Orlando City: How supporters' groups drove the Lions into the MLS era and beyond | OneFootball

By J. Sam Jones

Philadelphia, Columbus and that’s it. Only two MLS teams have earned more points than Orlando City this decade.

That’s unfamiliar territory for Orlando fans who latched onto the team when the club arrived in MLS. From the club’s inaugural season in 2015 to 2019, the Lions finished dead last in points earned. They failed to make the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs every single season.

Those results were equally unfamiliar to the Orlando fans who’ve been there from the very beginning. When the USL’s Austin Aztex moved to Central Florida and became Orlando City Soccer Club, they put on a show for the small group of supporters who attached themselves to the third-division side. Orlando City won two titles, finished first in the standings in three out of their four seasons and averaged 2.2 points per game. They were a juggernaut. And they had a devoted collection of weirdos with them every step of the way.

“You're supporting a third division team at the time,” Orlando supporter Jared Ambrose said. “So you had in the community, just like, sickos. Soccer sickos that were just so passionate.

"Like, ‘Hey, we don't care if it's second, first, whatever division it is. We're here to watch our team.'”

Founding the faithful

That community developed in part with a nudge from Dan and Lori Conlee. They’re known as The Godfather and The Godmother among Orlando City supporters now. But back before the team had kicked a ball, they were strangers harassing people in pubs as they tried to keep their eye on a Premier League game.

“Lori and I decided to make business cards and run around all the Irish and English pubs around town in the mornings when they were playing these EPL games and, you know, just bug them, interrupt people, tell them there's a professional soccer team and you need to come out to it,” Dan Conlee said. “There were other people that started joining us and we were thinking, ‘Yeah, we may be onto something here.'”

Their proselytizing for the club eventually became “The Ruckus," the first Orlando City supporters’ group. Which eventually turned into Orlando’s games featuring flags, drums, a smoke machine, and a 23-foot-tall wacky waving inflatable tube embodiment of The Ruckus’ mascot, Skully.

MLS introduction

That group of sickos followed the best third-division team in the country until the club officially joined MLS in 2015. That group got a lot bigger and much more mainstream then. There are pros and cons to that. You gain some new friends, but it’s tougher to maintain your personality.

“I think the reality is that we had a lot more freedom,” Ambrose, a member of fellow Orlando SG, the Iron Lion Firm, said. “I think you could say we were able to express ourselves in a different way, and we're really kind of creating what we wanted to do. And we knew the goal ultimately was you wanted to get to MLS. You wanted to be on that level, that top flight. But at what cost? What were we going to lose or give up?

"But I think we tried our best to stay true to what we wanted, what we believed in, and advocating for what we wanted our club to represent and be about when we went into MLS.”

The number of supporters increased, the passion stayed the same, but the results cratered. The club spent five seasons in the wilderness. They dismissed three coaches in that span, including the coach who won two USL titles with Orlando, Adrian Heath.

In 2020, Oscar Pareja arrived – along with SuperDraft pick Daryl Dike, Ruan, Júnior Urso and Pedro Gallese – and the Lions haven’t looked back.

Turning point

They started winning, they finally made the playoffs, and, in 2022, they lifted a trophy. Nearly a decade after the USL edition of the club won their last title, the MLS edition ended Sacramento City’s Cinderella run to hoist the US Open Cup.

As Ambrose, now living out of state, watched the team make the final from afar, he turned to his wife and said he had to get a plane ticket home. His wife – whom he met at an early-era friendly between Orlando City and Swedish side BK Häcken – told him to make it two tickets. For Ambrose, watching Orlando lift a trophy in person was the ultimate payoff for over a decade of fandom.

“I don't think anything's going to surpass that for me,” Ambrose said. “To win that meant so much, especially since it meant we were going to get to compete in [Concacaf] Champions League. And to see the club I supported from the start on an international stage was just like a perfect ending.

"If you were making a 'Welcome to Orlando' FX series or a doc for Apple TV, that would be where it ended. For me, that would cap off the documentary. That was just the moment. That's what I had been waiting for for 10 years."

Orlando fans nearly got another moment last year. The Lions found themselves hosting and favored in the Eastern Conference Final against seventh-seeded New York Red Bulls. But the Red Bulls got a set-piece goal and Orlando couldn’t find an equalizer. They ended the season one game short of MLS Cup and with the fans making one more of what Dan Conlee calls “the long walk down Church Street” back to their cars after a loss.

Dedicated community

There’s a chance 2025 doesn’t end with a walk of sadness. There’s a chance Orlando lift another trophy this season. They’ve advanced to the Leagues Cup quarterfinals and their underlying numbers are among the very best in MLS. DPs Martín Ojeda and Marco Pašalić have put up outstanding numbers. Homegrown fullback Alex Freeman has turned into an All-Star and rising USMNT talent. This is a very good, maybe even great team.

Regardless of how the season ends, the community around it isn’t going anywhere. It’s been around since 2010. It’s seen its share of ups and downs. And the connections, especially for those who were there from the beginning, are strong.

“Oh, man, this club means a lot to me. It gave me a group of friends that I care deeply about. It brought my family closer together. I got to spend more time with my dad, watching matches, taking in the games. I met my wife at a game,” Ambrose said. “It made me feel like this is my place. Like so many people in Orlando aren't from Orlando originally, or are from other parts, and I think it gave so many of us a connection to the city. The club is relatively young. The sport is relatively young in this country. But for so many of us, Orlando City was our unifying connection.”

Sometimes all it takes to make those connections is getting a team, a smoke machine, a 23-foot-tall inflatable and going from there. Even if some years are better than others, you can still be a part of something.

“It's a great community,” Dan Conlee said. “And if Lori and I have helped create that, then we're happy. We can die happy. So because, you know, it's a good team, and good town, good people. And that's me, that's that. That's all I know.”