I know I’m late to the party, but Happy New Year! And Happy New Decade too!

The naughties have given way to the teens, the second decade of this 21st century of the Common Era. And with it, new opportunities rise for sports in Orlando.

The Amway Center is opening this fall. Hopefully it will come with the raising of a Magic NBA Championship banner.

With that, Amway Arena will close shortly before. And it will close the way it was imagined to: with an Orlando Predators game. And maybe, hopefully, an ArenaBowl will be the last event held there.

The Tuskers will return in 2010. And they will be playing on FieldTurf whether they like it or not.

The Kraze, the Surge and Orlando F.C. will play their developmental amateur soccer in Sanford beginning this spring.

But it all starts this Friday when a new sport, indoor lacrosse, takes the stage with the Orlando Titans.

We in Orlando have always embraced minor-leaguer teams and alternative sports. From our myriad pro football teams (the Panthers of the CPFL, the Renegades of the USFL, the Thunder of WLAF/NFL Europa, the Rage of the XFL, the current Tuskers), to our ice hockey teams (the Solar Bears and Seals), to spring training (Twins, Astros, Braves), to soccer (the Lions and Sundogs), and various alternative sports (roller hockey’s Orlando Jackals, Xtreme Baseball, RollerJam, hosting WCW and TNA wrestling).

I hope to see a lot of you at the Amway Arena for the Titans home opener on Friday. I think it will be a great sport. If you miss ice hockey, you’ll love indoor lacrosse. There are a lot of similarities, except you don’t use skates.

Here’s hoping for many years of sporting joy and happiness, and an enlightened new decade where Orlando and sports raise each other.

Literally at 11:59:59 as far as the Sugar Bowl is concerned, Fox has struck a deal with Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks on a national level on carriage of Fox network local stations.

More than 6 million Time Warner and Bright House customers, including those in Orlando, would have lost not only Fox broadcast stations, but Sun Sports, Speed, Fuel, Fox Reality Channel, Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Sports en Espanol, among others. Fox News, Fox Business and Fox Sports Florida would not have been affected, as they are covered by a different carriage agreement.

The details of the agreement are not yet known.