The Orlando bid needs some help to get it done by the August deadline
According to the Orlando Sentinel, the city would like to host the 2019 Major League Soccer All Star Game. Yesterday, Mayor Teresa Jacobs, of Orange County, crafted a memo to staff, setting the rules for a new $5 million sports bid fund that will spend tourist-tax money to lure more sporting events to the region.
This fund is a to help the continued success of the Central Florida Sports Commission.
They have been a powerful and successful group promoting three college bowl games, each year, landing last years NFL Pro Bowl game and working hard on bringing, top events like the MLS and the NBA All Star games to central Florida.
Orlando is looking at Tampa where they have hosted the NCAA Frozen Four, the college football Playoff Championship Game, plus thy will be hosting the 2018 NHL All Star Game as well as the 2021 Super Bowl and they want to join the party.
If you look at the I-4 corridor the Tampa Bay Sports Commission and the Central Florida Commission are two of the country’s most active and most successful sports event groups.
They continue to land major college and professional events.
They are very aggressively working hard to land the MLS All Star Game in 2019 but they are facing an August 25th deadline that would cost the Central Florida Sports Commission $350,000.00 to host the event.
Back in November the Orange County Commission, approved the sports bid fund but it is not yet in place. According to the Sentinel, the memo, Jacobs outlined that up to $25,000 in grants could be given for events with an attendance of 5,000 while events bringing in 5,000 to 40,000 people would be eligible for $25,000 to $137,500.
The memo also, says other events that brought in at least 60,000 attendees over several days could get undetermined money on a case-by-case basis. Again, per the Sentinel, the sports fund could be used for paid advertisements, the cost to bid on an event or operational costs for staffing, venue rentals and other expenses.
The hope remains that Orlando will be able to make their bid for the MLS All Star Game in 2019. Soccer fans throughout the state hope that Orlando gets the game and the league has been impressed with the success of Orlando FC, one of the leagues true success stories.
It is possible by that time the Tampa Bay Rowdies could be in the MLS along with Orlando FC making the game even sweeter in 2019.