Twenty-four proposals are competing for future tourist-tax dollars, including a $975 million request tied to an MLB stadium, major cultural investments and university athletic projects. The decisions could shape Orlando’s economy for decades.
By The Sun Post News Staff
ORLANDO, Fla. — July 24, 2026. Orange County is beginning one of its most consequential debates over tourism spending in years, as officials and community representatives consider nearly $3 billion in requests for projects seeking money generated by the county’s Tourist Development Tax.
The proposals range from an ambitious effort to bring Major League Baseball to Orlando to cultural attractions, performing arts facilities, university athletics and projects designed to draw visitors into communities outside the traditional tourism corridor.
But behind the competing proposals lies a much larger question:
How should one of America’s most visited destinations reinvest the enormous wealth generated by tourism?
Orange County’s Tourist Development Tax Citizen Advisory Task Force reconvened July 21 for the first time since 2023. Its responsibility is to evaluate potential uses of future unallocated TDT revenues and make recommendations to the Tourist Development Council and ultimately the Orange County Board of County Commissioners.
A Tourism Tax Worth Hundreds of Millions
Orange County’s Tourist Development Tax—commonly known as the “bed tax”—is a 6% levy on hotel stays and short-term rentals of less than six months.
The tax dates to 1978 and is governed by Florida law, which restricts how the revenue can be spent. Orange County says the region attracts more than 76 million visitors annually, helping explain why the tax has become such a powerful source of public financing.
Recent collections have been particularly strong. FOX 35 reported that Orange County could collect more than $400 million in TDT revenue during the current fiscal year, potentially setting a record.
WFTV reported approximately $430 million in tourism-tax money is currently available, while funding requests approach $3 billion. That does not mean Orange County has $3 billion—or even that the entire $430 million can immediately be committed to new projects. Existing obligations and statutory restrictions significantly narrow the choices facing policymakers.
24 Organizations Want a Share
The 2026 process attracted applications from 24 organizations.
Orange County established an important threshold: proposals considered by the task force must request more than $20 million and qualify for TDT funding under Florida Statute 125.0104.
That has created an extraordinary competition among some of Central Florida’s most ambitious projects.
At the center of the discussion is an idea Orlando has debated for years:
Major League Baseball.
Orlando Dreamers Seek $975 Million
The Orlando Dreamers are requesting approximately $975 million in TDT funding for their effort to construct a new domed baseball stadium and position Central Florida for a future MLB franchise.
The proposed stadium would seat approximately 45,000 spectators and would be located north of Aquatica along International Drive, placing it directly inside Orlando’s tourism corridor.
The overall stadium project has been described as costing approximately $2 billion. The Dreamers maintain that private financing would cover a significant portion of the project while public tourism-tax dollars would help finance the stadium component.
This is not the organization’s first attempt.
The Dreamers unsuccessfully sought TDT support in 2023 and have now returned with a substantially developed proposal as Orlando continues positioning itself as a potential market should Major League Baseball expand.
The project’s supporters have presented ambitious economic projections, including claims involving thousands of jobs and substantial future tourism-tax generation.
Those numbers, however, should be understood for what they currently are: economic projections associated with the proposal, not guaranteed outcomes.
That distinction will become particularly important as the task force evaluates the project’s anticipated return on public investment.
The Competition Goes Far Beyond Baseball
The baseball stadium may attract the biggest headlines, but it is far from the only major proposal.
Among the other applicants are projects associated with the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, the University of Central Florida, and cultural-development initiatives in Eatonville.
The diversity of the proposals demonstrates how dramatically Orlando’s tourism economy has evolved.
Tourism is no longer exclusively about theme parks.
Sports tourism, concerts, performing arts, college athletics, conventions and cultural heritage increasingly compete for the same visitors—and, consequently, for the public revenue those visitors generate.
Eatonville Presents a Different Vision of Tourism
Some of the most significant proposals come from historic Eatonville.
Projects there seek to capitalize on the community’s extraordinary cultural history, particularly its association with acclaimed author Zora Neale Hurston.
The significance extends beyond building another attraction.
