Before Orlando gets its hopes up about the Dreamers, residents should ask questions their marketing campaign does not adequately answer.<\/p>\n
I would love to see Major League Baseball in Orlando. I have worked for two MLB teams, coached college baseball, worked with the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association, helped with the early Carpenter Cup Classic, and while at Fox Sports worked with several MLB clubs and crafted the Rays\u2019 first television contract. I also consulted for John Henry during his purchase of the Marlins from Wayne Huizenga. I know the game as a fan, but also from the competition and business sides.<\/p>\n
Wanting MLB here, however, does not mean the business case works.<\/p>\n
First, what happens with the Tampa Bay Rays? MLB clubs have protected operating territories. If the Rays remain in Tampa Bay, why would their ownership give up part of their territory to a competitor roughly 85 miles away? Even if MLB could negotiate a solution, Orlando begins with a complication many competing markets do not have.<\/p>\n
Second, population is not the same as an MLB revenue base. Baseball means selling 81 home games, not 41 like the Magic or a handful like UCF football with long histories in the market. That requires thousands of season tickets and premium seats, suites, sponsorships and corporate hospitality. Orlando has tremendous growth, but a relatively thin major-corporate headquarters base compared with markets such as Nashville and Charlotte. The question is not simply how many people live here. It is who buys expensive inventory 81 times a year. A new team doesn\u2019t create a new economy; it cannibalizes the existing one.<\/p>\n
Third, tourists are not automatically baseball customers. The Dreamers call tourism Orlando\u2019s \u201cX Factor,\u201d noting an estimated 80 million visitors in 2026 and arguing that attracting just 4% to one game would mean 3.2 million admissions. But visitors come primarily for theme parks, conventions, cruises and vacations, and whose schedules are already packed. Marquee opponents will attract tourists. But who fills a 45,000-seat stadium for a Tuesday-night game against Seattle in August?<\/p>\n
Fourth, Florida\u2019s baseball history matters. Miami and Tampa Bay are enormous markets, yet both franchises have experienced attendance problems. I was with Huizenga Holdings when the Marlins won the 1997 World Series and still lost substantial money. If MLB owners are asked to approve a third Florida franchise, Orlando must demonstrate why this market would behave differently.<\/p>\n
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Then there is the stadium. The Dreamers sought $975 million in Orange County Tourist Development Tax funding for a proposed 45,000-seat ballpark \u2014 a request not endorsed by an Orange County task force last week. At the same time, they say they have more than $2 billion in financing for team acquisition and stadium financing. Those claims deserve careful scrutiny before nearly $1 billion in public tourism-tax revenue is committed.<\/p>\n
Most importantly, Orlando is not competing against \u201cno one else.\u201d It is competing against other expansion candidates including Nashville, Salt Lake City, Portland and North Carolina markets. MLB\u2019s question will not be whether Orlando could support baseball. It will be whether Orlando represents one of the best expansion opportunities available.<\/p>\n
The Dreamers\u2019 renderings are impressive. Their case deserves consideration. But residents should distinguish between what the Dreamers say MLB\u00a0should\u00a0do and what MLB itself has\u00a0indicated\u00a0it intends to do.<\/p>\n
Show us projected season-ticket sales, realized ticket prices, premium-seat and suite commitments, sponsorship projections, corporate support, tourist-attendance assumptions, a solution to Rays territorial issues and credible 81-game operating projections, especially beyond the first couple of novelty seasons. Most of all, show evidence that MLB wants Orlando as a preferred expansion market.<\/p>\n
I lived a similar story firsthand in Buffalo in 1993. The Bisons had committed ownership, a modern expandable stadium and a serious baseball operation. They pursued expansion earnestly. They did not get a team.<\/p>\n
I hope Orlando eventually does.<\/p>\n
But a proposal competing for an MLB franchise is not evidence that Orlando is about to receive one. Before committing enormous public resources, Central Florida should demand facts, not just renderings, population statistics and optimistic projections.<\/p>\n
Get excited when Major League Baseball gets serious about Orlando. Sadly but realistically, from a business viewpoint, Orlando would be challenged to be one of the best two options for MLB right now.<\/p>\n
Rich Bradley of Oviedo works in the tourism industry. He has worked with two Major League Baseball franchises.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before Orlando gets its hopes up about the Dreamers, residents should ask questions their marketing campaign does not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[483,482,139,141,140,109,76410],"class_list":["post-376423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-commentary","tag-opinion","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-social","tag-social-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376423","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=376423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}