Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and Orange County MayorTeresa Jacobs raised their arms in victory Friday after winning a key tourism board’s support for a $94.5 million package that includes a new stadium for a Major League Soccer team.
“Teamwork makes the dream work,” said Dyer, borrowing from a motivational book title. “Orlando nets a big goal.”
The stadium is part of a larger package that includes using tourist taxes to complete the $503 million performing-arts center and renovate the Florida Citrus Bowl, and millions of dollars more for tourism marketing.
The deal had been agreed to the day before by Jacobs and Dyer, often-uneasy mayoral partners. They hugged each other after the 8-0 Tourist Development Council vote, a signal that the hotel and theme-park industries were mostly satisfied with the deal.
However, a number of concerns continued to be raised about the soccer stadium’s finances, questions that first emerged Tuesday when county commissioners reviewed the deal.
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