From the moment he saw the 35 acres of wooded, county-owned land next to Aquatica, Pat Williams believed he had found what he was looking for: the perfect site to build a baseball stadium.
It was shown to the longtime sports executive years ago during a lunch-hour meeting with Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings and other county staff, Williams recounted at a 2023 meeting of a citizens’ task force of the Tourist Development Council.
“Oh, I wish I could put all of you in my car as I’ve done with dozens of people and drive down [Sea] Splash Way and show you this piece of land,” he said, then proceeded to name drop one NBA hall-of-famer and two former Major League All-Stars who live in the Orlando area. “Oh, you’d come away as excited as Oscar Robertson was, as Johnny Damon was, and Ken Griffey Jr. and many others.”
Today this site for utility infrastructure and overflow parking is the centerpiece of a burgeoning effort to attract Major League Baseball to Central Florida, led by the Dreamers, a group founded by the now-deceased Williams that is showing more financial and planning wherewithal than many gave it credit for. The group has assembled a wealthy ownership team they believe could lure the Tampa Bay Rays to move east on I-4, or attract another big-league franchise.
Still there are many daunting hurdles ahead, from wooing the Rays’ current owner to move or sell to financing and building an alluring venue in the middle of the already-crowded tourist district. Some of the biggest challenges lie with the site: The intentions of landowner Orange County are not clear — though county leaders have had multiple conversations with Dreamers representatives — and opposition from neighbors is possible, even likely.
Here is a closer look at the land that evoked what baseball suitor Williams described as “love at first sight.”
The county first bought 29 acres of the property in 1993 for $7.6 million, which meeting minutes at the time described as a “remote parking site” for the decade-old Orange County Convention Center. It was purchased using Tourist Development Tax dollars, said Amanda Dukes, a county spokesperson.
About 15 years later, SeaWorld opened its Aquatica water park abutting the southern edge of the land. The property is just southeast of the interchange of State Road 528 and International Drive.
Today, the land contains electrical infrastructure for Duke Energy and chemical storage for Orange County utilities. Some of the property has trees and overgrowth, and a portion is still used as overflow parking for the convention center, a spokesperson confirmed.
The county has positioned the property for redevelopment, mentioning it in 2016’s I Drive Vision Plan.
The site “has been identified as a Catalytic Site for a potential mixed-use project that could provide infill to this undeveloped land with a diverse number of uses, including mixed-income residential. This could contribute to the evolution of sustainable growth within the I-Drive District into a thriving and vibrant Regional Center in Orange County,” a spokesperson said in an email.
The role of tourist tax money in the site’s purchase could prove a hurdle to uses like residential, though, because those dollars are now legally restricted to support tourism. Sports facilities in the past have been deemed an allowable use.
A stadium on the site would most impact the working-class neighborhood of Williamsburg, a community of about 3,000 homes, where residents can occasionally hear concert music and screams on roller coasters from SeaWorld properties nearby.
They’ve also fought to limit helicopter tour flights over their homes.
Commissioner Nicole Wilson, whose west Orange district includes Williamsburg, frowns on the idea of adding a pro sports venue to an area with few transportation options to move people in and out. Universal Epic Universe, a brand new theme park, is also opening just a mile or so north of the neighborhood later this month.
“For me, it doesn’t feel like a good fit,” she said of the stadium in a recent interview.
The twice-elected commissioner said the county also must be cautious about adding impervious surfaces like sidewalks, parking lots or a domed stadium that would send stormwater rushing into nearby Shingle Creek, a flood-prone basin considered to be the northernmost headwaters of the Everglades.
“We don’t have the right infrastructure in place,” she said.
Scott Abney, a Williamsburg resident for 25 years, said he likes baseball and so does his wife, a Cubs fan. “What I don’t love is more traffic in an area that’s not prepared for it,” he said. “I also won’t love the noise.”
But not everybody hates the idea.
“It’d be great,” said Ira Fleckman, who likes the idea of walking to a major league ball game.
The retiree has lived in the neighborhood for more than 40 years.
“I wonder. Might they give Williamsburg residents a discount on season tickets?” he mused.
The level of political support to advocate for such an endeavor — and to commit taxpayer resources to it — is also uncertain.
The Rays have struggled for years to find a long-term stadium in the Tampa Bay area. Owner Stu Sternberg recently backed out of a $1.3 billion deal with St. Petersburg, and he’s been pressured by other owners and the commissioner’s office to sell the team, according to The Athletic.
The Dreamers say they cobbled together about $2.5 billion in financial backing – $1.5 billion toward team acquisition and another $1 billion toward a stadium.
Dental magnate Rick Workman signed on as the “anchor investor” to buy or relocate a team, and trial attorney John Morgan has also committed hundreds of millions to the effort, the Orlando Sentinel revealed last week.
Morgan’s commitment was tied to building a stadium at the county-owned site near SeaWorld.
The stadium plan presented to the county task force in 2023 called for a domed stadium with seating for 45,000 fans, which would currently make it the 7th largest MLB stadium in terms of capacity.
The design featured three hotel towers totaling 1,000 rooms, a multi-use performance venue that can hold up to 10,000 people, and a 6,700-car parking garage.
It also called for two pedestrian bridges crossing International Drive, providing access to additional parking, as well as a covered pedestrian walkway and vehicle bridge spanning State Road 528.
On the north side of the highway is a 12-acre county-owned parcel which could one day be developed as housing or a transit center, according to the 2016 Vision Plan. The proposed Sunshine Corridor rail extension would run alongside 528 with a stop planned near the Convention Center.
Dreamers’ leadership has said MLB expects a taxpayer contribution toward stadium deals – even if not directly financial. Williams sought close to $1 billion in county funding during that 2023 meeting where he name-dropped the stadium site’s famous fans, but was shot down. More recently, the county hasn’t publicly committed to any sort of contribution, whether it’s cash or the land, which county planners estimate could be worth $1 million or more an acre today. But records and interviews show county leaders have had conversations with the Dreamers throughout their development.
Jim Schnorf, the CFO for the Dreamers, said they’ve been pitched on other properties throughout the area that could work for a stadium, but the I-Drive site stands above the rest.
“I couldn’t script something in Central Florida that would compare with it,” Schnorf said recently. “We feel really, really positive about that site.”
rygillespie@orlandosentinel.com, shudak@orlandosentinel.com
