Yesterday, I saw some news from the Orlando Magic on my Twitter feed. They were opening up their youth basketball camps for the season.
“Hey, that’s nice.” I thought. The team is giving back to the community.
I was wrong. Those camps cost anywhere from a couple of hundred dollars to several hundred dollars.
A non playoff team, that just keeps taking and taking, charging hundreds to play with our kids for a few hours.
Its a familiar story though. Orlando venues and the organizations behind them doing nothing for our community.
They’ll boast economic development numbers, but you’re not seeing any of that money. That’s protected by the poisonous Tourism Development Tax, which is protected by politicians and the multi billion dollar tourism industry.
Please follow me through the money funnel..
Teams and fans arrive at the airport (No money for you).
They board a shuttle to IDrive, where they stay in hotels that get TDT and eat at chain restaurants (No money for you).
They get on the shuttles. Go to the event. Spend money in that venue’s entertainment district and go back to the hotel. (Still, no money for you).
They pack up. Get on the shuttle and go back to the airport, and leave. (No. Money. For. You.)
And these organizations make their low paid employees, who can’t even afford the rent, ride the bus. And last year they tried to get us to pay more for those buses by raising taxes.
Baseball is dear to me. I grew up playing it in Orlando (post HERE).
But anyone who thinks that a baseball stadium will help the community under the current system is wrong.
It will be until the politicians fix a broken revenue funnel that only makes them rich, while we do all of the work.