Brian Hill Will Help Push for the New Arena

The addition of Brian Hill will benefit the Magic’s push for a new arena, plain and simple. Most of the Magic’s community support/attendance problems have stemmed from the fact that management allowed Penny Hardaway to lead a players’ uprise against Hill, eventually forcing him from the job.

Brian Hill is well respected and friends with most of the people in the communities that the Magic need support from in order to get a new arena. He has stayed in the Orlando area and continues to donate a lot to the community. This is a very good move for community support.

A New Arena will Make Orlando More than a Tourist Town

Prior to 1992, when Shaquille O’Neal stepped foot into Orlando, no one knew of the city as anything but a tourist town. In 1995, during the NBA Finals run of the Magic, the city had never had a level of pride that the exhibited during those times. People were talking about Orlando for the first time as a community, not as a destination. Disney and Universal were saying they were part of the Orlando area, rather than Orlando saying they were part of the tourist area. Tourism has made us the town we are today, but the city and county have continuously strived to remove this image to bring in new businesses to the area. We are one of the fastest growing Metro areas in the country and the twentieth ranked TV market. Having the Magic and a nice arena to create a vibrant epicenter in town will only reinforce the image of a residential community.

A new arena is plausible and well within our grasp. If we do not speak up and tell they county/city what we as residents want, we will never get it. I only hope that in some way my website speaks at a level to inform the residents of Orlando/Orange County of what a new arena would do for the community and that it can be paid for without hurting their pocketbooks. Please visit www.orlando-arena.com for more information and tell your friends, family, coworkers, and most of all your elected representatives to let them know what you want.

Orlando Gains an AHL Tenant

The AHL, the top minor league in hockey has had whispers of moving one of its teams to the TD Waterhouse Centre.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/orl-spthockey05050505may05,1,6975581.story

I apologize for not updating often, but there will be more frequent updates starting this week.

Orange County Tourist Tax Figures

Orange County Tourist Tax Figures at 5%:

2000 $108.2 million
2001 $104.8 million
2002 $91.7 million
2003 $93.4 million
2004 $111 million
2005 $120.1 million (projected)

The lapse in 2002 was caused by a drop in tourism due to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The county currently claims a 5-year average growth of tourist tax revenues of 2.8%, but that is because they factor in the 9/11 effect. Moving forward, growth will be, and has been, much more rapid but the county is hiding behind this smaller growth projection.

At 5% the Orange County Tourist Tax continues to grow, but as mentioned before is all used exclusively for the convention center. However, an increase to 6% will bring more revenue from the tax that could be invested in local venues for the residents, such as a new arena.

Local Resident Sends in Editorial About Arena

Recently Peter R. McGrath, a resident of Orange County wrote a very strong letter to the editor at the Orlando Sentinel about the shortsightedness that some people are taking when it comes to the idea of a new arena. His views reflect the idea that a new arena does more for Orlando than just keep the Magic here. Because I have received permission to reprint the editorial I have provided the link to this article…scroll down on the site to find it.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/letters/orl-edple03050305may03,1,6299598.story

Thanks to Chase Brenton for compiling the numbers and county tax information contained in this report.