club press release. “We are truly excited about what we will build together, enhancing the fan experience in the venue and further connecting our soccer cultures in meaningful ways.”

Who or What Is Inter&Co?

In addition to being the holding company of Inter Group, it is the first financial institution with Latin-American roots to own the naming rights of a major stadium in the U.S. Based in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, it holds all of Banco Inter’s shares. (Banco Inter is a large, Brazilian bank.) Inter bills its digital financial services platform as a “super app” which sounds fancier than a normal app, but that simply means it combines multiple services into one platform. It claims to provide financial and digital commerce services to more than 30 million customers. What services? Banking, investments, credit, insurance, and cross-border services.

The company has other soccer-based relationships with Clube Atlético Mineiro, Athletico Paranaense, and Fortaleza Esporte Clube. Its sister company, MRV, has naming rights to the MRV Arena in Belo Horizonte.

“I think one area that’s going to be exciting for fans is the synergies with soccer, and soccer leadership,” Dillon said. “There’s not a lot of partnerships on the business side that necessarily soccer and business are kind of talking about together and strategizing around. This happened to be one. Inter&Co has, I would say significant history of partnerships with major Brazilian top flight clubs. They could have partnered with anybody in the world — you know, EPL, Barcelona, Real Madrid, these clubs, like they could have partnered with anybody. And for us to know that we’re working with them, that that’s how much they believe in Orlando City and Orlando Pride, in our region, and our city, and our community is really an honor.”

Inter, per the club’s press release, will provide Orlando soccer fans with exclusive access to as-yet unnamed products on the company’s app as well as rewards, perks, and unique stadium experiences. There are also plans to bring more cultural and music events to the stadium, including a post-game concert for ticketholders following an Orlando City match this season. There is no word yet on the musical act, but Dillon said an agreement is nearing completion.

What It Means for Orlando City/Orlando Pride

According to the club, the company has already started to make technology upgrades to the stadium. These include new LED lighting, a new video board with upgraded resolution, a new LED video wall in the West Club, and new television monitors in the suites, premium spaces, concession stands, and lower-level concourse. There are also plans for new interactive concourse displays, Wi-Fi 6 and 6E, 5G antennas for improved cell service, and new hospitality options.

It also means that if you’re on social media, you will likely be extra annoyed at all the jokes that write themselves if and when Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami wins at the newly renamed stadium against Orlando City.

“It absolutely was a conversation point with our executive team and soccer operations and business operations,” Dillon said about the coincidence of having “Inter” written on the side of the club’s stadium. “I think, essentially, where we landed is we just really felt like we’re going to give our fans the benefit of the doubt to understand all the great things that this partnership is going to bring to our club, for business, for soccer, to help provide the resources for us to continue to be competitive, to continue to win, to continue to pour in those resources to both clubs on the pitch and off the pitch. And we really feel as we go through this, that all the benefits far outweigh that.”

It’s obviously great for the club to find a naming rights partner, and it’s not always easy to do that. It helps the club financially and the technology amenities Inter promises will benefit fans.

But the name that goes on the front (and side, and top) of the stadium matters. It may not matter to everyone what it’s called. However, most people prefer a “cool” name (we’re still stanning Publix Park and pining for a rotating lion statue out front…and at least it’s not a shady crypto or NFT company, a pyramid scheme or…ahem…a timeshare firm). Many fans would at least settle for a name that’s not embarrassing. The new name isn’t exactly cool (it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, and the lack of spaces in the way it’s stylized is annoying). And while not outright embarrassing, it is at least in the neighborhood of it to have part of the name of the club’s biggest rival so prominently displayed. The fan banter will be insufferable if Orlando City loses at home to its southern neighbors.

Dillon said this naming thing could even help intensify the rivalry.

“I am as competitive as anybody else,” Dillon said. “This does not give our rival any competitive advantage. What matters is going out and playing and our fans and supporters being in the crowd, supporting the players. We just really believe that our fans are going to understand the greater good when they see all the different elements of this partnership and what it’s going to bring resource-wise and allow us to hopefully go out and do for both City and Pride.”

If it helps you think about it this way, at least the stadium isn’t being named after fellow club “founding partner” and noted fan-fleecing firm Ticketmaster. And we’ll all need to get used to it, as the partnership is a 10-year agreement.