{"id":348573,"date":"2026-07-22T13:53:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T13:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/348573\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T13:53:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T13:53:20","slug":"orlando-dreamers-seek-975-million-in-tourism-tax-money-for-mlb-stadium-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/348573\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Dreamers seek $975 million in tourism tax money for MLB stadium push"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Hundreds of millions of dollars are up for grabs in Orange County, and dozens of organizations are hoping to secure a share of the record-setting funds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Tourist Development Tax Task Force met this week to begin discussions on how to allocate $430 million collected from visitors staying in Orange County hotels and short-term rentals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Officials say the amount is the most the county has ever collected from the tourism tax.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The demand for money far exceeds the supply.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The task force received nearly $3 billion worth of funding requests from organizations seeking support for major projects and initiatives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The largest request came from the Orlando Dreamers, who are asking for $375 million to help build a baseball stadium as part of their ongoing effort to bring Major League Baseball to the Orlando area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In its application, the organization says the stadium project would create thousands of jobs and generate billions of dollars in economic activity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Officials estimate the total cost of the stadium project would exceed $2 billion, with construction potentially beginning as early as next year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Orlando Dreamers are among 17 applicants that will move forward to present their proposals to task force members.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The group will review the requests before making recommendations on how to spend tourism tax dollars.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a data-ylk=\"slk:Click here;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/mobile-apps\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And <a data-ylk=\"slk:click here;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/video\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a> to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.<\/p>\n<p><a data-ylk=\"ct:story;elm:img;itc:0;\" class=\"stretched-box\" href=\"https:\/\/wftvapps.com\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"537\" height=\"108\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/wftv_cox_articles_135\/beda08358d6db9816e7b0d066edd22cf.jpeg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of millions of dollars are up for grabs in Orange County, and dozens of organizations are hoping&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[62615,37791,1335,139,38894,141,140,142694,8707],"class_list":["post-348573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-baseball-stadium","tag-millions-of-dollars","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-dreamers","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-the-tourist-development-tax-task-force","tag-tourism-tax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}