Football Club Orlando LLC, an Orlando-based
soccer club, wants to build a 188-acre, $50 million soccer complex and stadium near Winter Garden by 2010.
Preliminary
plans for the project include 20 soccer fields, a sports medical complex, retail and a concessions station, an auditorium
and a full-size soccer stadium that will seat 20,000, said Mark Dillon, president and CEO of Football Club Orlando. “The
game of soccer is getting so big, we need to build more complexes, and this project will create an economic engine and destination
for the soccer community.”
An economic impact report provided to the county says that the project would:
•
Create up to 255 jobs at the complex and roughly $17.9 million in yearly economic activity from sources such as out-of-town
visitors for retail, hotel and lodging, restaurant and transportation
• Create up to 3,467 jobs and $200 million
in new economic activity if a soccer stadium is built. That would include 43 jobs at the stadium and 3,424 jobs at businesses
outside the stadium.
The site for the soccer complex — mainly raw land between State Road 429 and the Bridgewater
Middle School on Tiny Road — is owned by Orange County and designated for recreational development.
Dillon said
details on using the 188-acre parcel are still being negotiated, but he expects the county and Football Club Orlando to form
a private/public partnership with Football Club leasing the land from the county.
“It’s the perfect spot
to serve the local community that’s starved for a soccer training field,” Dillon said.
Dillon expects the
project to be funded by overseas private investors involved in the soccer community that have expansion plans to bring their
franchise to the U.S.
A general contractor has not been chosen for the project yet. Orlando-based Guy Butler Architect
LLC and Bowyer-Singleton & Associates Inc. are the complex’s architect and engineer, respectively.
Besides
serving as a home for a professional soccer team in Central Florida, the complex also could be used by other local athletic
groups, said Matt Suedmeyer, manager of Orange County Parks and Recreation. “We have a shortage of athletic fields —
not just for soccer, but also for baseball, football and any other grid-iron and diamond sports.”
Budget cuts
due to property tax reforms mean the county is short on funds to meet the recreational needs of Orange County residents, Suedmeyer
said.
The new complex not only can meet that need, said Dillon, it also will create a world showcase for soccer in Central
Florida and make the region “a beacon for the international soccer world.”
