For the past 20 years, Major League Soccer has been looked down on as not being one of the major American sports leagues. It's always been the four major leagues (NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL) and MLS was somewhere below. But there are a select few cities in the country where the local MLS club is treated as a major sports team. Orlando City has become one of those teams.
There are five things that makes a professional sports team a major team in a city. Those categories are a downtown stadium, apparel in major retail stores, visibility with major sponsors, media presence, and talk on the street.