ORLANDO, Fla. — The Orlando Dreamers asked Orange County’s Tourist Development Tax (TDT) Citizen Advisory Task Force for $975 million in tax revenue on Thursday to support a proposed stadium in an attempt to draw Major League Baseball to Central Florida.
The request is the largest being reviewed by the task force, which is assessing projects seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in TDT funds.
The group says it has secured more than $2 billion in private funds for team acquisition and a stadium, while asking the county for nearly $1 billion in TDT money to help fund the state-of-the-art stadium.
“You go out and compare our progress with the other markets. We’re way ahead of all of them,” said Jim Schnorf, chief operations officer for the Orlando Dreamers. “We also are convinced we have by far the best market and the best location for a team.”
The proposed stadium would seat 45,000 people on a lot just north of Aquatica Water Park along I-Drive. The Dreamers said the development would also include hotels, office space, restaurants and retail, with a goal of drawing visitors 365 days a year.
“Major League Baseball owners are financially sophisticated individuals,” Schnorf said. “They are going to vote to put those two expansion teams in the best markets. We are clearly the number one market.”
Task force members questioned the return on investment for Orange County.
“Investing $975 million and getting $32 million a year, we lose money in that investment as a return,” said Michael Poole, the City of Winter Park representative on the task force. “And so the issue that not only I raised but others was, wait a minute, you’re going to be making money. We’re losing money. Where can you help us make up that loss?”
The Dreamers shared updated economic data from JLL, a third-party consulting firm, that said the stadium would create more than 38,000 jobs during construction, more than 52,000 permanent jobs and $72 billion in economic impact over 30 years. The Dreamers said Major League Baseball wants to be in cities where there is a public-private partnership. The group is asking the county to issue municipal bonds for the project.
“We could say with confidence that no other applicant would have a return on investment that would remotely approach what we’re going to provide,” Schnorf said.
The group also said it believes acquiring the Tampa Bay Rays is not the best option for bringing a team to Orlando. Instead, the Dreamers said they are focused on Major League Baseball’s expected future expansion and are making the case that Orlando is the best option.
The task force is expected to meet next Tuesday to make recommendations on how to distribute the money, with final decisions to be made by the Orange County Board of County Commissioners.
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