The owners of a team that doesn’t exist want public money for a stadium.
The owners of the phantom Major League Baseball Orlando Dreamers franchise, want $975 million from Florida’s Orange County’s Tourist Development Tax Citizen Advisory Task Force to help fund a stadium for the nonexistent baseball franchise. The Dreamers business owners claim they have secured $2 billion to build a stadium-village but need more money. It appears that the Dreamers ownership group has landed a franchise except there is no franchise available yet through either relocation or expansion. It appears that the Dreamers ownership would like an opportunity to buy the Tampa Bay Rays franchise and move the business about 90 miles east of Tampa but if that option is not available then the group will go after an expansion franchise.
MLB has a number of issues to solve before it can get around to studying if expansion is feasible. MLB owners need a new collective bargaining agreement with the players and have to solve TV issues as money from regional cable networks has dried up as some of the cable outlets are no longer in business. Dreamers owners have a plan to build a stadium that would seat 45,000 people surrounded by hotels, office space, restaurants and retail. The Dreamers ownership also want tourists to go to games and use the businesses around the stadium year-round. Of course most people who go to the Orlando area spend time at the amusement parks and spend a lot of time at the parks and may not want to go to a game. Regular season Major League Baseball in the state of Florida has not been successful in terms of attendance in either Miami or St. Petersburg. The Dreamers ownership is convinced Orlando would be perfect for baseball. But then again politicians and business leaders in a number of other cities feel the same way in the expansion derby.
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