Orlando Dreamers Stadium

The Orlando Dreamers, the local group leading Central Florida's push for Major League Baseball, have released conceptual renderings by Populous for a domed, 45,000-seat ballpark anchoring a mixed-use district on a 35.5-acre site in Orlando's International Drive tourism corridor, near SeaWorld, Aquatica and the Orange County Convention Center. The dome answers Central Florida's summer heat and storm patterns, and the district is framed as a 365-day destination rather than a venue that goes dark between homestands, with three hotel towers totaling roughly 1,000 rooms, Class A office space, a museum attraction, a multipurpose events center, restaurants and retail planned around the stadium, plus a rail station and a covered double-decker bridge over State Road 528. The Dreamers asked Orange County's Tourist Development Tax Citizen Advisory Task Force for $975 million toward the more than $2 billion project, to be funded through the county's tax on hotel stays and short-term rentals rather than property taxes, but the task force declined to recommend the request, calling it premature while the group lacks a finalized site and an MLB expansion franchise. Backers cite a JLL economic impact study projecting about $32 million a year in tourist-tax revenue and more than 52,000 permanent jobs, and say they hold more than $1 billion in non-binding letters of intent for construction financing and a similar amount toward acquiring a team.