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$975 million for baseball in Orlando? Bianchi, Maxwell debate

scott maxwell, mike bianchi, orlando sentinel
·7 min read

Orlando sports booster Pat Williams wants Orange County leaders to commit $975 million in hotel-tax money for a Major League Baseball stadium if he can snag a new team or convince the Rays to leave Tampa Bay and make a new home in Orlando. Columnists Mike Bianchi and Scott Maxwell have very different takes on whether this is a good idea. So today, we’re going to let them hash it out.

Mike: Can we set some ground rules here? If we’re going to discuss this topic, I would like to request that you don’t cloud the issue by saying we should be using the tourist tax for affordable housing, more funding for police and better mass transit. Nobody argues with that! However, correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the TDT earmarked for tourism projects and isn’t it against the law to use it for more practical purposes? So can we please dispense with the non sequitur and simply discuss the merits of bringing Major League Baseball to Orlando?

Scott: So if I have this right, you’d like to begin this debate by asking me to surrender my most compelling point? Man, if you were Aaron Burr, you would’ve invited Alexander Hamilton to a gun fight on the condition that Hamilton come unarmed. The rules for TDT spending are as flexible as elected officials want them to be. Hotel tax spending guidelines weren’t handed down by God to Moses. They were written by men and women — who can change them and who have changed them many times in the past to address needed community issues all over Florida. Just not here.

Mike: Well, as soon as they change the rules then I will change my stance, but until then let’s not forget that Orlando was built on tourism and we shouldn’t be ashamed of that. Without tourism, Orlando would be Ocala and you’d be writing columns criticizing the county for subsidizing the local flea market. Since the TDT is earmarked for tourism, a beautiful domed stadium and a Major League Baseball team on I-Drive would be a boon for tourism and, more importantly, give the local residents another professional sports team to root for.

Scott: Who’s ashamed? Orlando doesn’t exist without tourism. I just think tourism — and pro sports — should stand on their own free-market feet. That’s what virtually every other private, for-profit business does. You remember capitalism, right? That’s the value that all these uber-wealthy team owners claim to believe in, except when they’re asking for handouts. Rich DeVos used to decry welfare, until he wanted half a billion dollars from Orlando taxpayers for a new NBA arena. Then he tried to hold this community hostage to get his piece of the welfare pie.

Mike: Sigh. I feel like I am arguing with an 8-year-old who’s telling me that, yes, Santa Claus really does exist. You are an idealist; I am a realist. In your idealist perfect world, of course, team owners would pay for their own arenas and stadiums, but in my real world I understand that cities and counties often ante up because if they don’t, then somebody else will. This is just how it is; not how it should be. If we want a Major League Baseball team, we must help fund the stadium or Nashville, Charlotte, Portland, Salt Lake City or Montreal will. What’s it going to be, Scott? Do you want to be a bigtime city or do you want to be Omaha?

Scott: And I feel like I’m arguing with a sports columnist — the ones who always threaten that Orlando will become Omaha or Poughkeepsie unless we cut more corporate-welfare checks. I remember the same thing 10 years ago, when local sports boosters claimed taxpayers absolutely, positively had to pay for a new soccer stadium if Orlando ever hoped to be MLS-worthy. A few of us refused to be held hostage, saying the team should pay its own way. Call it idealism if you want. But guess what? Orlando City Soccer ended up doing just that, paying for their own stadium the way pro teams have done all over America — but only when communities stand up for taxpayers instead of rolling over for team owners.

Mike: MLS isn’t MLB. Major League Baseball rarely expands and rarely has teams available, which is why I think we need to do whatever we can to get baseball RIGHT NOW. The last time baseball expanded was 1998; do we want to wait another 30 years before we get this chance again? We are already the 17th-largest media market in the country and the largest media market without a Major League Baseball or NFL team. We’re bigger than 10 other media markets that ALREADY have baseball. The beauty of Pat Williams’ plan is we don’t have to spend the money on a new baseball stadium unless Pat and his group actually land a team. I say we go for it and see if Pat can work his “Magic,” just like he did 40 years ago when he brought the NBA to town.

Scott: That sounds like a lotta doublespeak to me. We claim Orlando is one of the best markets in America while also claiming nobody would consider coming here unless we give them $1 billion. That’s quite a pitch. And the taxpayer-subsidies-are-necessary argument falls apart pretty quickly when you consider that the San Francisco Giants paid for their own darn stadium. Whether it’s MLB or MLS, there’s always a crowd with their hands out claiming subsidies are the only way — until it’s pretty clear they aren’t.

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Mike: Wow, did you grow up in an orchard? Because you are an excellent cherry picker! You picked the only Major League Baseball stadium since 1962 that was privately financed but neglected to tell people that San Francisco gave the team a zillion-dollar piece of land right on San Francisco Bay and loads of other “subsidies.” Hey, I’ve got an idea, since we obviously disagree on this topic. Unlike our partisan politicians in the state and national government, I am willing to reach across the aisle and offer a compromise. I will back your inaugural proposal to get the rules/law changed so that we can use TDT money on infrastructure, mass transit, affordable housing and other needs in the community, but if the rules remain the same then you back my proposal and jump on the baseball bandwagon!!!

Scott: The city of San Francisco gave the Giants a portion of its city-owned land for the team to finance and construct its own stadium. I’d be fine with that deal here. (Though I’m not convinced hardly anyone other than you and Pat is taking this MLB-to-Orlando idea seriously.) Also, you know darn well that teams in most every pro-sports league — from baseball and soccer to hockey and football — have financed their own arenas and stadiums. But only when local communities refused to roll over and play dead. And listen, there are plenty of other things Florida law currently allows hotel taxes to be spent on that I’d prefer. But I will give you this, Mike: I’d rather spend hotel taxes on a baseball stadium than another 1 million square feet at the convention center.

Mike: The convention center is already so mammoth, we can probably just build the baseball stadium inside of it and save some money! Would you be in favor of that?

Scott: Brother, now you’re talking. Heck, we could build two baseball stadiums, an NHL arena and the world’s largest pickleball complex out there — and still have more convention center space than we ever need most of the year. I knew we’d find some common ground.