ORLANDO, Fla. – A group hoping to bring a Major League Baseball team to Orlando made their first public appearance on Monday.

Three principals of the Orlando Dreamers held a panel discussion for the International Drive Chamber of Commerce’s June 2025 luncheon.

The special talk focused on the Orlando Dreamers’ effort to bring Major League Baseball to Orange County, the proposed stadium to be built on International Drive, and what the economic impact would be.

Jim Schnorf, the Chief Operations Officer for the Orlando Dreamers, said in the group’s presentation that the team would have an “unprecedented” impact to the county, specifically the I-Drive community.

“Bringing Major League Baseball to Orlando, playing in our 35-and-a-half acre parcel a stone’s throw from here, will add 25,000 permanent jobs, over $40 billion of economic impact over 30 years and an additional $26 million in annual tourist development tax revenue,” Schnorf said.

Other participants in the panel included Dreamers owner Dr. Rick Workman, and MLB Ambassador Barry Larkin.

Larkin, in an effort to present Orlando as a source of stability, touched on the current issues the Tampa Bay Rays are dealing with. The Rays don’t have a set home for the 2026 season . Larkin said the group has purposefully kept out of commenting on the situation to show MLB they are a “solution to a problem.”

“We have stability,” Larkin said. “I don’t know if you’ve seen the rendering to our stadium, but we won’t get rained out. Go down to Tampa in a couple months or a couple weeks and get an opportunity to watch the Rays play — better bring your rain suit.”

Schnorf said that bringing an MLB team to Orlando is a collective effort that will also be competitive as several other cities would love to have an MLB franchise.

“Well, clearly the time is now,” Schnorf said. “We’ve got the best market undeniably — largest media market in the country without baseball."