ORLANDO, Fla. — The Orlando Dreamers announced on April 24, 2025, that efforts to bring a Major League Baseball franchise to Orlando have made significant progress, with the acquisition of additional financial support.
Last month, with the Tampa Bay Rays announcing they dropped their stadium plans in St. Pete, the Dreamers felt they were gaining momentum for their bid.
Barry Larkin, the team’s ambassador for the Dreamers, stated that qualified investors have offered preliminary letters of intent and verbal commitments totaling nearly $1.5 billion in equity for the team acquisition.
“We are extremely pleased with the recent rapid progress in financing interest towards a prospective MLB team acquisition,” said Larkin. “It is clear that these seasoned investors understand the compelling opportunity represented by our unsurpassed market metrics and proposed state-of-the-art domed stadium, located right in the middle of the Orange County tourist corridor that will welcome approximately 80 million tourists this year.” Larkin further confirmed that the Dreamers have a letter of intent for stadium financing in excess of $1 billion.
The Dreamers previously announced plans to build a 45,000-seat stadium, and co-founder Jim Schnorf said in the release that the organization has received more than $1 billion from a “major institutional partner” to fund it.
The ballpark would be located adjacent to SeaWorld and the Orange County Convention Center, near a new Universal Studios theme park scheduled to open in May.
“We feel the heavy lifting part of team acquisition financing and stadium financing has been accomplished,” Schnorf said. “Finding the right anchor investor in our control ownership group and an attractive financing structure for the team’s portion of stadium construction were clearly the most challenging aspects.”
The Dreamers’ effort began in 2023 when former Orlando Magic executive Pat Williams unveiled renderings for a domed stadium to bring baseball to the Orlando area.
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