Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer "Optimistic" for Citrus Bowl Deal
Thursday, June 14, 2012
By: Nicole Creston

June 14, 2012 | WMFE - The five-year stalemate over renovating Orlando's Citrus Bowl may be coming to an end. Last week, Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs and Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer met publicly to work on hashing out a financing plan for the project. Mayor Dyer, who's hosting the 80th annual US Conference of Mayors here in Orlando, says he's optimistic about the deal.

The renovation was part of a 2007 project that was supposed to bring an arts center, a new arena, and a refurbished Citrus Bowl to downtown Orlando.

The other two venues got the go-ahead, but the Citrus Bowl was hung up in the economic downturn and disagreements between city and county governments over how to spend shrinking tourism revenues. But now, Dyer says, employees from his office and Jacobs’ are working together to update the terms of the old deal.

“Staff has been working diligently towards the creation of a letter of understanding and the modifications that we would need to the inter-local agreement between the city and county,” Dyer says. “I anticipate that Mayor Jacobs and I will meet again next week and finalize an arrangement so that we can move forward with the renovation of the Citrus Bowl.”

Dyer says a renovated Citrus Bowl could help attract additional events to the aging sports center.  

“The reason the timing is so important right now is the whole post-season for NCAA football," says Dyer. “The landscape is about to change and we need to be in a good position to take advantage of that.”

Costs for fixing the Citrus Bowl are estimated to be around $175 million dollars.