Tourism panel approves $94.5M soccer, venues deal

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs raised their arms in victory Friday after winning a key tourism board's support for a $94.5 million package that includes a new stadium for a Major League Soccer team.

The stadium is part of a larger package that includes using tourist taxes to complete the $503 million performing-arts center and renovate the Florida Citrus Bowl, and millions of dollars more for tourism marketing.

The deal had been agreed to the day before by Jacobs and Dyer, often-uneasy mayoral partners. They hugged each other after the 8-0 Tourist Development Council vote, a signal that the hotel and theme-park industries were mostly satisfied with the deal.

However, a number of concerns continued to be raised about the soccer stadium's finances, questions that first emerged Tuesday when county commissioners reviewed the deal.

Dyer sought to answer some of them before Friday's vote, noting that any deal would require the MLS team to lock into a long-term lease of 25 to 30 years, or face a stiff penalty if it left.

"These are things we've always tentatively discussed," said Orlando City Soccer Club President Phil Rawlins. "Nothing I heard was out of line, or [something] that we can't work through in negotiations."

The next step is for city and county staff to work out details of the overall plan during the next several weeks, before it's brought to both sets of commissioners for review, public hearings and final votes.

"We still have some work to do," Jacobs said.

Four city commissioners watched and celebrated Friday's vote, but only Commissioner Scott Boyd was there from the county board. By phone earlier in the day, county Commissioner Pete Clarke said he was "still not sold on the cost of the stadium."

Jacobs had voiced concerns about the financial details, too, but said after the vote that she had met with Rawlins on Wednesday and he addressed her "critical points."

The proposed pact steers $20 million of tourist taxes to help build a $85 million soccer-specific stadium downtown, a prerequisite to landing an MLS franchise, team owners say.

It also includes:

•An additional $25 million, spread across five years, to boost tourism marketing. Orange leaders have already earmarked $36 million to Visit Orlando next fiscal year to promote local tourism.