ORLANDO, Fla.,None — The newest sports team to come to Orlando is a part of the Lingerie Football League and they're called the Orlando Fantasy. It features women playing football wearing lingerie. The team will be playing on the state-funded campus of the University of Central Florida.
VOTE: Should LFL Play At UCF?
The Lingerie Football League (LFL) says college students are its target audience and that the UCF Arena is the ideal venue, but female students disagree.
WFTV talked to female students at UCF who said they would not play in or attend LFL games, where accidental nudity is common and athletes are fined for wearing anything under their uniforms.
But, after beating expectations for ticket sales last year, LFL league owner Mitch Mortaza says he expects to draw a crowd when the league moves into UCF Arena this fall.
"Once they see a game, they're a hooked fan. They're not coming back for more if it's just a bunch of bimbo's running around with no knowledge of the game," he said.
Mortaza does admit the league looks for beauty first. UCF professor Dr. Janet Rasmussen, a former track athlete at Wake Forest, says there are more appropriate forms of athletic competition for women.
"I think it's setting up the stereotypes we have and it perpetuates that within women in sport, looking at a woman's sexuality as opposed to a woman's talent," Rasmussen said.
The arena itself is not supported by student tuition or taxes and is run by an independent company called Global Spectrum, which chooses the events. UCF does not receive any of the revenue; instead, it goes toward paying off the bonds that financed its construction.
Normally, the league plays in NFL and NBA arenas. This is its first year experimenting on college campuses. It will play both at UCF and at FIU in south Florida.
WFTV
