Construction on the stadium began in 1936 as a project of the Works Progress Administration under President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression.

On November 27, 1976, the first major game was held at the expanded stadium, a regular season matchup between Florida and Miami.

[7] The deck vibrated, fences and railings shook and creaked, causing an unnerving sensation for the patrons sitting in those sections.

[8][9] Before long, engineering evaluations, as well as legal investigations, uncovered numerous missteps, rushing, and cut corners in the stadium's design.

[12][13] The maligned stadium's reputation was heavily tarnished after the upper deck scandal, criticized by public officials, media, and fans.

The city finally received a settlement of $900,500 from the stadium's engineers, architects, and designers, money that was soon appropriated for new improvements.

The Orlando Thunder of the WLAF called the Citrus Bowl home in their two-season existence during the early 1990s, while the XFL's Orlando Rage played there in 2001 as well as the UFL's Florida Tuskers, occupying the stadium for 2 seasons from 2009, before moving to Virginia Beach as the Virginia Destroyers in 2011.

The Orlando Fantasy of the Lingerie Football League moved to the stadium shortly after, having previously used the UCF Arena.

The stadium was the home of Orlando City SC, a soccer team in the USL Pro League.

Orlando City played their final USL Pro match at Camping World Stadium on September 6, 2013.

[19] The last soccer event held at Camping World Stadium before its renovation was an international friendly between the women's teams of the United States and Brazil.

[20] Orlando City, now playing in Major League Soccer, returned to Camping World Stadium for the 2015 and 2016 seasons.

On March 30, 2008, the stadium hosted WrestleMania XXIV, the 2008 edition of WWE's flagship professional wrestling pay-per-view.

[25] By 2005, Orlando-area government officials and officials from the University of Central Florida (UCF) expressed dissatisfaction with the state of the facility and lack of revenue, as while UCF was the primary leasing tenant for the facility, it received minimal revenue from football games.

Lack of an agreement to rectify these issues led UCF to consider relocating, or spend considerable expense to upgrade the facility at its own cost.

Furthermore, the stadium was located over 10 miles (16 km) from the university's main campus in East Orlando, with travel times of up to a half-hour due to traffic.

In 2005, UCF officials led by university president John Hitt made the decision to construct a new on-campus stadium, which opened for the 2007 season.

The key reasons for losing the bids were the lack of modern luxury boxes, bench seating, and capacity.

In the newly reconstructed stadium there are two 360-degree concourses, a 20,000-square-foot (1,900 m2) plaza deck ("Party Deck") in the north end zone, 41,000 all-new lower bowl seats with six additional inches of leg room & chairbacks, multiple giant video displays, new team facilities including locker rooms training rooms and attached media, new stadium operations facilities to allow better efficiency in food service, security, first aid and maintenance, new concessions and restrooms, and an open-air façade.

The reconstruction began immediately following a groundbreaking event held at the stadium on January 29, 2014, and demolition of the entire lower bowl lasted 25 days.

[30] The United States women's national soccer team returned to Camping World Stadium on October 25, 2015.

On April 23, 2016, they broke the record for attendance at an NWSL game, setting at 23,403, when the Pride beat the Houston Dash, 3–1.

[32] On November 19, 2015, CONCACAF and CONMEBOL announced that Camping World Stadium would be one of the host venues for the Copa América Centenario soccer tournament in 2016.

[33] On April 26, 2016, Florida Citrus Sports announced that they had sold naming rights for the stadium to Camping World.

All were held without incident due to specialized safety techniques that separated construction activities, visitors, and staff.

The lower bowl lacked permanent seats in the north end zone, though temporary bleachers could be erected there if necessary.