ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 The Orlando Dreamers made their pitch Wednesday for nearly $1 billion to be dedicated to the construction of a new baseball stadium, despite the fact that the Dreamers do not yet have a team to field.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last piece of the puzzle is for Orange County government to step up to the plate,\u201d Dreamers\u2019 co-founder Jim Schnorf said after presenting before Orange County stakeholders Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Alongside World Series Most Valuable Player and Dreamers\u2019 advisor David Eckstein, Schnorf spoke in front of the Orange County Tourist Development Tax Citizen Advisory Task Force, asking for $975 million for a stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cMajor League Baseball does not want to put a team if there\u2019s not a public partner in that metro area,\u201d Schnorf told the body, which is responsible for recommending how tax revenue generated from tourism is spent in the county.<\/p>\n
Schnorf explained that Orlando is one of more than ten cities vying for an expansion slot. Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred has indicated that he would like to add two additional teams — one on the west coast and one on the east coast — before he retires in 2029.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would suggest that there wouldn\u2019t be another applicant that would remotely approach the return on investment that Orange County gets from committing money towards our stadium project,\u201d Schnorf told reporters.<\/p>\n
Schnorf said that the Dreamers have already secured more than $2 billion in private capital for the construction of a stadium and team acquisition.<\/p>\n
In the presentation to the task force, he said that an economic study projected the stadium project would create more than 38,000 construction jobs and more than 52,000 permanent jobs.<\/p>\n
He said the study projects the economic impact over 30 years to be more than $72 billion.<\/p>\n
But given that Schnorf was making a nearly billion dollar request, he was not surprised to be met with pushback.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just don\u2019t see how this is viable in a reasonable timeframe,\u201d Tina Demostene, a member of the TDT task force, said during the question and answer portion of the presentaton.<\/p>\n
After the meeting, News 6\u2019s Mike Valente pressed Schnorf about the notion that this request may be premature.<\/p>\n
VALENTE: \u201cWhat would you say to people who are sitting at home watching this and saying, \u2018Well you\u2019re asking for nearly a billion dollars in TDT funds, but you don\u2019t even have a team secured yet?\u2019 So it almost seems like this $975 million may not come to fruition.\u201d<\/p>\n
SCHNORF: \u201cThat\u2019s the great opportunity for Orange County because there\u2019s no risk to the county if for some reason we wouldn\u2019t get a team. Now, we wouldn\u2019t have gone through this exercise\u2014-I\u2019ve spent a considerable sum of money myself, thousands of hours on this, as have my partners\u2014if we weren\u2019t absolutely confident that we were gonna get a team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schnorf told the task force that it could be two years before Major League Baseball decides on which markets will get expansion teams.<\/p>\n
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