Major league baseball is back: what’s on deck for the Orlando Dreamers?
Orlando Dreamers co-founder and chief operations officer Jim Schnorf joins WESH 2 to detail where plans stand on bringing Major League Baseball to Central Florida.
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL IS BACK. AND FOR MANY PEOPLE, PLANS TO BRING THE MLB TO ORLANDO ARE TOP OF MIND AND HOPEFULLY ON DECK. JOINING ME NOW IS ORLANDO CO-FOUNDER AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, JIM SCHNORF. JIM. WELCOME. THANK YOU SO MUCH. SO HAPPY TO HAVE YOU HERE TODAY. OKAY, SO ORLANDO BASEBALL, YOU GUYS HOSTED AN EVENT HERE WITH OPENING DAY RINGING IN THE NEW SEASON. TELL ME ABOUT THIS EVENT AND WHERE IT WAS AND ALL THAT GOOD STUFF. SO CROOKED CAM BREWERY, WE HAD A TERRIFIC AMOUNT OF EXCITEMENT THERE. LOTS OF FANS WEARING JERSEYS OF THEIR FAVORITE TEAMS. OKAY. THIS COINCIDED, OF COURSE, WITH US GOING LIVE ON OUR WEBSITE WITH OUR FAN PACKS. OR PEOPLE CAN GO ONLINE AND BUY A FAN PACK, AND THEN THAT GIVES THEM PRIORITY ORDER OF BUYING SEASON TICKETS. YOU KNOW, UPON US GETTING A FRANCHISE. SO LET’S TALK ABOUT THAT. WHERE DOES THAT STAND IN ORLANDO BASEBALL, GETTING A FRANCHISE AND BEING A, YOU KNOW, HOME OF AN MLB TEAM. WE’RE VERY CONFIDENT WE WILL HAVE A FRANCHISE AWARDED BEFORE THE END OF THE DECADE. AND THAT COULD BE EITHER THROUGH ONE OF THE TWO EXPANSION SLOTS THAT MLB IS ADDING OR THROUGH ACQUIRING AN EXISTING FRANCHISE AND WHY DO YOU FEEL THAT CONFIDENCE? WHAT’S HAPPENING BEHIND THE SCENES THAT YOU CAN FILL US IN ON? SO WHEN PAT WILLIAMS AND I STARTED THIS SIX YEARS BACK, WE DID A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF RESEARCH BEFORE WE DIVED IN, AND IT BECAME VERY APPARENT THAT ORLANDO WAS THE MOST COMPELLING MARKET THAT DIDN’T HAVE MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL, THE LARGEST MEDIA MARKET. WE’RE NUMBER 15 NOW, WELL PAST DETROIT THIS YEAR. B NUMBER 14. SO OVER THE LAST FOUR YEARS, WE PASSED MIAMI, MINNEAPOLIS-SAINT PAUL AND DENVER. IF YOU LOOK AROUND, LAS VEGAS HAS GOTTEN THE A’S. SO THEY HAVE THREE OF THE TOP FOUR PRO SPORTS LEAGUES. TEN YEARS AGO THEY HAD NONE. NONE, RIGHT? YEAH. THEY’RE KIND OF WHAT WE WOULD CONSIDER TO BE THE BIGGEST SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT COMPETITOR TO ORLANDO. TO PUT IT IN PERSPECTIVE, THEY’RE THE NUMBER 40 MEDIA MARKET IN THE COUNTRY. THE SMALLEST MEDIA MARKET HAS MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL. BUT YET IF YOU LOOK AT HOW SUCCESSFUL FOOTBALL AND HOCKEY HAVE BEEN THERE, IT POINTS OUT THE SIGNIFICANCE OF TOURISM. WE WILL GET 80 MILLION TOURISTS THIS YEAR. LAS VEGAS WILL GET 40 MILLION. SO YOU START DOING THE EXTRAPOLATIONS. YOU CAN SEE WHY WE’RE SO CONFIDENT THAT ORLANDO IS THE RIGHT MARKET. JUST HEARING ALL OF THAT AND WITH PAT WILLIAMS OBVIOUSLY DID WITH BRINGING THE MAGIC HERE TO ORLANDO AND THE FRIENDSHIP THAT YOU TWO HAVE AND GOING FORWARD FOR THIS, I FEEL LIKE THERE ARE SO MANY, INCLUDING MYSELF, THAT WE’RE HOLDING ON TO THE HOPE WITH YOU AND HOPING THAT THIS ALL HAPPENS. JIM OKAY, SO BY THE END OF THE DECADE, I GUESS. LASTLY, WHY IS THIS SO IMPORTANT TO YOU? WHY DO YOU WANT TO BRING BASEBALL HERE TO ORLANDO AND THE TOP MLB? WELL, IT’S A IT’S A PERSONAL PASSION. 20 PLUS YEARS BACK WHEN THE EXPOS WERE FOR SALE AND WERE GOING TO BE RELOCATED TO WASHINGTON, DC. MOST PEOPLE DON’T KNOW THIS, BUT I AND A PARTNER HAD THE CAPITAL RANGE TO BUY THE TEAM. PAT WAS GOING TO LEAVE THE MAGIC AND MOVE TO WASHINGTON DC AND RUN THE TEAM. SO EVERYBODY KNEW. PAT WILLIAMS IS ONE OF THE 50 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE IN THE HISTORY OF THE NBA. BUT WHAT MANY DIDN’T KNOW WAS PAT’S EARLY CAREER AND FIRST PASSION WAS BASEBALL. OH, I DIDN’T KNOW THAT. SO, YOU KNOW, IT WAS AN ANOMALY THAT PAT ENDED UP IN BASKETBALL. AND HE STARTED OFF, YOU KNOW, HE WAS DRAFTED. HE PLAYED, HE PLAYED BASEBALL IN COLLEGE. AND OBVIOUSLY JUST AN ABSOLUTE MARKETING AND BRANDING GENIUS. AND SO, YOU KNOW, HIS FUTURE WAS CERTAINLY IN BUILDING TEAMS, NOT NECESSARILY PLAYING. AND SO WE HAD TALKED ABOUT HOW EXCITING THAT OPPORTUNITY WOULD BE IF WE COULD, YOU KNOW, INSTEAD OF WASHINGTON, DC, AT SOME POINT, THEY HAD A TEAM HERE. AND PAT WAS INVOLVED. AND THIS WAS BEFORE MY MOVING TO ORLANDO IN 1998. BUT BACK WHEN THERE WERE TWO EXPANSIONS IN THE 90S, PAT WAS VERY INVOLVED IN TRYING TO GET A MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL TEAM HERE. AND OF COURSE, THE SECOND EXPANSION IN THAT TEAM ENDED UP GOING TO SAINT PETE. OKAY. WELL, JIM, THANK YOU FOR SHARING. AND WE HEY, WE’RE GOING TO BE FOLLOWING OBVIOUSLY ALL ALONG THE WAY HERE AND HOPE THAT
Major league baseball is back: what’s on deck for the Orlando Dreamers?
Orlando Dreamers co-founder and chief operations officer Jim Schnorf joins WESH 2 to detail where plans stand on bringing Major League Baseball to Central Florida.
Updated: 6:24 AM EDT Apr 1, 2026
Orlando Dreamers co-founder and chief operations officer Jim Schnorf joins WESH 2 to detail where plans stand on bringing Major League Baseball to Central Florida.Click here to learn more.
ORLANDO, Fla. —
Orlando Dreamers co-founder and chief operations officer Jim Schnorf joins WESH 2 to detail where plans stand on bringing Major League Baseball to Central Florida.