Investment in Eatonville raises the possibility of directing visitors—and tourism-generated economic activity—toward one of Central Florida’s most historically important Black communities.
Spectrum News 13 reported that two Eatonville projects were among those moving forward in the TDT process following the task force’s initial review.
It presents policymakers with a fundamentally different investment proposition from a major professional sports stadium.
Both could attract tourists.
But their economic, cultural and community impacts would be dramatically different.
Who Decides?
Orange County Mayor Jerry L. Demings reconvened the advisory task force, which is co-chaired by former Orange County Mayor Linda Chapin and Lift Orlando President Eddy Moratin.
The task force itself does not have the final authority to spend the money.
Its role is to evaluate projects and make recommendations.
Ultimately, the political decisions will reach Orange County’s elected leadership.
That means the coming weeks will involve not only economic analysis but inevitably competing visions of Orlando’s future.
The Process Is More Rigorous Than a Simple Pitch
Orange County’s application documents show that qualifying projects moving forward must demonstrate three central elements:
- their commitment to and impact on tourism in Orange County;
- the feasibility and financial soundness of the proposal;
- and the anticipated return on investment, including workforce and community impact.
Orange County has also contracted with the Georgia State University Center for State and Local Finance to conduct tourism and economic-impact analysis on applicants selected to present before the task force.
That independent analysis could become particularly important when evaluating billion-dollar economic projections.
Applicants selected to continue are scheduled to make presentations before the task force on July 28 and July 29, followed by additional deliberations.
Why Not Spend the Money on Housing and Roads?
This is where the discussion becomes particularly important for Orange County residents.
As Orlando’s tourism economy generates hundreds of millions of dollars, residents continue dealing with familiar problems:
traffic congestion, housing affordability, transportation needs and infrastructure pressures.
That inevitably produces a question:
Why can’t more tourism-tax money simply be used to address those problems?
The answer is more complicated than it appears.
Florida law restricts how Tourist Development Tax revenue may be used. The task force itself is explicitly required to recommend projects consistent with Florida Statute 125.0104.
Changing those restrictions in a significant way could therefore require action in Tallahassee, not simply a vote by Orange County commissioners.
That creates two separate policy debates.
The first is which eligible tourism projects Orange County should fund under existing law.
The second is whether Florida should give tourism-dependent counties greater flexibility over how tourism-generated revenue is used.
A Debate About Residents as Much as Tourists
This distinction matters because tourism does not operate separately from the community.
Visitors use roads.
Tourism employees need housing.
Hotels and attractions require workers.
Large events generate traffic and public-safety demands.
The tourism economy and residents’ quality of life are intertwined.
That means evaluating a project solely on how many additional visitors it might generate provides only part of the picture.
The stronger question is:
What does Orange County receive in return for the public investment?
Jobs matter.
Wages matter.
Tax revenue matters.
But so do transportation, neighborhood impacts, infrastructure requirements and the long-term financial obligations assumed by taxpayers.
Orlando Is Choosing What It Wants to Become
For decades, Orlando successfully built one of the world’s dominant tourism economies.
The next challenge is different.
It must decide how to use that success.
A Major League Baseball stadium could elevate Orlando’s profile as a professional sports market.
Additional investment in performing arts could strengthen the region’s cultural identity.
UCF-related investments could expand sports tourism.
Eatonville could demonstrate that Central Florida’s history and culture can become international tourism assets in their own right.
All have potential value.
But Orange County cannot fund every ambition.
With nearly $3 billion in requests competing for a much smaller pool of available money, saying yes to one major project inevitably reduces what can be committed elsewhere.
That is why the decisions ahead deserve far more attention than a routine budget hearing.
They are decisions about what Orlando wants to be 10, 20 and perhaps 30 years from now.
The question facing Orange County is therefore not simply whether to build a baseball stadium, expand a theater or finance another attraction.
It is considerably larger:
How should Orlando use the wealth created by more than 76 million annual visitors to build the next generation of Central Florida?
The Sun Post will continue following the task force proceedings as applicants make their presentations on July 28 and 29 and the funding recommendations begin to take shape.
