ORLANDO, Fla. — The Orlando Dreamers insist the dream is not dead.
Maybe it’s just waiting for our politicians to wake up.
For the second time in three years, Orange County’s Tourist Development Tax Citizen Advisory Task Force has declined to endorse the Dreamers’ ambitious request to reserve $975 million in tourist-tax money toward construction of a Major League Baseball stadium.
Twice up. Twice down.
And yet Dreamers co-founder Jim Schnorf doesn’t sound like a man ready to fold the franchise before there is a franchise. In fact, Schnorf says he believes the voluntary task force’s recommendations to spend billions of dollars in tourist-tax money will be shelved until after the upcoming elections.
“Given the fact that there are going to be changes in elected Orange County officials very shortly, plus a very critical property tax amendment on the November ballot, we frankly would be very surprised to see any of the major capital projects get final approval and funding prior to the November election,” Schnorf said on my radio show.
This may sound like optimism bordering on stubbornness, but there is logic behind it.
The Dreamers aren’t asking Orange County to write a $975 million check tomorrow for a baseball team that doesn’t exist. They are asking Orange County to demonstrate that it wants to be in the game if and when Major League Baseball comes calling.
That distinction keeps getting lost.
The Dreamers say they have lined up more than $2 billion in private financing for acquiring a team and building a stadium. They envision a $2.1 billion to $2.3 billion ballpark on county-owned land in Orlando’s tourism corridor.
They have also built an increasingly intriguing coalition.
Visit Orlando, the organization charged with selling Central Florida as a tourism destination to the world, supports the baseball effort. Prominent local business leaders have climbed aboard. Local billionaires such as high-powered attorney John Morgan and United Football League owner Mike Repole support the push. And Anna Eskamani, a leading contender to become Orlando’s next mayor, has expressed support for bringing Major League Baseball to the region.
Which raises an obvious question:
Where is Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings?
Demings, in his last few months on the job, certainly doesn’t have to endorse a nearly billion-dollar public investment in a hypothetical baseball franchise. Skepticism about such a massive commitment of public money isn’t merely understandable; it’s responsible.
But there is a vast expanse of political real estate between blindly handing the Dreamers $975 million and barely seeming interested in the possibility of bringing Major League Baseball to Central Florida.
Demings has mostly occupied the latter territory.
When I asked Schnorf if he has been disappointed in Demings’ perceived lack of enthusiasm about the baseball effort, he replied: “I think every political leader has a different type of protocol in terms of how they operate. Some mayors and governors are bold. Some are more risk averse. He (Demings) is a little bit more of a quiet type of person. I think in many cases, rather than making bold decisions, he’s more oriented towards gathering facts and relying on subordinates and others to provide advice.”
If you ask me, this is where the Dreamers-versus-Snoozers storyline begins to write itself.
The Dreamers have dreamed big, raised private capital and put together a stadium proposal. The Snoozers — our local elected leadership — seem content to hit the alarm clock and roll over.
Nobody is demanding that Orange County commit nearly $1 billion today.
But how about committing some enthusiasm?
How about Orange County’s political leadership saying loudly and unequivocally: Major League Baseball, when you’re ready to expand, Orlando wants a seat at the table.
The fact is, MLB’s next expansion derby isn’t going to be won by the city that wakes up after Commissioner Rob Manfred fires the starting gun.
It will be won by cities that have spent years assembling investors, identifying stadium sites, building political coalitions and demonstrating that the public and private sectors can actually work together.
The Dreamers are trying to do exactly that.
Meanwhile, the county’s task-force process seems almost designed to discourage transformational ideas.
Organizations like the Dreamers spend months developing complicated proposals involving hundreds of millions of dollars, economic projections, financing structures and long-term tourism implications. Then they effectively get the governmental equivalent of speed dating: Here’s your proposal. Here’s your presentation. You’ve got 15 minutes. Good luck.
“The process was quite flawed, very ill-timed and rushed in the middle of an election cycle,” Schnorf said. “We empathize with the incredibly difficult challenge that was put upon the task force. … To ask a large group of diverse volunteers to work part time under that type of time frame, really without the technical resources and background to evaluate dozens of applicants requesting billions of dollars, is just impractical.
“You take a situation just like ours, where we’re requesting $975 dollars, and we’re given 15 minutes — like the other applicants — to make our presentation,” Schnorf added. “This proposal is something we’ve spent months on, putting together our financial models, research information and sending that information to a major global consulting firm. It takes the firm weeks to digest our information, review it and then calculate job creation and economic impact.
“If you look collectively at that time frame and the technical expertise and resources that were involved — and we’re just one applicant. When you impose a burden on a part-time volunteer task force, you can see what the challenges are to get objective, technically correct outcomes.”
Indeed, the task force itself isn’t the villain here.
The ultimate decision belongs to the County Commission anyway. The task force is advisory, and its recommendations still go through the Tourist Development Council before commissioners decide how tourist-tax dollars are allocated.
There is plenty of time for the conversation to change.
And November could change the conversation dramatically.
The Dreamers clearly believe a new crop of elected officials might view Major League Baseball less as an audacious expense and more as an audacious opportunity. Elections have a way of changing what governments consider possible.
Maybe that is what this baseball effort needs most: not another feasibility study, not another 15-minute presentation, but a new political imagination.
No, you don’t have to promise $975 million without a team.
You don’t have to build a new stadium without a team.
You don’t even have to believe every number in the Dreamers’ presentation.
Just show Major League Baseball that Central Florida is serious.
The Dreamers insist the dream is still alive.
Now they’re hoping November will finally wake up the Snoozers.