If things do not work Out for Rays’ ownership in St. Petersburg, Orlando investors are interested in moving the team to Central Florida.
There is a new push in Central Florida to bring Major League Baseball to the Orlando metropolitan area. A group called the Orlando Dreamers led by Jim Schnorf is ready to put up money in an effort to land an MLB franchise and the group is watching the stadium saga play out in St. Petersburg and seems willing to do whatever it takes to get the Tampa Bay Rays’ business to head east into Orlando, The Rays’ ownership and politicians in St. Petersburg and Pinellas County are haggling over money even though the entities have agreed to build a St. Petersburg stadium. Rays’ ownership wants more public funding to offset financial losses due to the business’s inability to play games at the St. Petersburg stadium because Hurricane Milton tore the roof off of the facility and not being able to get into the new facility until 2029 instead of 2028..
The Orlando Dreamers business has added a Baseball Hall of Famer to its roster, Barry Larkin, to look more impressive. Larkin has spoken to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred about the Orlando market. Manfred does know all about the market as the market has been the home of a number of teams’ spring training headquarters in the past. Orlando has a National Baseball Association team, a Major League Soccer franchise and a Women’s National Soccer League squad. What Orlando doesn’t have is a Major League Baseball facility and there is not any public funding plan for a stadium yet. Schnorf wants a 50-50 public-private split on building the proposed stadium on a 35.5-acre plot of land near SeaWorld. The Dreamers’ business would fund half of the estimated $1.7 billion stadium project and the other half would come from the Orange County Tourist Development Tax. The Orlando market was passed over in MLB’s 1991 expansion sweepstakes.
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