ORLANDO, Fla. — The Orlando City Baseball Dreamers will continue its bid to bring Major League Baseball to Orlando, despite the announcement that its top two investors — Heartland Dental founder Rick Workman and Morgan & Morgan law firm founder John Morgan — have removed themselves as investors, the company announced Wednesday.
“There was unanimous concurrence at the end of the call from the Dreamers’ leadership to continue the Orlando MLB initiative in full stride given all the significant progress and success over recent months,” MLB Ambassador for the Dreamers Barry Larkin said in a statement after news of Workman’s decision broke. “Dr. Workman briefly shared his rationale for his decision and did not in any way suggest concerns about the quality or robustness of the Dreamers’ initiative.”
Workman, a Windermere resident, has informed the Dreamers that he has chosen to become a minority investor in a group working to lead the Tampa Bay Rays. That group is led by Jacksonville home builder Patrick Zalupski.
After Workman’s decision, Morgan & Morgan law firm founder John Morgan announced his decision to leave the Dreamers, too.
Morgan released a statement on Tuesday, saying Orlando will simply be used as a “bargaining chip” for a new Rays owner to secure a stadium deal in Tampa.
“I am out. The fix is in,” Morgan said in the statement. “I believe what will happen now is this group will seek a sweetheart deal in Tampa, while stringing the prospects of Orlando as a bargaining chip. They will get lots of free land and entitlements and make a real estate profit on the surrounding land at the tax payers’ expense. Certainly not for the people, but for the rich people.”
Larkin, a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, said the team has other prospective investors.
“In regards to replacing the capital from these sources, we have had significant interest from prospective investors in recent months, although we have not been actively pursuing such inquiries,” Larkin said in a statement. “The Dreamers are very confident in finding a suitable control owner, and we will maintain our same standards of being very deliberate and selective in facilitating that partnership.”
Jim Schnorf, who has been coordinating the team acquisition attempts and stadium funding, said the Dreamers still have more than $1 billion in funding to acquire an MLB team outside of Workman and Morgan.
“We have in excess of $1 billion in team acquisition capital under letters of intent beyond the planned commitment of the investor sources electing to opt out, as well as in excess of $1 billion towards the team portion of stadium financing under very favorable terms,” Schnorf said in a statement. “I have already arranged a dinner meeting to take place this week with a relevant contact. There will not be a challenge in replacing this capital, but we will be very methodical in assuring an ideal match for our group, Orange County, and MLB. No competing city can come close to matching our attributes in regards to stadium location, market size, population growth, tourism numbers, tourist development taxes (“TDT”), and strength and growth of the local economy. Orlando remains the only fully ready solution for any MLB situation in need, whether via relocation of an existing franchise, or one of the planned expansion slots.”
The Dreamers have not yet made progress with Orange County political leaders to secure TDT dollars for a proposed stadium next to Aquatica and near the Orange County Convention Center.
In June, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said he still had to learn more about the proposal and that the Board of County Commission “has not really had a broad conversation about it because it’s premature at this time.”
If the Rays remain in the Tampa Bay area, it is unclear whether MLB would want to place a different team so close geographically to the Rays or a third team in Florida.