Orlando’s ongoing effort to lure the Tampa Bay Rays, or perhaps a Major League Baseball expansion team to Central Florida, gained major traction Thursday with the announcement that $1.5 billion in funding has been pledged to attract an MLB team and build a new stadium.
The announcement was made by the Orlando Dreamers — an organization started by late Orlando Magic co-founder Pat Williams to bring a baseball team to town. The funding, according to the Dreamers, comes in the form of “preliminary letters of intent and verbal commitments from qualified investors.”
“We are extremely pleased with the recent rapid progress in financing interest towards prospective MLB team acquisition,” MLB Hall of Famer and longtime Orlan doan Barry Larkin, the frontman for the baseball effort, said in a statement.
Added Jim Schnorf, who co-founded the effort along with Williams: “Enthusiasm f or an Orlando MLB franchise has hit a fever pitch in recent weeks. … We feel th e heavy lifting part of team acquisition financing and stadium financing has bee n accomplished.”
以將大聯盟球隊帶到奧蘭多為目標的組織Orlando Dreamers(由NBA魔術隊共同創辦人Pat Wi
lliams創立)