ORLANDO, FL – The Wilf family have officially been welcomed to the city of Orlando with a “Welcome and Introduction” event held at Exploria Stadium this morning.
Mark Wilf and the Wilf family purchased Orlando City SC, the Orlando Pride, Exploria Stadium and both team training complexes this summer.
He made his first public remarks since the sale this morning.
“We certainly are very humbled to take on the stewardship of these great franchises.” Said Wilf “We love the game of soccer and we want our fans to have the best experience, so we ant to grow that and work to make this franchise even better.”
The family is well known in the sports industry as the owners of the Minnesota Vikings.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demmings, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, and other officials officially welcomed Mark and some of the members from his family to the team.
Dan Garber , commissioner of the Major League Soccer and Lisa Bain, the Commissioner of the National Women’s Soccer League er on hand to welcome the Wilfs to their leagues.
Ban did mention the she believes that Wilf will have a strong comitment to the Pride.
“With this ownership, you see that this the next level of ownership that is willing to invest in the community.” Said Bain. “I will tell you in the conversations that I’ve had with Mark that you have an owner who will invest in the women’s team with the same depth and intensity that he will to the men’s.”
“I’ve known Mark and the family for a number of years” Said Commissioner Garber “We look for a great next generation of vision and passion for this club.”
The Wilfs take offer two soccer clubs that are an upswing.
Orlando City is coming off of a truncated season where they managed to get deep into the playoffs for the first time in franchise history.
A solid win this past weekend over Atlanta has helped keep them near the top of the MLS standings.
The Pride are going through a chance in management as head coach Marc Skinner abruptly left the squad to jump at a chance to coach the Manchester United Women’s team. A goo number of key players for the Pride are over in Japan playing in the Olympics in Tokyo.
The women on the team however seem to have bonded together through this adversity and have made a tight knit group even tighter. They have a quality side and prove to be no pushovers when on the field.
Orlando City faces Inter Miami CF tonight at Exploria Stadium.. The Pride face off against the Chicago Stars in Chicago on Sunday August 8th, but return home to face the Portland Thorns on August 14th.
