NFL announces 2024 Pro Bowl Games will return to Orlando

The NFL Pro Bowl is returning to Orlando for the 2023-24 season. Leadership from Florida Citrus Sports, the City of Orlando, Orange County, and Visit Orlando announced the news on Tuesday.

Matt Shapiro, the NFL VP of Events, was also in attendance for the announcement.

The game is going to be held at Camping World Stadium, better known as the Citrus Bowl, on February 4, 2024. Prior to the Pro Bowl being played at Allegiant Stadium the last two seasons, the Pro Bowl was played at Camping World Stadium for four seasons with the 2021 game ultimately being cancelled due to the pandemic.

“We are excited today to announce that the 2024 Pro Bowl Games presented by Verizon will be returning here to Orlando,” Shapiro said to applause. “It really is a return. We’ve hosted Pro Bowls here from 2017 to 2020, very successful events, thanks in large part due to the partners here, whether that’s Florida Citrus Sports and Steve Hogan or the city of Orlando and Mayor Dyer and Orange County and Mayor Demmings and so many other officials here.”

The Pro Bowl is a major economic boost for Central Florida, with Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings saying that the 2019 game brought in more than $45 million in economic impact.

In the four seasons that Orlando hosted the Pro Bowl, it had a minimum attendance of 51,019 fans in each game. The maximum attendance topped out at 60,834.

Notably, this is going to be a new version of the Pro Bowl. Instead of a traditional football game, the conference will be playing flag football to avoid injuries and make the game more exciting to watch. It’s an experience that the players greatly prefer.

“We’re also excited to bring this re-imagined version of the Pro Bowl here,” Shapiro said. “The last time the fans here in Orlando saw the Pro Bowl it was a bit of a different format. We shifted last year, as many people know, to a flag football game and a real focus on skills and the players overall — a week long celebration of football.”

The NFL feels good about the new format, including a skills event and flag football game. In Orlando, the league is going to find out if that idea worked as a novelty or if it has more staying power.

“And that’s really in many ways the future of football,” Shapiro said. “It’s accessible, it’s inclusive, it’s for boys and girls, men and women, and it’s a way for our international fans across the globe to start experiencing football.”