History
The XFL, one of the two partners that eventually merged into the UFL, had previously had two teams in Central Florida. In 2020, the XFL placed the Tampa Bay Vipers 80 miles southwest at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, with the team's headquarters based between the two cities in Plant City. [2] Orlando, which had been one of the most successful cities in the original XFL with the Orlando Rage, had not yet been available when the 2020 XFL was established because the Alliance of American Football had already established the Orlando Apollos there, that league's eventual de facto champion. Orlando eventually became available after the AAF's bankruptcy, and plans were being set to move the Vipers to Orlando before the XFL was forced to shut down in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [3] (The XFL's merger partner, the United States Football League, also included a "Tampa Bay Bandits" among its inaugural franchises in 2022, but this team did not survive to ever play in Florida, instead being replaced by the Memphis Showboats a year later. [4] )
In 2023, following the XFL's pandemic-related hiatus and sale, the XFL would indeed return to Orlando, but in a different manner: the XFL Orlando team would instead receive the branding of the former New York Guardians, becoming the Orlando Guardians. The Guardians underperformed greatly compared to the Rage and the Apollos, and after finishing last in the XFL in 2023, it was excluded from the merger into the UFL. The UFL maintained a retainer agreement with Camping World Stadium in the event the league chose to return to Orlando. [5]
On October 7, 2025, under new co-owner and business director Mike Repole, the UFL announced its return to Orlando with the establishment of the Orlando Storm. The Storm opted not to return to Camping World Stadium and instead chose the more intimate Inter&Co. Stadium, part of an initiative of Repole's to play in soccer-specific stadiums to take advantage of their smaller capacities for a more intimate crowd experience. [6] [7] Repole did not give a specific reason for the name (unlike the two other teams unveiled that day); [8] the Storm brand has a long history in Central Florida football, having been used by the Tampa Bay Storm from 1991 to 2017. The Tampa Bay Storm had shared a bitter rivalry, the War on I-4, with Orlando's team, the Predators.
Even before the Apollos, the city of Orlando had a long list of minor league professional football teams, most of which existed in short-lived and failed leagues: the Panthers of the 1960s, the Blazers of the 1970s, the Americans and Renegades of the 1980s, the Thunder of the 1990s and the Tuskers in the late 2000s, in addition to the aforementioned Rage, Apollos, Guardians, Predators, and a second Predators. Repole expressed hope that the robust institutional backing the UFL has would, along with the more intimate fan experience at a smaller stadium, ensure the Storm's long-term stability and ease fans' concerns about the team disappearing. [7]
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