The Orlando Dreamers say they’re pressing forward on their efforts to bring Major League Baseball to Orange County – even as their most immediate path to do so may be slipping away.
Wealthy investors pushing for an Orlando club had eyes on the Tampa Bay Rays, but on Wednesday the team announced it was entering into exclusive negotiations with Patrick Zalupski, a Jacksonville home builder. The two sides signed a letter of intent with a price of roughly $1.7 billion, Sportico reported this week.
Barry Larkin, an ambassador for the potential Orlando ownership group, said in a news release Thursday that Orange County is an “unsurpassed” location for the big leagues and has other avenues beyond the Rays to acquire a team.
“This does not complicate our mission, nor does it change our plans for aggressively moving forward to the next phase of our initiative,” said Larkin, a Hall of Fame shortstop. “We plan to open our downtown office in the very near future and we are laser-focused on finalizing the public side of the public/private partnership.”
The Tampa Bay Times reported this week that another investor, Trip Miller, was also hoping for an opportunity to bid for the Rays.
Typically, exclusive negotiations last for a certain period of time and if a purchase agreement isn’t reached, such a sale could be opened up to other investors – such as Miller or the Dreamers. While Zalupski has no personal ties to the Tampa Bay area, the Times reported Zalupski’s group doesn’t expect to move the team elsewhere.
Other investment groups have contacted members of the Orlando group, either looking to raise money to join other groups or to combine forces. But one of the prominent Dreamers money men, John Morgan, said he has no interest in putting his money behind a bid outside of Orlando.
Morgan is a key financier to the Dreamers’ approximately $2.5 billion pool they can draw from to buy a team and build a stadium.
“While that’s a fine region, as an investor I made clear I had no interest in making a financial commitment if the team was going to remain there,” Morgan said of Tampa Bay in a statement.
“For Major League Baseball, the Tampa area does not compare with Orange County,” he said. “Central Florida is growing faster than Tampa-St. Pete, which is limited by elevation, water, and other challenges, especially when it comes to finding the right location for a large sports venue. In comparison, Orlando continues rapidly expanding in every direction.”
Morgan also cited Las Vegas, which has become home to teams such as the NFL’s Raiders, NHL’s Golden Knights, and eventually the MLB’s Athletics, as “a great example of why tourism helps sports teams succeed.”
“Orange County will get about double the number of tourists this year as Las Vegas will welcome,” he said.
In some ways, the Dreamers face a similar challenge as any ownership group that would seek to keep the Rays in Tampa: Neither has a stadium site lined up.
Current Rays owner Stuart Sternberg has been unable to reach a deal for years with governments in Hillsborough or Pinellas counties, having most recently backed out of a deal in March.
While the Dreamers have had their eyes on 35 acres of county-owned land near SeaWorld, they haven’t reached any sort of agreement with Orange County to lock up the land and currently don’t even have a needed meeting scheduled with Mayor Jerry Demings.
However, Rick Workman, the lead investor for the Dreamers, said this week after presenting to the International Drive Chamber of Commerce that he expects such a meeting will happen soon.
“We have an unparalleled site for our venue, right in the middle of 80 million tourists this year, and our stadium design will be the most impressive in all of baseball,” Workman said in the release.
Demings recently said that the baseball effort was “something worth having a conversation about.” At his State of the County speech, he mentioned he’d been approached by multiple potential ownership groups, but a spokesperson said the mayor wouldn’t reveal their identities.
If the Rays ultimately end up sold to Zalupski – or even another bidder – the Dreamers say that doesn’t end their MLB pursuit.
They told I-Drive business leaders this week that they’re trying to position themselves to be a “solution” for the league, whether for an existing team struggling to build a new stadium in their home market, or as an expansion home if the league ultimately decides to add new clubs.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has said he hoped to begin the process to expand the league by two teams by his planned retirement in 2029. Among the cities linked to possible new teams are Portland, Salt Lake City, Nashville and Charlotte.
The league is said to strongly prefer bids with some sort of public backing, and the Oregon state legislature has signed off on up to $800 million toward an expansion team in Portland. Florida won’t be making a similar contribution, Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters at a recent appearance in Apopka, but said the state could help out with infrastructure costs or highway exits if needed.
Regardless, given the ongoing struggles of the Rays and Miami Marlins, some observers consider it unlikely that the league would bring a third team to Florida.
Larkin said this week his group hasn’t had direct talks with the Rays, though has had “confidential conversations” with the league office in an effort to prove they’re ready for the majors.
“There’s a problem in Major League Baseball, there’s instability in Major League Baseball,” Larkin said Monday. “We’ve shown Major League Baseball that we have that stability and that solution that they need – and that’s all we can do.”
rygillespie@orlandosentinel.com
Originally Published:
