Tip Tuesday: Getting your soccer fix at Epcot

Orlando City Lions soccer club.  Image courtesy Disney.  All rights reserved.

Welcome back to another Tip Tuesday!

With the Barclay's Premier League starting back up this weekend, I thought I'd share a quick tip about how you can get your soccer fix while at Walt Disney World.

A few of the countries around Epcot's World Showcase offer jerseys for various international soccer (futbol) teams, both for club teams and country teams.  A couple of shops (one in Germany and another in the UK) also sell soccer balls.  Around World Cup time, you can often find World Cup merchandise including official balls and jerseys.

If you're looking for Barclay's Premier League teams, such as Manchester United or Chelsea, your best bet is the Sportsman's Shoppe located across from the Rose & Crown Pub in the UK pavilion.  Bear in mind that not every BPL team will be represented in the merchandise for sale (c'mon - show the love for teams like Everton and Liverpool!). 

Of course you'll have to strike up a conversation with one of the British cast members working in the store and see which team they support.  

If it's Saturday around lunchtime, you might be able to catch a Premier League match at the ESPN Club at the Boardwalk.  Sure there will be college football games going on, but there are so many TVs there that you'll probably be able to find at least one match (though they're on NBC Sports, a direct competitor to ESPN).

If it's live soccer you're interested in, you might be able to catch some Orlando City games through early September at the ESPN Wide World of Sports center - check the schedule here: https://www.espnwwos.com/sports/soccer/.  Orlando City will be a new MLS team starting with the 2015 season and will normally play at the Citrus Bowl stadium, but the Lions are playing their 2014 season at the ESPN Wide World of Sports while the Citrus Bowl is being renovated in advance of the Lions' official MLS start.

There are a lot of other soccer events at WWOS throughout the year, mostly featuring youth teams.

So lace up your cleats and get your kit ready (that's a uniform to you non-soccer folks) - it's time for some soccer!

Wide World of Sports unveils new field house

Walt Disney World and HP today unveiled the HP Field House at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex during a ceremony that featured NFL star Jason Witten and soccer legend Mia Hamm, along with ESPN Radio’s Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg and executives from HP and Disney. The project will deliver an even more immersive sports experience for the nearly two million athletes, coaches and spectators who visit Disney’s sports facilities each year.

The 165,000-square-foot HP Field House, a multi-purpose facility that can accommodate virtually any indoor sport and has been the cornerstone of ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex since it opened in 1997, has been outfitted with a variety of innovative HP enhancements, such as touch-screen kiosks and a one-of-a-kind retail imaging area. Additionally, HP technology is being infused throughout the 230-acre complex, enabling athletes, coaches and fans to have an unparalleled “hands-on” sports experience while providing ways to customize their visit with amenities previously unseen in youth sports.

The most prominent feature of the HP Field House is the HP Photo Creation Center, where players and fans can download, design and enhance commemorative photos and images from their events, then immediately produce and print them at an onsite retail location. Guests will also be able to purchase life-size posters of action photos from the complex, wallpaper coverings, multi-page calendars, photo CDs and many other unique photo keepsakes, giving athletes, coaches and fans even more ways to cherish their sports memories long after their competitions have concluded.

“Today’s youth athletes are extremely tech savvy and HP is the perfect partner to help them better capture and savor the lasting memories of their unique sports experience in ways that no other sports venue can,” said Ken Potrock, senior vice president, Disney Sports Enterprises.