— Published on October 13, 2025

"Now people can come to Orlando for the sports and stay for the theme parks."

Interview Focus

The United States kicked off an exceptionally busy decade of sporting events this summer with the Club World Cup. Orlando took advantage of the opportunity to score points by hosting six matches, split between Camping World Stadium and Inter&Co Stadium. The Florida metropolis, known for its numerous theme parks, is now aiming to carve out a prominent place for itself on the international sporting scene. So much so that Jason Siegel, president and executive director of the Greater Orlando Sports Commission, is one of the 50 most influential local figures according to Orlando Magazine, which ranked him 23rd. He confided in Francs Jeux about this strategy in a two-part interview.

Orlando is world-renowned as an entertainment hub. Why do you want to become a sports hub?

This is an opportunity to leverage the assets that already exist in our community, starting with an airport that welcomes nearly 60 million visitors a year. We're already the theme park capital of the world, and that presents us with opportunities. We're focusing a lot on the convention center, the Kia Center, Camping World Stadium, the USTA campus... There are already many iconic venues, but to be internationally competitive, we need to find a way to motivate our community leaders to continue investing. It takes a bold vision from our leaders. Our population is growing; we're already the 15th largest market in the United States, and we'll soon be the 14th or even 13th. Our budget has grown from $4 million to $10 million a year. This gives us a lot of latitude to look at international opportunities that we might not have considered in the past.

What does sport offer that amusement parks don't?

It's a complementary offering. When World Rugby came to Orlando to discuss the 2031 and 2033 World Cups, we invited about 50 leaders from our community to a luncheon to discuss the opportunities. They saw the flags and the countries that could participate; it's a tremendous opportunity to reach the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and so on. It opened the eyes of our partners. International visitors spend three times more on average than a tourist from our country. When the Saudi team Al-Hilal qualified against Manchester City, all of a sudden, we saw a massive influx from the Middle East. When people come to the city, now they can come for a sporting event, then stay for the theme parks and attractions.

Do you consider Orlando to be one of the world's top international sports destinations?

Yes, I think so. Our recent investments have broadened our scope of opportunities. We're seeing this in several areas. One of the most significant decisions was investing in Michelin Guide recognition. (Florida was integrated in 2021, editor's note)Our restaurant community has exploded since then, with chefs from all over the world wanting to open restaurants in Orlando. There's a different energy around the food scene here. We're doing our part in the sports arena. We're in an emerging phase, with a long way to go. We can make significant progress over the next ten years.

What lessons have you learned from not being selected for the 2026 FIFA World Cup?

We recruited between 400 and 500 executives in our community to form our local organizing committee: elected officials, private sector representatives, Disney, Universal, our healthcare providers, and so on. Everyone came together, and we were able to share with them what this bidding process entails. It's not just about stadium operations, but also human rights, sustainability, technology, law enforcement, safety, security... We had 14 different subcommittees working in unison on this bid. The announcement of the response was obviously a disappointment after five years of work, but it was kind of the first step.

The second step was to honestly examine the reasons for this failure and see what we could do to improve our position, whether it was behind the scenes, relationship building, etc. One of the major positives that came out of this was that Orange County leaders decided to invest an additional $400 million in our stadiums, which was a victory. Thanks to the great work we did, we opened the door to hosting the Club World Cup. We were able to host games not only at Camping World Stadium, our college soccer stadium, but also at our MLS stadium. The ability to manage both venues simultaneously is the basis for starting discussions with rugby, which may be looking for multiple stadiums in the same market, and the Women's World Cup in 2031. We are trying to learn from the past to position ourselves as as strong a host city as possible.