History of Florida to use I-75, and settled along the west coast of Florida. Florida's first theme parks were developed in the 1930s and included Cypress Gardens (1936) near Winter Haven, and Marineland (1938) near St. Augustine. Disney selected Orlando over several other sites for an updated and expanded version of their Disneyland Park in California. In 1971, the Magic Kingdom, the first component of the resort, opened and became Florida's best-known attraction, attracting tens of millions of visitors a year. It stimulated the development of other attractions, as well as large tracts of housing and related businesses. The Orlando area became an
Sports in Orlando, Florida Jack Stadium at the Wide World of Sports Complex. The Rays drew poorly at Disney and moved to Montgomery, Alabama for the 2004 season. Since then, Orlando has had no pro baseball team. Meanwhile, the Disney stadium has been mostly empty ever since. The WNBA's Orlando Miracle played four seasons at Amway Arena (1999–2002). After 2002, when owners were permitted to sell their WNBA teams, the Miracle were purchased by Mohegan Sun casino and moved to become the Connecticut Sun. The Orlando Aces played one season in the new ABA in 2006–07 before moving to Las Vegas. The Orlando Titans