Featured Stories – 30th Anniversary of the ’94 World Cup in Orlando
on the 30th anniversary of the 1994 fifa world cup, host committee chair joanie schirm reflects back on hosting in orlando
By George Diaz
Convincing Orlando that the 1994 FIFA World Cup soccer tournament would be a good thing for this community seemed rather preposterous 30 years ago.
Joanie Schirm got a handful of incredulous looks from some political and civic leaders, as if she was trying to sell them thermal underwear in July.
But she persisted. Schirm never thought of casting herself as a pivotal force in Orlando sports history. She had never played soccer, didn't have much interest in it, and neither did her two kids at the time.
"The statistics are staggering," she said at the time. "How much it would increase our global exposure-- stories about Central Florida in style, business, travel sections around the world. It's a natural fit."She had moved here from Atlanta with the kids, a marriage unraveling, and a job with an environmental company that blew up after she was laid off. A lot was going on in her life, obviously, But the high-profile visibility and international exposure of bringing the tournament to Orlando sparked her interest and imagination.
She looked at the numbers, the global audience, and they were impressive. The 1990 World Cup had attracted billions of viewers over the course of the tournament. That's a lot of eyeballs on Orlando if it won a bid to host the tournament in 1994. She knew it was the perfect fit.
So would recruit a handful of locals in her efforts, forming a committee that included Michael Clary, who had played the sport at a club level at the University of Florida.
"We called it a rag tag team because there were, say, a dozen core people, maybe even less, all in the middle of our careers. We were all in our 30s, 40s in terms of age, trying to pull off this massive international event."
Spoiler alert: They did it.
Orlando would be awarded five matches -- four opening-round games and one game from the round of 16, featuring Belgium, Ireland, Morocco, Mexico, and the Netherlands.
It's been 30 years now -- June 19th marks the first game - an anniversary marked with little pomp and circumstance but nonetheless significant in so many ways. Look around town. Orlando City in MLS. Orlando Pride in the NWSL. INTER&Co Stadium. The run of friendlies and one-off matches at Camping World Stadium and other venues. A piece of women's Olympic Soccer history in 1996.
Perhaps none of this would have happened if Schirm hadn't persisted and put Orlando on the map.
"I think that to me the greatest legacy of it all is that it was a very wide community initiative, that whether it was soccer or anything else, we all felt like we needed to 'get it done' kind of thing," Schirm said. "And I think there was a confidence then that grew in all different sectors of how we could do it."
The process would begin in 1988, on July 4th, when FIFA – the international governing body for soccer – announced that the United States would host the 1994 World Cup. Orlando would become one of 24 cities putting in bids to host the games in some capacity.
Getting buy-in from the community was difficult. When the head of Orlando’s visitor and conventions bureau found out that the games would be played in the summer, he said, "we don't need the business".
After the head of a local organization called to challenge Schirm, she strengthened her resolve.
“I just felt like this is ridiculous,” she said. “So it was kind of a challenge from the very beginning, sort of a gauntlet put down – who gets to decide?”
Answer: Joanie and her team would have a “say”.
“We went on speaking tours,” Clary said. “We went to schools. We went to business clubs. We went to big firms and elected officials. That was easy because those are identifiable. And we tried to rally the troops. We had to raise money to put the bid together because it cost money to go after the games. You had to guarantee dollars.”
Eventually, the pieces would start to come together. Osceola County kicked in $40,000 under the provision that the bid committee changed its name to ‘World Cup Orlando Kissimmee.’ Orange County would match that number.
Along the way, some encouraging signs popped up, messages from the universe if you will.
Herman Neuberger, the 70-year-old vice president of FIFA, told Schirm during a site visit: “I have nine grandchildren, and they all know Mickey Mouse” He then followed up with a letter that read in part, “Looking forward to meeting you again soon.”
Schirm and Clary even went to Cassadaga (the ‘psychic capital of the world’ just north of Orlando) for a reading. They didn’t have an appointment, so they just walked around looking for a place to get a reading. They skipped on a dark foreboding house before finding one more inviting.
“I remember her talking about an undercurrent and there were sharks,” Schirm said. “I really felt like I knew right away who that might have been, because we were experiencing this weird guy from Miami that was just over friendly.”
Turns out he was only trying to steal intel from Orlando because Miami had also put in a bid to host the games.
On the night of the announcement, a crowd gathered at the Cheyenne Saloon on Church Street. The original 24 cities had been short-listed down to 18. Only Schirm and Clary knew that Orlando had been awarded a piece of the games after a late call the night before. So they sat there on stage with poker faces, while some community leaders squirmed. Seven of nine cities were named before Orlando got the call with two cities remaining.
Orlando would not disappoint. The Wall Street Journal wrote that “The UN should send observers to see how it’s done.”
The economic impact number hit $209 million.
The games drew more than 300,000 spectators.
And the legacy also includes the original incarnation of the Greater Orlando Sports Commission (GO Sports), bringing in key stakeholders to bring these types of large-scale events to Orlando.
“My elevator speech anytime I give a presentation or discuss who we are, starts with Joanie Schirm and Mike Clary in 1992 with the sole purpose of bringing the World Cup to Orlando. And here we are 32 years later,” said Jason Siegel, President & Chief Executive Officer of GO Sports.
“We are all working from the shoulders of those incredible efforts. It’s one of the top three significant sporting events in our community's history because of the size and scale at that time.”
It worked out well for all involved. Schirm and Clary recently gave a presentation at the Orlando History Center, reflecting on those historic moments, The audience members included Sharon Line Clary, now the chairman of the board at GO Sports and Michael’s wife. They met while both were working on the ’94 World Cup committee.
A gift from the Soccer Gods perhaps, sprinkled in with the persistence of a woman who would not be denied.
