Riders open letter to Orlando City Soccer President Phil Rawlins

Greetings Phil,

We want to congratulate your success in selling so many season tickets for your team’s inaugural year as a Major League Soccer club and to tell you about a message we just received from one of your team’s fans.

Phil Rawlins

The fan wants to know if he can take SunRail train to the team’s #FilltheBowl event on Sunday, March 8.

As we’re sure you know, SunRail doesn’t run on weekends. But what if it did?

Imagine how cool that would be to have thousands of people getting off SunRail in downtown Orlando for the pre-game festivities and then to head over to the newly renovated Citrus Bowl stadium for the team’s much anticipated match against the New York City Football Club. What a first-class way to begin this new venture, and to show the New York City team that Orlando has got it going on.

You’ve got the power to make this scene a reality by sponsoring SunRail operations for that one day – Sunday, March 8.

There is precedent sponsoring SunRail operations. The organizers and sponsors of the Jan. 1^st Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl paid to run SunRail that day, and it was much 

appreciated by the college football fans. 

The train ran before and after the game – but not during the game.

Citrus Bowl fans

We’re suggesting that you one-up the Buffalo Wild Wings team by sponsoring SunRail for the entire day – maybe 8 round trips.

Why? Because SunRail riders – many of them are fans and season-ticket holders for your games – want to see SunRail run on weekends. Running the train on Sunday, March 8 – would provide an opportunity to show how many people would ride SunRail on weekends, if it was available.

Many people work weekends and need the train to get to jobs. Others want to ride the train to easily reach a variety of destinations, including, church, shopping, dining, museums, parks and to cheer for your team.

Sponsoring SunRail operations for a day certainly would cost more than $100, but it strikes us that you’re a guy who knows the value of a great investment – considering that you’re spending nearly $7 million on Kaka’s contract.

Fans going to the Citrus Bowl got to ride for free. But maybe you can recoup some of your investment by requiring people who ride on March 8 to pay the regular fare. We bet SunRail fans would be more than happy to pay.

So what’s in it for you and Orlando City Soccer?

Great publicity and amazing goodwill in the community. We’re sure your marketing team will tell you that you can’t buy that kind of goodwill for $100 million. You’ll be making a crucial investment to improve our community, and we’ll never forget that gesture.

March 8^th is only a few weeks away. So how about Phil? We’d love to see you on The Rail on March 8^th.