Landon Donovan talks about “a paradigm shift” in US soccer. MLS commissioner Don Garber speaks of “strategic expansion.” But in Florida, they just yell “Golazo!”

Actually, the Sunshine State’s perception of the great soccer proselytisation of America is far more complex than a single cry of something amazing, although “Bingo!” or “Geronimo!” might be equally apt. Yet, in simple terms, it is not far from stating the basic truth that the sport is fast becoming Florida’s great infatuation, a fan movement potentially to eclipse all others.

Just consider these figures: 157,160; 24,311; 21,869; 12,470; and 57%.

Those are the total home attendances so far this season for Orlando City (four games); Jacksonville Armada (two games); Fort Lauderdale Strikers (three games); and Tampa Bay Rowdies (two games). The final figure is the rise in attendance for Florida’s three NASL teams to date.

The NASL has seen almost across-the-board increases in its first few weeks of 2015, but the figures for the league’s three Florida teams, in conjunction with those of the lone MLS franchise, indicate a considerable proliferation of interest in soccer throughout the state.

“There is an underlying appetite for the game here in Florida,” Orlando City president Phil Rawlins insists. “Florida has always been a soccer state but it had a problem with its identity here when the Major League was in a very different position to today.

“Tampa Bay and Fort Lauderdale were probably two of the three most important and storied franchises in the US. They were both solid performers with a passionate fanbase and, with the resurgence of soccer in general, you are seeing Florida start to look like the Pacific north-west, only fully self-contained within the state.”

Indeed, it is that state-wide experience, notably including the all-new name of Jacksonville and with the lingering potential for David Beckham’s Miami to join the throng, which makes this sudden shift – be it a paradigm or simple sporting trend – so intriguing.

Look around the rest of the US and, while there are strong regional pockets of football fervour, nowhere is going quite so gaga across a single state as Florida, and it is certainly not all Orlando-driven. The Armada’s opening-day attendance of 16,164 this month was a modern-era record for the NASL while the Strikers’ crowd of 11,691 was their best since their rebirth four years ago by almost 4,000.

The Rowdies weighed in with a highly respectable figure for their first home game of the season – almost 4,000 above their 2014 average – and it seems clear there is a genuine ground-surge at work, a rising tide of support that has no one single common denominator and yet is threatening to make Florida the nation’s soccer capital.

Need more clues on the trail of this phenomenon? How about the fact that three Sunshine State cities – Orlando, Tampa and Jacksonville – have all made bids to host Copa America Centenario games in 2016. The only other state with three contenders is California, which has twice the population and more ready-made stadiums.

Certainly, it is still early days in Florida’s soccer genesis, and it is probably too soon to anoint them outright, but listen to the people behind the NASL trio and it is clear they have a compelling case to be taken seriously – and the wherewithal to make it happen.

All three management groups have invested heavily in their teams and infrastructure this year, notably with refurbishing their respective stadiums, and each franchise is already actively investigating soccer-specific venues in the not-too-distant future.

Jacksonville have created a formidable front office staff, led by owner Mark Frisch, a well-respected local businessman who carries significant clout within the community, and president Steve Livingstone, an ex-NFL staffer with NFL Europe and the Jacksonville Jaguars who has considerable marketing acumen from both the US and his native Scotland.

Frisch says: “We have put together a great team and the reaction of the community has been a bit overwhelming, to be honest. It is great to see what Orlando is doing in central Florida, but we have a completely different thing going on here in the north-east.

“In simple terms, soccer’s time has come. Exposure is at an all-time high here since the last World Cup and, while there is still a lot of work to do to make this a long-lasting team, we have made great strides in a short time and I can only see this getting bigger and better.”

Livingstone is equally adamant the Armada’s experience is rooted in rich soil and, with only the Jaguars as sporting neighbours, there is room to expand. Their opening game was played at the Jags’ capacious EverBank Field but the rest of their regular season will be staged at the refurbished 8,500-seat Community First Park (the old Baseball Grounds).

“We have sold almost 5,000 season tickets and I am fairly confident we will fill the stadium for most of our matches this season,” Livingstone insists. “They say a rising tide floats all ships, well, this is the ideal time to be involved in soccer as the tide of interest is definitely rising. This is a five to six-year process for us, but when I compare us to where Orlando started, we are already far in advance of that.”

Down in Fort Lauderdale, co-owner Ricardo Geromel – one of three Brazilian partners in the NASL franchise – has yet another take on this outburst of fan obsession. “I think soccer in Florida has reached a tipping point,” he says. “There is so much room to grow. Five million people live in South Florida and Miami is the capital of Latin America, and we believe that gives us a competitive advantage here. We are extremely bullish about the opportunities.”

However, just when you think Geromel (and Rawlins, and Frisch, and Livingstone) are going to point to Florida’s sizeable soccer following from first and second-generation immigrant families from Latin America and Europe, the narrative takes an unexpected twist.

Geromel – who was a college team-mate of US international midfielder Alejandro Bedoya – adds: “Americans are also in love with soccer now, and it is a love that is not temporary. It is not a carnival passion – it is here to stay. And there is room for at least one more team in South Florida, whether it is with David Beckham or someone else.”

Livingstone agrees. “We have a big soccer demographic from Eastern Europe in the Jacksonville area but even when you combine that with the Spanish/Latin demographic, that still amounts to barely 20% of the population, so our main target is Americans, the US millennials who grew up playing soccer, went to one of the many youth clubs here, and now have families of their own and a growing interest in the game.”

In Floridian terms, it is also tempting to think there is an unspoken agenda that soccer is currently benefitting from the lack of a dominant state team in any of the other major sports, leaving the landscape relatively clear for Orlando City and Co to carve out a major niche for themselves if they can grab short-term success.

Yet none of the current soccer quartet believe they are in any way competing with the state’s NBA, NFL or NHL teams. In their sphere of influence, soccer fans are a breed apart and there is only a limited crossover of, say, Magic followers and those who support Orlando City. It is a whole new fanbase.

“We certainly don’t see the Magic as competitors,” Rawlins says. “In many ways, the sports support each other. What we see ourselves doing is creating something completely new that builds on this growing appetite for soccer in the US and adds Florida’s other advantages, like year-round accessibility to the sport and the potential for state-wide rivalries.

“I do think we have been a catalyst in this and have shown what is possible, but there are very few other states that have got the concentration of cities that we have with a soccer background and the potential for more growth. You are seeing the beginnings of that in Jacksonville and Tampa and Fort Lauderdale – and, hopefully, Miami – and with the great weather and international connections that Florida has, you can definitely see it getting much bigger.”

Orlando have just announced they have sold out their 14,000 allocation of season tickets for their inaugural MLS season and have established a waiting list for future interest. They are considering enlarging their 20,000-seat purpose-built stadium for 2016 before it has even taken shape. And, with initial crowds of 62,358, 31,072 and 32,822, the Lions are already a phenomenon in their own right.

It only remains to be seen just how many other teams are fully aboard the Sunshine State soccer bandwagon in the next few years.