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ORLANDO, Fla. -- County commissioners on Tuesday approved $20 million in tourism taxes to be used toward the funding of an $84 million downtown Orlando Major League Soccer stadium, clearing the last hurdle for the city to be the home of the leagues next expansion franchise. MLS president Mark Abbott said in a statement after the vote that the league looks forward to working with the Orlando ownership group to finalize the agreement to bring a franchise to the central Florida city. The commissions vote was 5-2 Tuesday night. It came after a six-hour meeting that included comments from more than 100 members of the community speaking mostly in support. Earlier this month, city officials voted unanimously on the same funding plan to help the minor league USL Pro League Orlando City Soccer Club build the 18,000-seat, soccer-specific stadium. The team will contribute the rest of the funding for construction. Following the vote, dozens of purple-clad Orlando City fans in the standing-room only commission chamber erupted in applause and began chanting "We are going MLS! We are going MLS!" Orlando City has been lobbying to become a MLS expansion team for more than three years, but currently plays in the outdated Florida Citrus Bowl. Now that the city and county have approved, Orlando City Soccer owner Phil Rawlins said that an official agreement with MLS could be completed within weeks. Once thats in place, construction would be next with an opening date of 2015 planned. When Rawlins brought the minor team to Orlando in 2010, he predicted it could move up to the MLS within five years. He said his prognostication was less about wishful thinking and more about belief in Orlando as a market. "I felt very strongly at the time that was achievable," Rawlins said. "I think Orlando is a great marketplace for MLS. Its proven that with the support it has in the minor leagues. I know the city is very anxious for a second major sports team and MLS is excited about expansion in the southeast...So I felt confident we could make that happen in that time frame." Among those joining fans and business owners to speak on behalf of MLS coming to Orlando were Orlando Magic co-founders Pat Williams and Jimmy Hewitt. Williams lauded the foresight city officials had when they first brought the idea of NBA expansion to Orlando 25 years ago. "Once again this community is faced with that vision thing once again," Williams told commissioners. Rawlins said once the final paperwork is complete with the league, they hope to make an announcement in about a month. "I think anytime youre building toward a vision and achieving your dreams its always exciting," Rawlins said. John Wensink Jersey . 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The Kansas star scored 16 of his 22 points in the second half, outplaying Parker down the stretch and helping the fifth-ranked Jayhawks knock off No. Peter Forsberg Jersey . -- Wichita State is all alone in the record book. Teemu Selanne Jersey . Torres scored the first goal by an English team in the knockout phase of the Champions League this season when he met Cezar Azpilicuetas cutback in the ninth minute of their first leg match in the last 16. But Chelsea failed to make the most of its counterattacks and the Turkish champions equalized in the second half after gaining in confidence and cutting out their defensive mistakes.NEW YORK -- Years before Michael Sam was born, gay-rights activists Kate Kendell and Paul Guequierre were already die-hard National Football League fans. Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, grew up in Ogden, Utah, far from any NFL city, and became a fan of the Los Angeles Rams because shes an Aries and liked their uniforms. For Guequierre, raised in Whitewater, Wisconsin, and now a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, it was a family affair. Treasured season tickets for the Green Bay Packers were acquired by his grandfather, passed on to his father, and now are his. The cover photo of his Facebook page shows the towering statue of a Packers wide receiver. For Kendell, Guequierre and other gay fans of the NFL, their passion for pro football was rewarded May 10 with a moment they describe as thrilling: the decision by the Rams -- now of St. Louis -- to make Sam the first openly gay player drafted by an NFL team. "I feel like my support for the NFL now doesnt have an asterisk come with it," Kendell said. "Its now truly Americas game." The milestone has made gay fans more enthusiastic and already is drawing newcomers into the fold. Many may become Rams fans or -- like Guequierre -- henceforth consider St. Louis "my second favourite team." The NFL says it hasnt done any marketing research to gauge the size of its gay and lesbian fan base. Gay sports fans surveyed by Outsports said pro football was their favourite sport by far. Outsports co-founder Cyd Zeigler said that Sam -- if he makes the Rams roster -- will further boost the NFLs popularity among gays. "People who have never liked football are buying Michael Sam jerseys," he said. "People who have never watched a game watched the draft." As of midweek, Sams Rams jersey was the No. 2 seller among rookies at NFLShop.com, trailing only Johnny Manziel, the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback drafted by the Cleveland Browns. Sam -- although drafted 249th out of 256 players -- also was among just 10 draftees selected by the league to be featured on special bronze and silver commemorative coins, according to NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy. Howard Bragman, a public relations expert who has been working with Sam, expects the NFL and advertisers to capitalize on fans excitement over Sams debut. "The first time he plays, youre going to have huge numbers watching," said Bragman, the vice chairman of Reputation.com. "The NFL is a business," Bragman added. "It understands very well that LGBT fans are passionate, they have good incomes, theyre concentrated in NFL cities." Sam already has done a nationally televised ad for Visa. "The tide has turned," Bragman said. "Martina Navratillova said she lost endorsements after she came out.dddddddddddd Youll find that Michael will do very well." That doesnt mean the NFLs advertisers will shift their focus away from heterosexual young males, nor are sexy female cheerleader squads likely to disappear. But gay fans may be all the more at peace with such things. "We know who theyre marketing to with those ads," said Guequierre. "Most (gay) people I know are OK with that. We dont feel like were being left out." Now based in Washington, D.C., Guequierre, 36, tries to attend at least one Packers home game per year, and makes his tickets for the other games available to relatives and friends, including a lesbian couple who are devoted fans. Guequierre said gay fans, like gay athletes, increasingly feel less pressure to conceal their sexual orientation while at games. He recalled an incident at a Packers game a few years ago, when he stood up and vocally scolded a fan behind him who had called a Chicago Bears player a homophobic slur. "No one else gave me a hard time," Guequierre said. "The guy looked embarrassed. ... He came across as the bad guy." Guequierres passion for football extends to the playing field -- hes an avid competitor in the D.C. Gay Flag Football League, which has 20 teams and about 275 players. One of the main sponsors is Nellies Sports Bar, one of a wave of gay sports bars that have opened up in cities nationwide. Doug Schantz, co-owner of Nellies, says there are now 25 TVs in the bar, all tuned to sports, with pro baseball and the NFL neck-and-neck as the most popular. "With the Redskins, it doesnt matter if theyre bad or good," Schantz said. On the other side of the country, Kate Kendell has settled into San Francisco, and is a zealous 49ers fan -- though her girlhood love of the Rams is now rekindled. She has raised her 17-year-old son to share her football passions. "On Monday nights, we break with tradition of sitting around the table as family," Kendell said. "We all watch the game. I leave office early to make sure were there for kickoff." Kendell expressed delight that gay youths would now be able to grow up with openly gay sports stars as role models. "Many of my gay male friends are not sports fans -- not because of lack of interest, but because their earliest introduction to sports made them feel stigmatized and shamed," she said, evoking epithets such as "You throw like a girl." "While surely there will continue to be homophobic remarks, there is a sense of a corner being turned," she said. "What I feel more than anything is a sense of elation and joy, that the game I loved since I was a kid I can now embrace without reservations." 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