There is a report that the city of Orlando may join in the pursuit of the Marlins.
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They want a $450 million retractable stadium to keep fans dry and keep the games going. Could this be something Orange County could provide?
"This is something we can explore," said Mildred Fernandez, an Orange County Commissioner.
Especially when the Marlins have said they would chip in $192 million towards the cost.
County commissioner Mildred Fernandez proposed the idea to look into luring the team here.
"If we're talking 2.4 million, that's a lot of people coming per season for the games," she said.
For that reason, government watchdogs want commissioners to push for luring the Marlins to Orlando rather than paying $252 million to renovate the Citrus Bowl. In fact, the price to build the stadium would be almost the same as the renovations.
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Mayor Crotty has said that he doesn't have plans to form an exploratory committee to lure the Marlins here just yet because he is focused on the future of the arena and the downtown arts center.
As for the Marlins, they said they had no comment on a move to Orlando.
Moving to Orlando? I can't say I favor that.
Since the idea isn't even in the exploratory phase and is just a thought, I don't want to parse it too much.
The voters are set to vote on the Citrus Bowl renovation and should it be adopted, that would more or less kill any possibility of bringing the Marlins to Orange County.
Should the referendum be defeated and the exploratory committee be formed, then it's a different game. I have no idea how politics work in Central Florida but if they are anything like South Florida, I wouldn't expect anything to happen very quickly.
The Orlando area is barely larger than the San Antonio area in terms of population. So unless they are planning on tourist to help fill the seats, it's not clear they have the population base to draw 2.4 million fans a year. The one thing they do have going for them is that their television market is pretty decent: they rank 20th and ahead of seven major league cities. The Miami area is 17th.
The one good thing that could come out of this is that it may light a fire under the local politicians to get something done.
The idea is still in its infancy stages so I doubt it is anything to be concerned about at the moment.