Dreamers CEO met with St. Cloud Chamber boss and members
What if you were a fan of the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox … or even the hometown Major League team, and they played less than a half-hour away in Orlando, rather than nearly two hours from you in St. Petersburg, where the Tampa Bay Rays are currently located?
If you love baseball, that sounds like a dream. Some local investors share that dream; one they hope to make reality within the next decade.
Meet Jim Schnorf, and the Orlando Dreamers. Thanks to the St. Cloud Chamber of Commerce, locals got to meet him last week to hear how his group’s effort has many things going for it to bring a franchise to Central Florida.
Pat Williams, the visionary who led the charge to bring the NBA and Orlando Magic to the area, was the initial drive force behind the baseball push to Orlando and started the Orlando Dreamers movement. After his passing in 2024, Schnorf and former major leaguers Barry Larkin, Clint Hurdle, A.J. Pierzynski, Johnny Damon (all who live or played in the area in high school) and Jim Kaat are now on board.
Schnorf, the Dreamers co-founder and the chief administrative officer, said excitement looms.
“I am confident we will be awarded a Major League franchise in the next decade,” he said.
That confidence comes from all things the market has going for it, on economic, tourism and professional baseball fronts.
He noted Major League Baseball wanted to see two current franchises with stadium issues—Oakland, which is moving to Las Vegas in the next four years, and Tampa Bay— deal with them. The storm tore the roof off Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg last year, and in response the team is playing at George Steinbrenner Field, the Yankee’s spring training complex, on the opposite side of the bay in Tampa. The area was already in flux as groups and officials have proposed a new stadium—but continue to argue about the location and funding mechanisms.
“It’s a major inconvenience for the New York Yankees to give up that stadium,” Schnorf said, noting Major League Baseball has paid them for the effort. “We don’t think (the Rays) will be back (in 2026), and think it’s a big question mark if Tropicana Field can be ready for their first home game and where’ they’ll be playing.
Speaking of stadiums, the Dreamers have a plot of land already picked out for theirs. Orange County owns land at International Drive and State Road 528, just east of I-4 and north of Sea World’s Aquatic water park.
Schnorf noted the Chicago White Sox also have an expiring lease with the city at the end of the decade, and the Kansas City Royals, Milwaukee Brewers also have stadium issues.
“There are multiple teams with challenges that are going to have to be resolved between now and 2030,” he said.
Schnorf boasted of $2 billion lined up for franchise acquisition and team-based stadium financing. Medical icon Rick Workman, and John Morgan—yes, the “For the People” attorney—is an investor.
“MLB wants to see public-private partnerships,” he said. “Other locations don’t have the luxury that we draw 80 million tourists to the area.”
Las Vegas had no major-league level sports less than a decade ago, and now has NHL (Golden Knights) and NFL (Raiders, from Oakland) teams, and will get the Oakland Athletics.
“They’ll get half the number of tourists we’ll get. Those numbers matter a whole lot,” Schnorf said. That’s why we’ve oriented our site in the heart of the tourist corridor—and in close proximity to Osceola County, by the way.”
He noted other cities in the running—Nashville, Charlotte, Salt Lake City—are behind the Dreamers’ movement in lining up an ownership group, the funding or stadium sites, and are smaller media markets. Orlando is the largest market without a Major League team, and ranks ahead of a number of current MLB towns in market size—Schnorf said it has passed Minneapolis-St. Paul since the effort began, and will pass Detroit next year.
The Orlando area has hosted affiliated minor-league baseball over the years. Teams in various leagues played at Tinker Field in downtown Orlando from 19191999, and ESPN’s Wide World of Sports starting in 2000. That run ended when the team relocated to Montgomery, Ala. after the 2003 season.
The Osceola Astros and Kissimmee Cobras were a Houston Astros Florida State League Class A team from 1985-2000 when the Astros held their spring training at Osceola County Stadium. Later, the Florida Fire Frogs were the Atlanta Braves’ FSL team from 2017-19. Osceola County chose to make the complex a soccer facility, and in they were to have begun playing at the Braves spring facility. at CoolToday Park in North Port. The season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, then they ceased operations after the Major League Baseball’s reorganization of Minor League Baseball in 2021.
“We’ve clearly got the best market of any city that doesn’t have baseball,” Schnorf said. “You look at population, the tourist base, and the only competing city that has no professional baseball here. There really isn’t a close second.”
An impact study done by an independent industry study group indicated would generate $40 billion on economic over 30 years just to Orange County.
“It’s easy to see the dramatic economic impact this would have, and Osceola County would be a big benefactor at that stadium location—suppliers, spin-off jobs from construction and operation. And there will be community engagement all over,” Schnorf said; plans to build lighted youth baseball facilities across Central Florida are in the Dreamers’ plans. Part of this process is having business and community support. Major League Baseball pays attention to all these things. We’re convinced from the team side, we have everything in place at this point and every box checked. We need public support to get this over the finish line.”
St. Cloud Chamber President Dirk Webb is clearly a fan—he wore an Atlanta Braves jersey at the event with his name on the back.
“We’ve proven the economic impact in our community and those around us would be huge,” he said.
