RENDERING VIA UCF
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings is recommending tourist development tax funding for 13 projects, including $46 million for a UCF soccer stadium and track facility that the appointed citizen task force didn’t actually recommend on its shortlist of projects.
Demings outlined the list in an October 8 memo to county commissioners, and they’re expected to discuss it at a work session at 12:30 p.m. Monday, October 19. No vote has been taken yet.
The tourist development tax is a 6% charge on hotel and short-term rental stays in the county that goes into a fund that supports tourism-related projects. This year, Orange County said funding every request at the levels sought would push its tourism fund below a $300 million reserve target, so some funding would have to be cut, delayed, or spread over a longer period.
The biggest line item is $400 million for the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts master plan, to be bonded by the City of Orlando. The center had asked for $750 million. The UCF request was $119 million in total, including $43.6 million for the soccer and track project, $51.5 million for broadcast upgrades and $24.3 million for a softball stadium. The mayor’s memo proposes $46 million starting in 2029 for the soccer and track project alone.
The 34-member task force heard from 20 applicants over five meetings. Its final recommendation, which commissioners accepted unanimously on August 25, advanced four county-run programs and eight other projects to be funded as money allows. UCF’s request was not among them. Task force member Michael Poole told Spectrum News 13 that most members did not support it and that college sports are typically funded by donors, not tourist tax dollars. Task force co-chair Eddy Moratin said in August that the group prioritized the Dr. Phillips Center because the previous task force had funded UCF over it.
UCF’s football campus project would remake the Kenneth G. Dixon Athletics Village around the Bounce House in three phases, according to the university’s project website. Phase 1 builds Nicholson Plaza outside the stadium’s southwest corner, centered on McNamara Cove, a space with a “Recovery River,” hydrotherapy pools and a game-day “Covegating” area that would also host recruiting, alumni and corporate events. Phase 2 adds the Launch Club on the stadium’s south side, which would combine all football coaches’ offices with premium seating, along with more seating and standing-room decks in the north end zone to expand the Knightmare Student Section. Phase 3 rebuilds the Wayne Densch Sports Center with an expanded locker room, a training room, a sports performance center, and an equipment facility. Renderings are by AECOM.
Commissioner Mayra Uribe has pushed for UCF. She called it “our home college” in comments to Spectrum News 13. She also praised the list for spreading money to cities such as Apopka, Winter Garden and Ocoee that do not typically receive tourist tax dollars. Demings objected in August to changing the task force’s recommendation, saying the process was meant to “depoliticize” funding decisions.
It also includes $60 million starting in 2027 for the Dr. Phillips Charities Eatonville Museum of Culture and History and $20 million starting in 2028 for the Town of Eatonville’s heritage tourism district. The Creative City Project’s Immerse festival would get $12.5 million, the 8 Waves I Am Children’s Museum in Winter Garden $25 million, and the Orange Audubon Natural History Museum at Apopka Birding Park $12 million. A $52.5 million parking structure for Florida Citrus Sports, which runs Camping World Stadium, and $30 million for Ocoee’s Forest Lake Golf Club and Conference Campus.
Poole said he would have liked to see more money for tourist transportation. Demings wrote in the memo that some applicants showed flexibility after staff reviewed different scenarios, which lets the available dollars support 13 projects. He said the investments would boost tourism, support jobs and small businesses, and spread TDT funding across the county.
